Part 30 (2/2)
”Take them off anyway.” Now there was a core of durasteel under his words. ”It would please me. You want to please me, don't you?”
No, what I really want to do is give Chewie another few minutes.
She stopped. Lifted one foot and removed her slipper. Smiled at Xizor and tossed the slipper aside. Put her bare foot down and lifted the opposite foot. Tugged the second slipper off and dropped it.
Now he smiled again. Sipped at his drink. It was, green, whatever it was.
She reached up and touched the fastener of the dress. Wiggled it, twisted it, frowned as she worked it.
”What are you doing?”
”It's stuck,” she said.
He leaned forward. ”Come here. I'll do it.”
”Wait. There it is.” She unsnapped the fastener. She was fully dressed in a bodysuit; removing the seethrough dress wouldn't reveal any more of her, but it would buy a little more time.
He leaned back on the couch.
She delayed the moves as much as she could before she dropped the green dress to the floor around her ankles. Thus far, all he'd gotten a look at that he hadn't seen before were her feet.
”Now the rest of it,” he said. He waved the gla.s.s. She hoped Chewie had had enough time, because this was as far as she was going to go with this game.
”I don't think so,” she said.
He put the gla.s.s down and came to his feet. ”What?”
”It isn't proper to remove one's clothes in front of a stranger,” she said.
He moved toward her. Grabbed her shoulders and shook her. This close to him, she felt the allure wash over her. It was something from within him, some kind of attractant he produced. It was much stronger, but now that she knew what it was, she could resist it. Her body wanted one thing, but she was a civilized woman and her mind was what controlled her, not her hormones.
He bent to kiss her.
She slammed her knee up between his legs, hard.
He groaned and shoved her away, stumbled back a step.
Leia stood there, watching him. Smiled sweetly. Don't like that, do you?
When he could straighten up, he did so. His face was cold, his expression neutral. If he felt any pain, it no longer showed, and if he was angry, that was not evident, either. The pa.s.sion he'd had was gone or at least well hidden now.
He seemed to have changed color, too, now that she noticed. He looked paler, cooler, an ashen green.
”So. You resist me.”
”You got that right,” she said.
He nodded. ”It was something the Wookiee said.” Not a question.
She smiled. ”Sometimes Wookiees are very smart. And always very loyal.”
He shook his head. ”Ah. Here is the drawback to bright and strong women: Sometimes they are bright and strong when you least want them to be.” He bowed. ”I am pleased that you are a worthy adversary.” He finished the bow. ”Guri.”
A panel slid aside in the wall behind him, and the HRD stepped into the room.
Leia gave her a military nod.
”It seems you were right,” Xizor said to Guri. ”Take her to her room and lock her in.” To Leia he said, ”You and I will continue this discussion later. Sooner or later, I believe you'll find that I am not such bad company.”
”Don't bet on it,” she said.
Guri moved to where she stood, took Leia's arm. Her hand was soft, but her grip was like a steel clamp.
Leia hoped Chewie had gotten enough of a head start.
29.
After Guri had taken Leia away, Xizor sipped at another gla.s.s of green champagne. Perhaps it would help ease the pain in his groin.
After a time, he called his chief of security.
”Did the Wookiee escape?”
”Yes, Highness.”
”You did not allow him to think it was too easy?”
”He put five of our troops down, my prince. We singed him with a blaster beam as he ran down a hall. He won't think it was easy.”
”Good.”
Xizor broke the link and smiled into the green, bubbly liquid. His surveillance on the Wookiee had reported the escape attempt immediately.
Before Leia had returned to him, Xizor had already put his alternate plan into effect. He had intended to let the Wookiee go all along, albeit not quite this soon. Well. No matter. The Wookiee would surely contact Skywalker, and the boy would come running to try to rescue the princess.
Xizor's agents would probably collect Skywalker before he got within hours of the castle.
So easy. The hot ones were so predictable.
A priority offworld message announced itself on his private channel. He didn't feel like talking to anybody just at the moment, but only a few people had access to the direct link, and if one of them was calling, it was likely something he'd best not ignore.
The connection was vox only, no image of the speaker. Understandable, considering the position some of his agents sometimes found themselves in regarding their security. He himself did not like to transmit his image.
A personal quirk. You could scramble the transmission, of course, but in the field, paranoia was high. Many operatives reasoned that if a s.h.i.+elded pipeline was broken into and the com somehow unscrambled, better it should not have pictures attached to the speaker.
<script>