“No.” He could see the effort it took her to smile. “You were . . . um . . . I guess wow is the only word.” For a moment, she might have been on the verge of tears, then that bright smile flashed back across her face. “Yeah . . . really, um . . . wow.”

Dek had noticed that about her. Klea Morena wasn’t nearly as smart, quick-witted, or cunningly competent as the Eunice Iverson she played in the holovid. So what? As far as he was concerned, it had been Eunice that he’d brought to one orgasm after another last night. That, after all, was the magic of it. Half the males and a quarter of the females in Solar System fantasized about sex with Eunice Iverson, the same kind of sex he’d enjoyed last night.

Hardening at the thought, he was about to reach for her when she slipped off the bed, walked naked to his bathroom, and disappeared inside.

Let her empty her bladder. He need only beckon with his little finger, and he’d be sliding his erection back into the most coveted vagina in all of Solar System. He lay back, remembering the widening of her eyes, her intake of breath, those happy moans coming from deep in her throat.

What the hell? He shot a hard look at the bathroom entrance. What was she doing in there? Not like they had an entire morning to spend with her sitting on the . . .

The door opened from the hall, his father striding in. Claudio walked like a man with a purpose, his heels clicking on the translucent floor, the elegant lines of his Dumont-tailored suit flashing in the room’s refracted light.

“Klea?” Claudio called. “You are no longer needed. Consider yourself free to go. If you’d like, stop by the breakfast suite. I recommend the quail eggs over caviar on thin-sliced salmon. A car will take you wherever you need to be.”

At his words, Klea emerged from the bathroom, a flash of relief quickly covered by that radiant smile that she seemed to produce upon demand. With a slight skip, the woman snagged her Clementine Saffrom evening dress from the floor where it had floated down the night before. She demonstrated remarkable skill and rapidity the way she slipped it on and sealed it around her perfect body. Never even missing a stride when doing it. Then she was out the door.

Claudio stopped at the foot of Dek’s bed, stared disdainfully at his fading erection, and said, “Conference room in fifteen minutes. The topic is molybdenum. Projections are that our mining operations in the Hilda Zone are going to be seven percent lower than our target figure. We need to—”

“Wait!” Dek threw himself off the bed, stalking up to his father. “You just dismissed the woman I was—”