Prologue
"Miss Darlian has already retired for the night, Mr. Yuy." The gatekeeper to Relena Darlian's penthouse apartment was staring straight into Heero's eyes, her lips pressed together in a thin line of disapproval.
"She is expecting me," he told her, suppressing his impatience at being denied entrance.
"I was not informed that she would be receiving a late-night visitor."
Heero caught himself before he rolled his eyes. Relena's housekeeper was well aware of his nocturnal visits and they had played out this scene many times in the past. She probably thought he was taking advantage of Relena although if anyone was being taken advantage of, it was him.
"I will wait while you inform her that I am here. She wasn't expecting to see me until tomorrow, but I was able to catch an earlier flight from Barbados." Heero felt ridiculous explaining this to the middle-aged woman but getting past her was an obstacle he had to overcome every time he visited Relena's apartment.
"Then you can visit her tomorrow at her office at a reasonable time of day." The housekeeper tried to shut the door, but Heero put his hand against the thick wood panel to prevent her. The older woman stubbornly met his gaze, but he would be damned if he gave in.
"Mrs. Jansen is there a problem?"
Relena's voice made the other woman look away for just a second and that was enough for Heero to push past her into the apartment. Relena was wearing a clingy dressing gown and since he knew that she usually wore an old fuzzy pink bathrobe unless he was visiting, she must have heard their discussion at the door and changed into this provocative garment just for him. She had yet to realize that she didn't need to make the effort to attract him, especially since he thought the old bathrobe was endearing although he had only ever seen it hanging in the back of her closet.
Mrs. Jansen closed the door abruptly behind Heero and he was amused by her irritation at not being able to prevent his entrance into her lair. Shouldering past him, she asked Relena, "Will you be needing anything before I go to bed?"
Relena looked at Heero. "Are you hungry? Perhaps Mrs. Jansen can bring you something to eat."
He was hungry, but there was no way in hell he was going to ask that woman to bring him food. "I had something on the plane." A pack of pretzels and some water, but she didn't need to know that.
"Mrs. Jansen, before you retire, please bring me a sandwich. I didn't eat very much at the reception for the ambassador, and I'm finding that I am hungry now." She glanced at Heero's hand in which he held a briefcase. "I have a feeling I won't be getting to bed any time soon."
After a scathing glance at Heero, the housekeeper walked stiffly away in the direction of the kitchen. He watched her for a moment before turning back to Relena. "Did you have to do that? She's already pissed at me."
"For showing up after midnight, I'd say she has good reason." Relena came to him and slipped her arms around his neck. "But I don't mind one bit."
His reason for coming to see her upon his return from Barbados had nothing to do with what she had in mind, but after spending a two-week vacation with the Winner family and seeing how happy Dorothy Catalonia and Quatre Winner were together, he didn't mind holding Relena in his arms. Once they were kissing, he forgot about the original purpose for his visit. Lifting her in his arms and without breaking their kiss, he carried her through the apartment to her bedroom. He'd been there plenty of times, so he didn't need to look to find his way. Once he shut the door with his foot and put her down on her feet, Relena helped him peel off his clothing before she untied the wide sash of the dressing gown to let it slip over her shoulders and down to the floor. He wasn't surprised that she wasn't wearing anything beneath, but then he didn't really think she was either.
Even though he had read articles in the society pages about social functions that Relena had attended with various men during his vacation and that there was speculation that she might be considering a relationship with an eligible bachelor, her eagerness to be with him now proved she hadn't done anything more than let those eligible bachelors act as her escort. Not that he had any right to be upset if she had invited any of them to her apartment. He was a security officer and she was an important diplomat. Heero knew that they would probably never have anything more than what they did now, trysts that her housekeeper condemned and blamed him for even though Relena encouraged his visits.
Heero forgot about the housekeeper for the rest of the night, and if she brought the sandwich, neither he nor Relena noticed. The following morning, Heero awoke to a knock at the bedroom door which was followed by a muffled announcement that tea and toast would be left on the table outside the door. He stretched and clasped his hands behind his head as he watched Relena crawl from the bed, slip on her dressing gown and head to the door. He could see by the window that the sun hadn't risen yet, but he knew that she got up early so that she could get to her office as soon as possible.
She opened the door and disappeared into the hall for a moment before she returned carrying a tray which she set on the small table on her side of the bed. "Mrs. Jansen neglected to bring another cup," she remarked with a half-smile.
"I don't like tea anyway," said Heero as he watched her fill the cup and sip it for a moment before she looked at him.
"Should I ask her to bring coffee?"
"Along with a decent breakfast," he responded with a glance at the toast and jam on the tray.
"I can't eat much this early in the morning. Besides, I have a breakfast meeting at eight with representatives from Colony L3, a meeting with my staff that always includes pastries and then lunch with ..."
"I get it," he interrupted her. He knew her schedule well enough, had even looked it over on the plane to find a time to speak to her, and seeing that her time was booked solid for the next few days, had to settle for bringing up what he wanted to discuss during their private moments together.
Relena went to an intercom and Heero listened to her order him eggs, bacon and toast along with coffee before she returned to bed with a slice of toast she had slathered with strawberry jam. He watched her munch on the toast for a moment before remarking, "You get crumbs in bed."
She shrugged and reached for the cup of tea she had placed beside the bed. "That is the least of Mrs. Jansen's worries about what I get in my bed."
Chuckling as Heero swung his legs over the edge of the bed, he left to find his pants in a heap near the door. As he pulled them on, he mused that they hadn't gotten very far into the room, and any plans he had made on the plane to discuss a project he had in mind were doomed to failure. He left the room to find his briefcase where he had dropped it the night before, and he was glad that he didn't run into any fire-breathing housekeepers although he did hear the faint sounds of pots or pants being banged in the kitchen. He was sure that if he were anywhere near her, he would end up getting brained.
When he returned to the bedroom, Relena was still in bed eating toast, but she eyed the briefcase he tossed on the bed with annoyance. "I don't suppose you brought that in because you keep your toothbrush in there."
He popped it open. "I wasn't just on vacation in Barbados."
"I didn't think you were, but as long as you are on the subject, how did you enjoy the island?"
"I spent most of it babysitting," he said with a smile as he remembered how often Jamila Winner, Dorothy and Quatre's five-year-old daughter, was at the bungalow they had provided him. He hadn't minded because she was a sweet child and they had similar interests, swimming, building sand castles and eating ice cream.
Relena leaned over to nuzzle his neck and murmur in his ear. "Did that give you any ideas for our future?"
He didn't think they had a future, but he didn't say so because they might start arguing over it again and he had something to discuss with her before she left for work. Ignoring her question, he pulled out a folder, and when he opened it, Relena released him.
"I don't see a toothbrush," she commented with a sigh.
"It's in my jacket pocket," he told her as he handed the folder to her. "My informants on Colony L2 suspect widespread corruption. With elections coming up, it's important to ferret out the exact nature of the corruption. We don't want another situation like L4 on our hands."
She closed the folder without looking at the contents. "This is more about Duo Maxwell than it is the colony. I've kept informed about what is happening there. Authorities have managed to curtail the criminal activity on the colony and the leading candidates for election are particularly tough on crime. Isn't that what we want?"
"Not when innocent people are being put in prison, and because of the government's draconian policies, they are punished for the rest of their lives no matter how petty the crime." Heero should be happy that the colony was trying to discourage crime, but the government had gone overboard.
Relena frowned. "Heero, I know you want to believe that Duo Maxwell was innocent …"
"I know he isn't a model citizen, but five years in prison for receiving stolen goods?"
"Duo Maxwell was bound to get into trouble," she said. "As a salvager, he should have been particularly careful with the items he recovered. Unfortunately, some unsavory individuals from his past didn't do him any favors by contacting him. He should not have helped them dispose of their stolen materials. Didn't you discover that he was breaking the law again after being released from prison?"
"Dorothy told me that Duo set her up with contacts that could help her, not that he did it himself. Do I need to remind you that she was the one breaking the law?"
Relena waved her hand dismissively and that irritated him. Of course, she wouldn't condemn Dorothy. Not only were they friends, but Dorothy Catalonia was a noblewoman. The crime of concealing her identity and using a forged passport to avoid being tracked down was seen as an eccentric foible when she did it. However, if a commoner did the same thing, it would be punishable by fines and possibly imprisonment.
"What do you want to do then?" Relena asked him. "I assume that you have a plan."
"I've tried to contact Maxwell to offer him employment off that colony, but I haven't been able to reach him. Coupled with my concerns about the colony, I need to delve deeper into what exactly is going on there. I can hardly do anything from here, so I am asking to be relieved of my duty as the head of your security to go to L2 and sort out the mess."
Relena blinked as she stared at him and then she shook her head. "No! I didn't like being separated so you could go on vacation even though it was only a couple of weeks. I should have come with you."
"You know as well as I do that it would have caused a scandal. We've managed to keep our relationship secret so far. I'd rather not push it."
"Relationship? Secret visits to my bed can hardly be considered a relationship!"
Heero was starting to get a headache. "Now is not the time to argue about this."
Before she could reply, there was a knock at the door. "May I bring in breakfast?" he heard Mrs. Jansen ask from the other side of the closed door.
Relena gave Heero a look that warned him they were not done with this discussion. "You may come in."
The woman bustled in with a large tray, glanced briefly at the bed only long enough for Heero to see the smug look on her face which told him she had heard Relena's angry words. She set the tray down on the table so swiftly that the china rattled, then took the other tray and left, but not before pausing at the door to smirk at Heero. He wondered if he could get a poster of her to use at the shooting range to practice his aim. There was a spot between her eyes where the ends of her thick, graying eyebrows nearly met that he would like to put a bullet through to keep them separated.
Relena didn't seem to notice as she had taken up the folder to look through the papers. "I will clear my calendar and visit L2. Dorothy did ask me if I would attend a charity event there, but I told her that I was too busy."
"You don't have to do this," he told her. He didn't like the idea of her going to a colony that he considered lawless despite their government's attempt to prove otherwise.
"I've made up my mind," she said with a defiant lift to her chin. "I am going to Colony L2 and you will head the security detail. Now eat something and get back in bed. I'm canceling my breakfast meeting."
Heero raised his brows and met her challenging gaze. Then he gave her a slow smile. "You are the boss, Miss Darlian."
