Chapter 13
Someone was shaking her shoulder. "You can't sleep all day. We've got too much to do."
"Five more minutes," she mumbled, turning over on her stomach. Then she realized the bed was moving as she moved. Why was her bed moving?
There was a low laugh from nearby. Something else out of place. No men laughed in her bedroom. She couldn't remember if she'd ever even had a man in her bedroom.
"Come on, sleepy seal, out of bed."
Sleepy seal?That was definitely a man's voice.
Sylvie cracked one eye open.
Black eyes with glowing rims watched her. Black eyes in a green face.
This wasn't her bedroom.
Sylvie groaned, her situation rushing back to her. She was stranded on an alien planet, held captive by its inhabitants. She'd been electrocuted, stripped nearly naked, and almost dissected. Now the supreme ruler of this blasted place was shaking her awake like an indulgent father.
She threw an arm over her head. She was so over it. "Go away."
"Sylvia, you will get up this instant."
So much for indulgence.
"Stop calling me by my full name." Why did it bother her all of a sudden? "I mean, 'Dr. Cohen' is respectful enough."
"Dr. Cohen, I can't spend all day waiting on you to get up. We have serious business to attend to. I want you out of bed and sitting at the breakfast table in two minutes."
His footsteps grew distant and she finally sat up.
Sylvie vaguely remembered her surroundings from the last time she'd been carried into this room, but she now had a moment to check things out in more detail.
The bed was impressive. Large, ornate scrolling, carved out of what must be driftwood. It had to be an extravagance, as it seemed few plants grew on the small amount of dry land the planet had to offer. What passed for a mattress was some form of miniature wave pool covered by a membrane similar to those that comprised the doors. Even now it shifted subtly below her.
Sylvie hopped up, wrapping the blanket around her and strolling over to investigate an outcropping of coral. She wondered if it contained one of those displays she'd seen elsewhere. She ran a hand over it, and a holographic image was projected in front of her face.
Incomprehensible images and curly scripts she couldn't read flashed by.I guess the translation matrix doesn't extend to written language. She waved a hand at the display and it vanished.
There was a low stone table and several small items sat on its polished surface. Sylvie picked up a carving of two figures in what resembled jade. The figures looked like the inhabitants of this planet and could have been twins, except for the clothing. The figure on the right wore a sarong similar to those worn by X and his colleagues. The one on the left had tight woven shorts and two thick braids that formed a cross over the chest.
"Time's up."
Sylvie looked over her shoulder at her host. She'd forgotten how large he was, how muscular. How attractive.
"You're supposed to be eating breakfast. Not pawing through my things."
Sylvie smiled. For regent of an entire planet, he sure was an incessant nag.
"I can't come out to breakfast like this," she said, indicating the thin blanket wrapped around her torso. "And your lackey ruined my flight suit. I have nothing to wear."
X leaned back, crossing his elbows and planting one webbed foot against the wall. "Lose the blanket then."
Sylvie's jaw dropped. "And run around in my underwear?"
"It covers you adequately. Why not?"
"Look," she said, walking over to him and wagging a finger at him. "You may be perfectly comfortable running around your colony dressed in a braided skirt and nothing else, but that doesn't mean I want everyone seeing me in my unmentionables."
