Story Downloaded from Open Scrolls Archive (https://www.openscrolls.net)

Title: Love Me, Love Me Not (#4178)
Author: Sulriel
Chapters: 11

Archive: Original Scrolls
Category: Romance
Description: ~ 1880 or 2099 ~ . The more things change, the more things stay the same. Can love still conquer all?
Published: 27 Jan 2010
Updated: 27 Jan 2010
Warnings: Hot sexy space cowboys and rope
Type: Romance
Characters: He's not even human


Chapter 1 - ch.1

Love me.


Saile thumbed her blaster from stun to kill. Love me not.


She thumbed it back. Love me.


The evening sun hung right at that impossible angle where she couldn't shade her eyes and watch the horizon at the same time.


Love me not. She set the blaster back on kill, jammed it in the holster and shifted her shoulders against the boulder behind her. Her braid fell in a long, uncomfortable lump between the rock and her worn-thin shirt. Wisps of hair clung to her forehead and sweat tickled down her temples.


"What do you think Tanga? Does he love me?" Saile flicked a blat-beetle off her leg. It bounced a couple of times on the hard-pack before sliding into a spin. Its ten spindly legs waved frantically above its belly before it finally righted itself and crawled away.


The donkey flicked one long grey ear toward Saile and back, and switched her wisp of a tail at a bity-biter.


Saile's Uncle Jorge didn't like Reed, called him an off-worlder thief. She trusted Tanga more. The donk tended to be less subjective in her judgements.


Saile checked the flat horizon, nothing but dust and rock. She turned back to the donk. "You still don't think it's Reed's so-called pets slaughtering the llama herds."


Tanga yawned, a long luxurious yawn that stretched her lips and showed more teeth than most people knew a donk could have back in the dark shadows of her long jaw. Those were natural, as was the healthy shine on the Donk's thick coat. The more interesting results of genetically engineering donkeys to assist colonization on frontier worlds were still showing up - but only as the Donks themselves let people know. Tanga snapped her mouth shut and blinked at Saile.


"Well, that's what I think," Saile said.


Tanga twitched the end of her nose with a little snort, clearing first from one nostril, then the other.


Saile shook her head. She shoulda known better. "You remember that you're supposed to be on watch - right - with those big ears of yours? Watching. Not snoozing?"


Tanga flicked one ear forward, then the other. They're coming.


Saile checked to be sure that her blaster setting pointed right, to kill, crawled out of the frugal shade and to the edge of the mesa.


Nothing. Wait - there - movement, in a smidge of a dust cloud in the distance. Sweat burned her eyes and tickled down between her breasts. Incessant winds kept the ledge smooth and the sun-heated rock burned her elbows, belly and breasts. Saile shifted, ignoring the burn, and sighted down the short barrel at first one then the other of the lanky red-brown shapes coming into sight, waiting for their easy lope to bring the off-worlder damitts into range. Where was Reed? He always rode that stallion of his behind the pack, directing the lead damitt with whistles. She should be able to see him in spite of the dust.


Good for nothing son of an off-worlder bitch.


Her thumb automatically toyed with the weapon's switch.


Love me not. Yep - far right, set to kill. Lucky she'd found out the truth about him before it was too late. Her eyes blurred. She blinked. And again. The damitts had disappeared; the hints of dust settled and cleared the horizon.


Saile backed from the ledge. As she turned to sit up, Tanga's hind hoof tap-tapped the soft bottom of her boot, long ears focused down the trail opening in the rock behind them.


Company.


Saile's thumb brushed the kill setting again and she licked the salt from her lips.


"Saile."


"Reed," she called. Why did he have to have such a sexy voice? "You're nothing but a lying sack of blat wings!"


"Now, Saile. There's been a misunderstanding. We need to talk."


His voice rolled through her. It made her breasts tingle. The sweat in her cleavage itched. She ignored it. "Come on around. Nice and slow, hands in the air."


"If I walk around that outcropping you're going to shoot me."


"Yep." Damn, wrong answer.


Tanga laid her ears back. She hung her lower lip and shook her head with a pitiful expression.


"No, I mean." Saile's thumb flipped the switch left, from kill to stun. "My blaster's on stun."


She flipped it right.


Tanga narrowed her eyes. Saile shrugged.


Saile spun and fired at a noise behind her. Tanga charged. Saile slapped the recharge as she was turning and got Reed in her sights before his blast hit her.


Chapter 2 - ch.2

Saile's head pounded with blinding, searing throbs, not just her head, every part of her ached. Rocks dug in her arms and hips and she sneezed from the dust. She held her breath, wondering if the sneeze had exploded her head, but the pain continued with each heartbeat. She'd been blindfolded and thrown in the dirt. Ropes cut into her wrists, burning and numb at the same time.


A warm, strong palm lightly covered her cheek; his callused thumb traced her lips. Love me … not.


"Saile, wake up," Reed whispered.


This isn't how she'd imagined him waking her; her dreams about him had never included ropes or blindfolds. Well… not like this.


"Where's Tanga?" The way her head felt, she wished it would explode.


"The Donk? She's fine, she escaped."


Escaped? Tanga wouldn't have run from a fight. Nausea surged up in waves, pulsing with the throbbing spikes at the base of Saile's skull.


"You don't think she'd go for a posse do you?" Reed asked.


Saile felt an instant of gratitude for the blindfold hiding her expression. "Probably thinks I'm dead," she muttered.


"Drink this." Reed helped her to sitting and held a warm cup to her parched lips. The bitter liquid stung her lips. Her raw throat rebelled and she coughed most of it out. Saile took another sip and kept that one down then Reed helped her stand. Her legs buckled. She staggered and would have gone down except that he caught her. Love me. She fell into his chest. His rugged blend of mesa grime and the day's work brought too much realism to her recently shattered dreams. His pecs flexed against her cheek as he ran his hands up her arms. Heat flooded her with the feel of his strength. How could he do that do her at a time like this? She struggled away, trying to stand on her own and he slipped his arms around her waist to hold her. His thumbs brushed her lower ribcage and he chuckled, his lips brushing her hair.


"Almost like old times," he murmured. His hand slipped down to cup her right cheek and he pulled her up against him.


"Blat-wing!" Saile pulled back and he let go, letting her fall. She tucked and rolled, and stayed down until the dizziness passed.


The scuff of boots, then Reed's knee on the ground kept her from being surprised when he grasped her arm and helped her sit up. He touched the cup to her lips again and she suffered another sip of the bitter drink.


Chapter 3 - ch.3

Tanga jogged steadily along her way in a rhythmic pace she could maintain indefinitely. Her kind were naturally efficient travelers and while the metabolic enhancements were minor compared to how their minds had been opened up, they allowed her to keep a steady pace as long as there was any forage she could snatch at the jog.


No sense in being hasty, but it was nice not to have to stop and graze.


She'd known the instant Reed pulled the trigger that the off-worlder wouldn't hurt Saile, not too bad anyway, not like that good-for-nothing uncle might. Tanga smelled the setting before the blast even hit Saile, the difference between stun and kill couldn't be mistaken. She'd charged past and away, galloping a safe distance before she slowed and circled back. She followed Reed and his band of damitts until she was sure of their direction.


They'd wandered north, skirting the greenlands until, in the middle of a sandstorm on the second day, they turned due west and increased their speed. Tanga followed for another day and when they didn't waver, she veered back to the south. She'd go for help, but not back to the ranch.


She'd learned to sniff the wind before she leapt, learned that as a foal, and wasn't about to do any different now. Donks heard things when people thought they weren't listening, and smelled things before they topped the horizon.


Saile was mad, shooting mad, but Reed could handle her and probably just as well without her in the way.


She'd take her time thinking this through and it'd be easier done without that hothead human spouting "let's go"; all the time waving weapons in the air, and firing them every which way. Maybe she'd keep Reed distracted as well.


Chapter 4 - ch.4

Reed kept Saile close during the long days. She pulled away once, whirled out of his hold and ran - snatching at the blindfold - three strides and right into the clammy pads and claws of his damitts. They'd clattered in their off-world babble, but released her at his violent cursing, all but one. She felt the heat of the blaster and the weighted grip as that arm was severed from the body. She guessed, from the interruption of its screech with the second blast, that Reed killed it.


He'd yanked her back to his side, his anger strengthened in the silence. She stumbled, and he dragged her a couple of steps until she managed to catch up.


"If you run, they'll kill you."


The sexy rumble disappeared from his voice; replaced by a hard element she'd prefer not to recognize - a dangerous tone edged with desperation.


Love me?


Saile stayed where Reed sat her, shivering in spite of the warmth of the night. She imagined the weight of his stare in the silence.


She felt a tug and the blindfold slipped off. Reed leaned in and kissed her in way that made her toes tingle.


"You can't do that anymore."


He grinned in a way that meant trouble. Damn his handsome smile. Reed patted his vest pocket, then reached in and pulled out a polished finger-band. He held it up for her inspection.


Love me.


"You," Saile said, "are a cheat, a thief and a liar. I'm not interested in you, or your spaceport and I'm not afraid of a thousand square klics of desert or your llama-killing damitts, may whatever low-life market you bought those genetic disasters from screw up one time too many and be eaten. If you don't get that thing out of my face - "


Reed kissed her again, long and slow. "Marry me Saile." He nibbled her bottom lip.


She took a deep breath of him and touched the tip of her tongue to his lips, she couldn't help herself. "There isn't going to be any sex," she whispered, pulling away.


"It's going to be really good." He winked.


She swung at him; he caught her arm and brought her palm to his lips. Why did that simple touch make her heart ache?


Reed's grinned. "I have a wedding present for you." He drew her blaster from his belt, set it to glow and stood it on the ground between them, then pulled a packet out of an inner pocket. He shifted closer and held the sheaf of papers in the blaster's light so she could read the titles.


"You recognize these?"


A chill swept through her. "No." Dread settled in the pit of her stomach.


"But you know what it is."


"Yes, Reed, I know what it is. A forgery of the paperwork on the land that isn't for sale for your blasted spaceport."


He waggled the papers at her. "You're wrong. The land is for sale, just not to me. Your uncle's been dealing with Teffen, buying company lies. But I bought the mortgage. These papers aren't forged, when your uncle misses a payment, the land's mine."


"What's the difference, Reed? Does your company have a sweeter package of lies?"


He refolded the packet. "I freelance. We wouldn't be locked in to one set of lies." He slid the packet back in his vest and pulled out another bundle.


His smile faded as he opened the pages. "What about these Saile?"


She glanced at the pages, an inventory list, and turned and stared deliberately into the night. The brilliance of the stars blurred and she blinked. Hard. And again. "Let me go Reed."


Reed waited and she finally turned back to him in the silence. He shook his head. "You'll go to the highest bidder, Saile." His breath caught. He cleared his throat and shuffled the paperwork. "Is that what you want? Is that how things work here?"


He shifted the pages again so the blaster's glow fell full on the top page. The listing showed the house and other buildings, detailed the range's boundaries and summarized the stock - the working horses, llama herds and a human female.


"Have I been wrong in asking, Saile? I have the credits to buy you if that's the way you want to do it."


She tried to focus on the paperwork. Reed's voiced faded and she fought the nausea that boiled up her throat. She'd thought he only courted her because the ranch couldn't be bought, but he'd have the ranch. He didn't need her. Did he? Love me?


Memories flooded her mind, unanswered questions of her parent's deaths, her uncle's evasion and his explosive temper. Pain racked her gut. Reed thought he could buy her? Apparently he could. Love me not. Her uncle had listed her for sale with the rest of the stock. She shuddered and lunged for the blaster.


Reed caught her and wrapped her warm against his chest. "How can he do that Saile?"


Reed's strength surrounded her and for a moment she let herself rest, caught up in his solid calm and safety, before she pushed away. "The colonization guidelines allow for indentured servants. He has the right to recoup my upbringing since my parents died. It looks like he's claiming the ranch profits haven't been enough."


"What recourse do you have?"


"Give me my blaster, Reed."


Chapter 5 - ch.5

Tanga slowed her jog. She snuffled a low greeting and received a return snuffle from the donks in the shadows.


They questioned, as she did, the targeted slaughters. No donk herds had been attacked, none of the wild llama herds or the roaming bands of cachens - only the ranch llamas.


Always before, men had pampered the few specially bred ranch llamas, tending their fine furs throughout the year until they were shaved each spring. But these off-worlders had strange ways, unpleasantly strange.


The donks pinned their long ears, shook their furry heads and stamped the ground with a hind hoof.


Tanga twitched her nose and snorted once from each nostril. "Let's not be hasty," she answered.


Chapter 6 - ch.6

Reed's breath, then his lips, tickled on Saile's neck with the words. "Marry me Saile."


She admired his persistence and calm strength of purpose; it had drawn her to him when they first met. Saile closed her eyes and waited for the tingles to run their course before she elbowed him away.


She leaned the heels of her hands on the rail of the landing and watched the last of the milling herds of llamas; they blurred through the exhaustion of the last week as the damitts gathered them up and pushed them toward the horizon. "That's my stock," she said. "You've stolen what's left of my stock."


Reed grinned. "Define 'stolen'."


"This is all pointless without the breeding herds."


"If you married me, they'd be yours again."


"Give my blaster back and I'll agree."


"Will you promise not to shoot me?"


Saile looked away.


"Your blaster was not set on stun on the high mesa."


"It was." Saile shrugged. "But I changed it."


Reed nodded.


Saile turned and sat against the rail. A tall ship gleamed in the distance. She slowly stood and turned again. The llama herds were making their way toward the horizon, the opposite horizon. Why had he stolen them if not to export the furs? She looked at the ship again, the logo splashed on the nose seemed familiar. Was it Teffen's?


"Are you going to apologize for trying to kill me?" Reed asked.


"Will you give my blaster back?"


"Don't think I should."


"Why do you want to marry me if you didn't need the ranch for a spaceport?"


"I still need that ranch. This isn't a spaceport, it's just a big flat rock with some railing, a landing and a systems interface controller."


Saile turned away, hoping he didn't see the disappointment that welled up and threatened to choke her. Love me not.


Hands rested warm on her shoulders and she shrugged him off. Reed grabbed her again and spun her around. "I've asked you to marry me a hundred times. It has nothing to do with your ranch."


Saile wrenched loose and slapped the lying son of a blat-wing as hard as she could. She whirled around to run, but froze on the second stride as the remaining damitt chattered and snapped to focus its attention on her. Reed's arms wrapped hard around her and picked her up, holding her close against his chest. "Don't run Saile," he whispered against her. "Remember they're instinctive hunters. Never forget that."


She nodded and Reed let her feet touch the landing. He led her to a terminal and punched in a code. Legalese filled the screen then scrolled down to a boxed summary. Her vision blurred as she read it. Reed had stolen enough of their stock to keep her uncle from making the payment, the mortgage had come due and Reed foreclosed. He owned her.


He stood close but, for once, kept to himself. Her shoulders ached, cold, where his hands usually rested. "If you don't want to stay with me, I'll pay you a fair share. It'll be enough to set up your own place or you can go off-world and start over somewhere else."


Love me.


"You're a thief," she forced out.


"I've been called worse." Reed turned back to the terminal, logged the legal system off, pulled up security, bypassed it and logged into the maintenance controls. His fingers moved too fast for her to read the warnings that popped up and disappeared as he entered the codes and commands. He murmured under his breath and cursed the system, then finally laughed. "Some poor technician's going to catch it for missing that calibration." He keyed a final sequence. A flashing red countdown centered on the black screen. "Time to go," he said. He whistled up the damitt and sent it ahead before he grabbed Saile's arm and rushed her down the ramp.


Chapter 7 - ch.7

Tanga stood at the crest of the hill and sniffed the breeze. The llamas were near, and Reed's damitts. The herd of donks waited below, napping, a long ear occasionally tilted one way or another. The air stilled in sudden stifling silence, a concussion then a deepening rumble tickled up through her hoofs - a furry forest of ears perked in alert - Tanga wheeled, over the far horizon a dark cloud mushroomed over a tall narrow stem.


Time.


Tanga jogged off the hill and through the herd, the others fell in behind her. As they traveled, the herd thinned and spread in a long line. She swiveled her ears. She had a glimpse of one donk to each side, and heard a hint of the one past that. She lowered her head and picked up a canter.


She slowed as the llama scent grew stronger and the long line of donks stretching to each side of her curved up and around until when they came upon the herd, they walked in from all directions.


Don't run from the damitts. Tanga sent the reminder both ways around the line of donks. The donks grunted in time to their slow steps as they circled the herd, the llamas tossed their heads and bleated in response before each made its own little circle and folded their knees to settle in fluffy heaps on the sand. The damitts hissed and chattered, and lunged at the donks, but they kept their slow steady pace, gradually tightening the circle.


Tanga lowered her head as the leader approached, gnashing its fangs in agitation. A single, lightening-quick hoof flashed, connected, and Tanga waited perfectly still. The damitt yowled and squirmed away and back. Tanga advanced a step toward it and it cowered. She hopped and struck; the thing darted away, screeching and the others followed.


She watched the damitts fade into the distance as behind her, the donks gathered up the llama herd and headed them down the trail. They'd cache them in a safe valley until the humans got over their arguing.


Chapter 8 - ch.8

Saile's mount stumbled at the pace. Reed closed the distance between them and grabbed her arm. She pulled away, spurring her mare. It stumbled again and Reed snatched her from the saddle. The ground blurred below them. Saile kicked, then clutched at Reed. She scrambled up, wrapped her arms around him and slipped her leg over the back of the saddle. Reed's horse snorted and paused when Saile's mount slowed; Reed spurred him to hold a steady pace and Saile's mount fell in behind.


#


Reed slowed as they approached a canyon. The lead damitt waited at the narrow entrance, blending with the reddish sandstone until he moved. He crouched low and skittered toward them, chattering and pointing to the left and right. Reed pulled his mount to a halt.


The damitt stood up on its hind legs, curled to the left and shifted the weight uncomfortably off the right. Its normally pointed snout twisted. It chattered to itself. Broken teeth sliced its lower lip and tongue as it licked its swollen lips. It pointed to the far right. " ... ingle onk, ingle onk, ingle onk." It punctuated each croak with a dip of its claw. It turned and snuffled, and repeated the information.


Reed's eyes darted to the wind-smoothed sand leading into the canyon and he took an uneasy breath. He turned his attention back to the damitt. "Teffen?"


The thing rocked back and forth and screeched. "Onk, onk, onk."


Reed reached his arm back and caught Saile's waist as she shifted to slip to the ground. "Don't," he said.


She hesitated but settled back behind the saddle. Reed's arm slid down her back and he rested his hand on her thigh. He half turned in the saddle to face her.


"Where are my llamas, Reed? Did your precocious little monsters eat the entire herd?"


Reed studied the broken damitt, then shook his head. "No," he said. "They won't cue on long-haired beasts. The llamas can't trigger an attack."


"They've killed over half the herds, before you stole the rest."


"They couldn't have, and I didn't steal them..."


Silence.


" ... from you. Teffen did."


"And you stole them from him."


Reed nodded.


"And you're proud of that?"


He shrugged. "It's a living."


"Not a very good one. You've done a lot of thieving to be standing here with nothing. The deed to the ranch is pointless without the llamas."


His cocky grin faded and he dipped his head in quick acknowledgement. "We're going to get them back, but this time we're going right to the source." He whistled and the rest of the pack of damitts trotted from the shadows of the canyon entrance.


Chapter 9 - ch.9

Tanga flicked her ears forward and back. Reed waited below the ridge with Saile and his pack of damitts. The injured leader sat apart muttering to itself and licking its tattered lips. She ambled to the top of the hill and snorted, clearing her nostrils.


Saile turned and stared, Tanga nodded.


Saile snatched Reed's blaster from his belt; he caught her and pulled her around and across the front of his saddle. The stallion called out and danced under them. Tanga waited until Reed settled the beast and let Saile sit up, clinging to his arms and chest.


Tanga twitched her nostrils and snorted again. He loves you.


"You're a blat-wing!" Saile answered.


"What did she say?" Reed demanded.


"Nothing. She's nothing but a furry blat-wing."


Tanga flicked her ears back and hung her lower lip in protest of Saile's judgment.


Reed whistled up the damitts and sent them toward the ranch house then swung Saile down from the saddle.


She held onto his arm. "No way, Reed. You aren't dumping me now."


He shook his head. "Sorry, Saile, ... business before pleasure."


She held his arm with both hands and he waited. "What's the worst thing you've ever been called?" she asked.


"I'm none of the things you've called me," he said. "No matter what the stakes."


Saile slowly released his arm and stepped back. His eyes seemed so deep, so sincere. Where was that devastating grin?


"You ... you've stolen my ranch," she said. "You set your damitts to steal what llamas you didn't slaughter. You kidnapped me. You blew up a spaceship." She studied his eyes. "Why'd you do that?"


"It's a competitive business." He grinned. "Their security systems were too simplistic, they deserved to be exploded." He held up a hand to stall her protests. "Promise not to shoot me in the back and I'll return your blaster."


"And take me with you to the ranch house."


"Does that mean you'll marry me?"


"No," she said. "It means I won't shoot you in the back."


He pulled her blaster out of his belt but hesitated. "You can't shoot Teffen. We don't know where he's hidden the llamas."


"Just don't get in front of my uncle Jorge."


Chapter 10 - ch.10

They cantered the track through the last of the hills and into the compound that held the ranch house and offices. Reed slowed the big horse to a walk. Damitts spread out to surround the main house; a few crouched in a semi-circle around each corner.


Saile thumbed the setting on her blaster - far right, set to kill. Once she got in the room, she'd have a clear shot at that lying scum of an uncle. She loosened the blaster in her holster, slid to the ground and followed Reed past the damitts and up the steps into her house.


#


Her uncle stood in the center of the room, sweating and cursing, a rumpled bundle of papers in his hand. A taller man stood beside him, Teffen, his goons in tow.


"Hello Teffen." Reed nodded and smiled politely. Saile's fingers twitched toward her blaster and Reed casually draped his arm over her shoulder.


"Sign the transfer, Jorge." Teffen took the papers from Saile's uncle and opened them to a back page.


Jorge stared at Saile. His jowls quivered and the red tinge to his face darkened a shade as he shook his finger at her. "You little turncoat," he said. "How dare you steal your own stock."


"Shut up Jorge," Teffen said. "We don't need her anymore, don't want her if she's been out with him."


Reed's arm tightened reflexively around Saile.


Teffen took the papers and signed on the line he'd indicated needed Jorge's signature.


"We seem to have a little problem Teffen," Reed said. "Jorge doesn't own this ranch. I do. And it's not for sale."


Teffen's henchmen shifted uneasily. They watched Reed, their fingers twitched toward their weapons.


"The problem is that you have my llamas." Teffen motioned to his henchmen. "Stun him."


Saile yanked her blaster from the holster and fired at her uncle. Jorge dove for the floor. The henchmen fired. Reed's blast hit the nearest one; he convulsed into his partner, throwing off the other man's aim. The beam grazed Reed and his second shot went wild. Saile slapped the recharge on her blaster and melted a fist-sized hole in the remaining off-worlder's chest.


Teffen snatched the deeds and ran, but froze stock-still in the doorway. Jorge scrambled over the dead guards and edged his way to Saile, his blaster pointed at Reed. At the last instant Jorge turned his weapon from Reed to Saile. "You screwed this deal up," he said, "you're coming with us."


Saile stared at the barrel pointed at her by her uncle. Her fingers twitched against the hilt of her blaster, still charging. She darted, too late; Jorge lunged and caught her. He pressed the tip of his weapon to her head, and thumbed the recharge. The subtle vibrations of it charging burned her temple. Reed slowly spread his open palms away from the second blaster that waited in his belt.


Jorge pulled Saile to the door and pushed his way past Teffen. Saile took a deep breath. The damitts churned in an agitated, chattering pack, pacing and snuffling in front of the house. They snarled and snapped, keening as they milled ever closer.


Chapter 11 - ch.11

Teffen's gaze shifted between the stallion and the damitts, he stepped slowly back into the door. Reed's piercing whistle sounded from inside the house and the damitts snapped to attention. Jorge's hold on Saile shifted and she ducked, slamming her elbow into his gut and spinning away. The blast singed the side of her face; acrid wisps of burned tendrils of her hair filled her eyes and nose.


Teffen took the hit as he was turning and raising his own weapon. He staggered back and fell. Jorge cursed and turned on Saile, his blaster whining as it recharged. He lunged for her. As Reed charged through the door, Jorge spun and pulled the trigger. Reed staggered with the half-charged blast, but didn't fall.


"Run," Saile screamed.


Jorge bolted off the porch toward Reed's horse, ground-tied behind the mass of damitts.


Reed lunged the last steps to Saile and snatched her into his arms. He spun her away and held her tight, her face buried in his shoulder. A final curse and screech sounded as the damitts converged on her uncle.


Saile took a deep breath, and another, then pushed away from Reed.


The damitts sat quiet, licking their fangs and nibbling at the crevices between their claws. The leader kept a wary watch on Tanga.


Tanga waited beside Reed's horse. She flipped her long ears forward when Saile looked her direction. "They're safe, grazing in the valley."


A shocked expression crossed Reed's face; he shook his head. "I'd have never guessed, but I guess we're in back in the llama business."


"You don't know anything about ranching," Saile said.


Reed shook his head. "I'll manage the spaceport - you manage the ranch."


Love me.


Saile held out her hand toward Reed, palm down, fingers spread.


Reed fumbled in a pocket and pulled out the band he'd offered her so many times. "That thing you said about no sex..."


Saile grinned. "It's going to be really good."





- the end –
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