Chapter Ten
Gage was actually happy to take Iona to the cargo bay to show her how he dealt with the models in his care. He thought that if she saw it, she would understand on another level what he was and what he wasn’t. He also thought it would help him remember his role since he was a little scrambled. That kiss he had given Iona on her bed had really hit the spot as far as he was concerned.
Every time he thought of it, he got a goofy grin on his face. It was unintentional, but it was also very real. It hadn’t been the first time he’d kissed a woman of his own accord, but it had been the first time he had felt any of the things a person was supposed to feel when they put their mouth on another person. He was inwardly delighted.
It also felt like a personal triumph because he expected the kiss to be an exact replica of the last time he had kissed the dead maid Olivine had forced him to kiss on pain of electrocution. His kiss with Iona had been nothing like it and he felt like a rockstar for having painted over the painful memory of his last kiss.
Gage led Iona into the cargo bay. There were lines of unused cryochambers. Cinni’s was the one closest to the door as it had been the last one loaded.
Through the glass of the chamber, Gage saw that Cinni had been prettied up for her journey and she was dressed in a red ball gown and crowned like a princess. She was probably planning to be displayed at the model show wearing the dress.
Gage started pressing the buttons used to ease the drugs that froze the blood in Cinni’s veins like ice. Most of the process was automatic, so it was just a matter of waiting for her to wake up.
“What are you wearing for the show?” Gage asked Iona. “I half expected you to show me another round of costumes. We’re not doing that?”
Iona was rooting her tongue around in her cheek so hard she made a smacking sound when she pulled it free. “Uh… I had a costume picked out. The last five models Sherman has chosen were wearing red at the show, so I thought that I just needed to wear a red dress and I’d have his bid iced like cake. It looks like I wasn’t the only one who had that idea.”
Gage chuckled. “Do you think the whole show will just be women parading around in red dresses?”
“Yes,” Iona said blankly. “He’s the highest bidder, so yes. They all want to secure his bid if they can.”
“So don’t wear red,” Gage suggested.
“Red is a powerful color. This little miss is a Rose Red. She has auburn hair and will probably wear red contacts. Sherman wants to get a model who fits his description of the Lady in Red from that song. If she looks at him and manages to make him feel like they are completely alone, he’ll bid on her.”
Gage slipped his arm around Iona’s waist and pulled her close to him. “There isn’t a problem here,” he whispered. “Forget about the red dress.”
“It was such a hassle to get a red dress in the exact shade that didn’t clash with my hair,” she said, forgetting that she wasn’t supposed to whine when she spoke to Gage.
“Look, unless I’m mistaken, Sherman is not your favorite. Wouldn’t you rather get Dante or Benediction?”
Iona hoed and hummed.
Gage hooted. “Okay, you don’t like any of them, you little gold digger.”
She laughed. “Like I’d be offended by anyone calling me a gold digger!”
“Tell you what, after we drop Little Miss Cinnamon Bun through the floor into the complex, I’ll help you go through that obscene mass of costumes you brought with you. I’m sure you have something that will leave a strong impression on him without making you look like the identical twin of every other girl at the show.”
“Shut up. She’s almost awake,” Iona prompted.
Gage opened the lid and Cinni’s eyes fluttered. She was awake, she just hadn’t opened her eyes yet. She was puckering her lips.
“Do you kiss all the girls when they wake up?” Iona asked Gage in a hiss.
He grunted. “I think she’s expecting someone else.”
Upon hearing their voices, Cinni opened her eyes. “Oh, it’s you. How did I get aboard your vessel? I was supposed to be woken up by Stonic.”
“Yeah, he got banged up in the asteroid belt. He had to drop down to Callisto for repairs.”
Cinni’s face paled. “Is he alright?”
“He’s fine as far as I know,” Gage said.
“I’ve never met Stonic,” Iona suddenly said. She turned to Gage and asked him, “Is he as good looking as you?”
“He’s better looking, dummy,” Cinni said as she threw her legs over the edge of the cryochamber.
“Is he?” Iona whispered to Gage.
“How the hell should I know? I’ve never seen him.”
“He has a cuter face,” Cinni said as she rushed to a mirror on the wall of the cargo bay to see how well she’d traveled.
“That wouldn’t take much,” Gage agreed as showed her the way to the infirmary.
“I just had a quarter physical,” Cinni protested in a nasal voice.
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“Yep, and you were changed to a different solarship, so you’ll tolerate another one, or I’ll put you back into cryostasis. It’s regulations.”
Cinni bounced her reddish curls and popped up on the table, her strapless gown bouncing in a way that made Gage wonder if it would stay on.
“Do you need your corset tightened?” Iona asked.
Cinni jiggled a few times with her eyes looking toward the ceiling. “Yes. I think I do.” Then she looked at Iona suspiciously. “Wait. Who are you? Aren’t you Iona Stirling? Aren’t you also going to be in the show with me?”
“I’ll be in the show, but I–”
Cinni cut her off. “I’ll get someone from the agency to help me. I don’t need a saboteur to pretend to help me.”
Iona nodded. She clearly didn’t disagree with that logic at all.
“Hungry?” Gage asked Cinni when he was finished looking her over.
“I want to eat at the agency. When is someone coming?”
“I see you haven’t been to Europa before,” Gage said kindly. “We are parked over the shaft that leads directly to Sleeping Beauty Inc.’s main Europa office. No one is coming to get you. You just have to step on the elevator and go down. They know we’re here. They’re expecting you.”
“You won’t come down with me?” she asked, her eyes suddenly huge and pleading.
“No. Today I’m being paid extra to escort Iona, so I can’t be at your beck and call.”
Cinni shot Iona a look verging on hostile. “You think with his extra help you’re going to win the auction?”
“It’s not an auction. It’s a show and no one wins it,” Iona retorted.
“Hmm…” Cinni huffed. “I’m pretty sure there is a winner.”
Gage was bored with everything he was seeing. Normally, he kept his models separate but he had thought it would be interesting to show Iona his work. He was wrong. He had to separate them again.
“Iona, why don’t you head back to your room? I’ll join you there shortly. I’m just going to escort Cinni to the elevator.”
Iona looked disgusted but left the room with a flourish of her satin robe.
“She bought you?” Cinni asked once Iona was out of earshot.
“Yeah.”
“Can I buy Stonic?”
Gage shrugged. “I have no idea if he’s willing to entertain that kind of contract.”
“But you are? How much did she pay for you?”
“Please watch your step as you get off the table. I’d hate for you to step on your dress,” Gage said as he offered her a hand down.
She got off and walked by his side toward the elevator shaft.
“Why did you go to sleep in that dress? It’s a little full to cram into a cryochamber,” he asked conversationally as they walked. “Usually the dresses models go to sleep in for show aren’t made with that much fabric.”
“I stole it from another model. She was on her way to Enceladus and she didn’t need a red dress. I mean, of course, she needs her dress, but she doesn’t need this particular dress as much as I need it. I admitted to the theft and wired her double the amount she paid for it. Once I was asleep and en route to the Jovian system, she couldn’t get it back.”
“Will you give it back to her?”
“Who knows? If I win and get Sherman then I will need the dress for as long as I work for him.”
“Hmm…”
“Are you judging me?” Cinni hissed angrily as Gage pressed the button to call for the elevator.
“Not at all. I’ve done far worse things than steal a dress.”
“What’s the worst thing you’ve ever done?” she asked, looking at him slyly.
He smiled back at her. “I haven’t done it yet.”
She swallowed but didn’t say anything more until she got on the elevator and the doors closed.
Once that was done, Gage went back to Iona. It was stupid to look forward to dressing her, but he was. This must be part of the fun of having a model of your own, even though he was only getting such luxury because Iona wasn’t pushing him around as hard as was legally allowed.
He knocked on her door and she opened it for him, wearing a blue dress and looking at herself awkwardly in the many mirrors that were pointed toward her.
“Do you hate it?” she asked.
“Yes. Let’s get it off you.”
She groaned. “You say that, but you’re only teasing me.”
“You want something that’s a high/low dress or something long with an enormous slit. Show me what you’ve got that does one of those things.” He stretched himself on the foot of the bed and began giving instructions to the awe-struck Iona. “What you want is something that shows a little leg without giving everything away. Cinni’s dress was very pretty, but it didn’t give any hint to how pretty her ankles or legs are. You want to hint that you have beautiful legs.”
“You think you know what Sherman is going to want?” she asked.
“Who in the hell cares what Sherman wants? He’s gonna have a hundred models lining up to please him. I’m going to show you what I want and I think there’s an excellent chance that there will be a buyer at the show who will agree with me and spit up the cash to prove it.”
Iona looked instantly more interested. “What you want?”
“Yeah.”
“Okay,” she agreed, getting more excited by the second. “What about the top? There are a lot of different styles.”
“Go for a wedding dress style,” he said, his face dead serious.
“That’s too flagrant.”
“It’s not,” he refuted. “The ultimate show of a woman giving herself to a man is her walking down the aisle at a wedding. It’s the moment every man dreams of. There’s a sense of rightness that has been drilled into him all his life about a woman coming toward him in a white gown. Seeing her walk, she appears innocent to him. Wearing white, she appears free. It’s the greatest deception of the hidden catch which is all the cash he’ll have to dole out, but that will feel natural too. Weddings are not cheap.”
“I… uh…” Iona hesitated.
“You said you wanted to get married. Maybe not to Sherman, but what do you want to bet Dante will watch the show from Callisto? He’s probably stewing about how much he ought to bid for you.”
“I don’t have a wedding dress in my luggage,” she faltered.
“Yeah, you don’t have one in your luggage,” he chuckled.
Iona cut her eyes to him. “Are you saying you do?”
“I have an entire cargo bay filled to the brim with clothes. I can’t ever drop off a model who doesn’t look like a superstar, so I have clothes. I even have something special in mind for you.”
“Why didn’t you pull something like that out when I was preparing for my performance at The Crater?”
“That wasn’t a Sleeping Beauty Inc. event. You think I’m going to dive into my cargo hold and find you a dress for something I won’t have a proper excuse for? I have to give an accounting report explaining what happens to every piece of clothing in that hold. But this is on our turf. I can open my drawers for ya.”
She put a hand to her forehead. “There you go again with the sexual innuendo when you’ve already told me not to expect any private lovemaking aboard this ship.”
“Shut up and take your clothes off,” he said as he strode out of the room.
He knew she was still gawking as he opened the lock to cargo hold B.