He sighed, gave a gesture of surrender with his hands, and climbed out of her bed. “You know that part of your allure is being forever out of reach. Forbidden fruit. Beyond the possession of any man.”

“Really?” She arched a pale brow. “When it comes to reach, seems you just had your hands all over me. And given what you did with your mouth, the fruit was pretty well tasted. As to possession, we were in delightful harmony that last time.”

“A fleeting moment. Tomorrow I’m back to the mine, and you are only a dream.”

She watched him as he reached for his pants. “Maybe dreams are all we really have, Desch. Seems like every time I think I’ve got hold of the dream, on Donovan it turns to shit. My parents, my husband, my daughter, and then Dan. I don’t dream anymore. I just set hard and fast goals, and then I do anything I can to make them happen.”

He was pulling on his shirt. “I’d say it’s working. Look what you have. After Kalico, you’re the wealthiest woman on Donovan. You brought down Tam Benteen. People, even the triumvirate, listen when you speak. You’ve become a powerful woman. Even Kalico says so.”

Allison stifled a smile. “She does? Wouldn’t have thought she cared.”

Desch gave an offhanded shrug meant to minimize any import. “She probably doesn’t. Just a passing mention. People talk, you know. Doesn’t mean anything.”

Allison turned, placed a finger under Desch’s chin and lifted it so she could stare into his eyes. “Sorry, lover. You’re working too hard here. She knows you are one of the few I bed. She gave you the third degree, didn’t she?”

“I don’t know about any degree—”

“That means she interrogated you. And, worshipping her like you do, you told her everything. Gave it to her straight up like you’re about to give it to me. What did you tell her?”

She enjoyed the growing panic in Desch’s eyes. His hard swallow shifted her finger where she kept it firmly under his chin. She let her stare burn into his, allowed the predatory smile she’d developed to curl her lips.

At his continued hesitance, she said, “Oh, come, Desch. Were those wistful words about taking me away from all this only sycophantic boy-talk to soak off the girl you’d just fucked from stem to stern, or was it horseshit to convince yourself that I was more than an ordinary and convenient whore?”

Desch looked miserable, reached up and removed her finger. Defeated, he dropped to the bed. “No. I wasn’t feeding you a line. It’s the rules, Ali. What I promised the Supervisor in order to come here. Nothing, not a word of Corporate Mine will cross my lips. That’s what I promised.”