Chapter Nine

A model from Sleeping Beauty Inc. was a person with a collection of skills intended to elevate the lifestyle of their owner. They were not a whore. No one made sex with a model illegal, but from Iona’s experience, the whole premise for Sleeping Beauty Inc.’s services was to help in a myriad of other ways.

She had worked as a saleswoman, a personal trainer, an interior designer, a nutritionist, and naturally, she had been the pretty little woman on a grotesque man’s arm more than once, but she’d concentrated hard on forgetting those years. The only thing she really remembered about those days was how much she disliked the look of red hair on a man. Everything else was a blur because she refused to think about it.

What Gage had revealed was that he had been sold involuntarily and forced to play the love partner for a woman he despised. It was less than being a model, less than being a whore, less than an escort because he would not have been paid for anything and he would have been punished cruelly for any misbehavior.

Iona followed him quietly to the cockpit and watched him from around the doorframe as he maneuvered the Cannonball III into position. She would never have guessed something like that about him. His every movement was so assured. It was hard to imagine a situation when he hadn’t been in control.

“Cargo has been loaded and the docking bay is sealed,” he informed the other ship.

“Thanks, Gage,” the other pilot called merrily over the speaker. “My ship is a wreck after the asteroid belt. I don’t think I would have made it all the way to Europa.”

“Are you dropping down for repairs on Callisto?” Gage asked cheerfully.

“Yeah. Just as soon as we sign off.”

“Say hi to Lex for me, would you? Tell him my duct system has been working like a dream since my last visit.”

“Will do.”

“Goodnight, Stonic.”

They signed off and Gage leaned back in his chair with his hands behind his head. The view of Callisto was large through the glass plate in front of him as he silently watched the other ship enter the moon’s atmosphere.

Iona had seen Callisto from space quite a few times watching it from her bedroom window as she recovered from her after-work illnesses, but it didn’t matter how many times she saw it, or the pink twinkles that shone from the surface. She didn’t come here for the view of the moon. She came for the view of the man.

“Can I sit on your lap?” she asked quietly.

He started when she spoke, but he waved her in. “Sure.”

She pressed her bare feet into the metal flooring of the cockpit and slid her white satin form onto his lap. He cradled her against his chest and swiveled his seat so she could see the moon better from where she was.

In the near-darkness, she asked him. “How did you get to be so strong after what you were through?”

“Oh… uh… I don’t know that I’m that strong,” Gage stammered. “Mostly, I just think about what’s ahead of me instead of what’s behind me.”

“What’s ahead of you?”

“Right now? Callisto. I like the Jovian moons much more than I liked Earth. I like to feel like Earth and Mars are gone and the moons of the gas giants are all that is left. Isn’t life out here better?”

This text was taken from Royal Road. Help the author by reading the original version there.

“It’s darker,” she mumbled.

If the Cannonball III turned to the side and showed the sun, it would be much smaller than it had been on Earth, and warmth from the sun felt non-existent. It was warm on Callisto because of the geothermal poles that had been placed all over the moon. They provided heat and a magnetic field that protected the moon from radiation. It had been one of the most successful terraforming projects humans had ever known.

Europa had not been developed like Callisto, but Iona had been there before. She had spent several years working there. It wasn’t built upward toward the sky. It was built downward, toward the warmer oceans. That was what Europa was, skyscrapers built backward. The surface of the moon was unchanged. You set down over a landing pad and everything went down, down into the dark, down into the water, down into the heart of the moon, the heart of yourself.

It was a lonelier place than Callisto even though a lot of money had been used to try to make the place cheerful. It was like a mall that never ended. Which tower were you in? Did your room have a view of the ocean? Could you see the lights from other towers? Instead of traveling left and right, you traveled up and down.

The same went for the runway she would walk when they arrived. It was stairs. Clear stairs with no railings and walking them displayed a model’s balance and concentration more than anything else. Iona felt more confident about walking those stairs before she fell from the ring on the stage in The Crater.

Though she wasn’t feeling terrible about it now as she rested in Gage’s arms. She didn’t notice when she closed her eyes and she only noticed it a little bit when he stood up. He was carrying her princess style. Was he taking her back to her bed? She felt unhappy as he placed her in her cryochamber. She didn’t want to go to sleep! She didn’t want to sleep through the month it would take to get to Europa. She wanted to stay awake and spend time with Gage. If she just had a little more time with him!

“No, I want to stay awake,” she balked–half asleep.

“We don’t have provisions to stay awake until we get to Europa,” he explained gently. “You know as well as I do that Europa is the butcher shop and the bread basket of the Jovian region. We always get supplies at Europa. Anything else is highway robbery. We can talk about staying awake between Europa and Io. Okay?”

She fussed, but his hands were around her, securing her in the pod with straps so she didn’t bounce around inside her chamber if anything happened to the ship.

“You’ll go to sleep too?”

“Yes, little princess.”

“Can’t you go to sleep in here, with me?”

“No. I have to put on my suit and go to sleep in the pilot’s cryochamber. Not here.”

“But I’m lonely,” she whimpered, not realizing that was the first time she had complained to Gage.

“Then breathe in,” he said steadily.

She did as she was told, but was immediately disappointed. Of course, he didn’t have a dose of rush to share with her. What she breathed in was the sleeping gas they gave every model to help her enter cryosleep without a fuss. She hated breathing it in, but she did.

Two deep breaths and when she breathed again, Gage was kissing her.

“That wasn’t so bad, was it?”

She opened her eyes. He looked almost the same, but before he had been wearing a dark green T-shirt and now he was wearing a dark blue button-up shirt with half the buttons undone. It was much sexier and it took a moment for her to understand it.

“We’re already on Europa?” she asked.

“Yeah.”

“Have you already woken up the other model?” Iona said, getting up in her seat.

“I haven’t. I was going to ask you what you wanted me to do with her before I put you to sleep, but you fell asleep so quickly.”

“I did not!’ Iona refuted.

“You did. Actually, I settled you in my arms, checked the weather forecast for our journey from Callisto to Europa, and you were asleep by the time I turned back. You must have fallen asleep in under two minutes.”

Iona wanted to call him a dirty liar, but she was still pretty tired. She took the water bottle he offered her and took a refreshing sip.

“Do you want to see the model in the cargo hold or do you want me to send her downstairs without a meet and greet?”

“No. I want to be there for the whole thing. I want to see how it goes.”

Gage swung his head. “Fine by me.”

“Do you know the model?”

“Yeah. Her name is Cinni and I’ve moved her a few times.”

Iona didn’t change and followed Gage down to the cargo bay.