Prophet and Loss by Blaze Ward

Author:Blaze Ward
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9781644703328
Publisher: Knotted Road Press

Scene Nine

Maru wouldn’t say she’d dressed up, but she also wouldn’t lie and deny it.

She had a date, damn it, and planned to enjoy herself. If that meant nicer pants without tools or a gun in her pockets, the universe would just have to deal with it. Similarly, she’d worked late into the night cleaning old stains out of her corset and polishing the leather and metal to a nicer look than was ever necessary in the engine rooms.

Baby blue hijab with blood red embroidery around the edges, because screw you.

Wouldn’t look like a wife, but also wouldn’t be mistaken for a cheap prostitute he’d hired and taken to lunch.

Maru almost felt like a kid again, on that first date with Erasyl, so long ago she didn’t want to even say the number of decades in her head.

Lots of water under many, many bridges.

Blakeslee had risen to the challenge as well. Yesterday’s suit had been pedestrian. Unpressed and perhaps worn a few times without a good cleaning. Today, he had gone for something in a severe gray with razor thin pinstripes that managed to split the line between making him look like a banker and a professor.

Thinning hair had been brushed. Goatee had been trimmed.

He had even greeted her at the table with the most chaste of kisses on the cheek and a thank you before they sat.

It was good.

Not even seeing the McLarens enter and be seated across the way could grind the polish off her day. That was just Tessa being an old, wet hen.

Maru might allow herself to be seduced, but Last Stand would be flying on to somewhere else soon enough. If that meant a fling with a man young enough to be a grandson, so be it.

She was giddy.

“So what are your intentions?” she asked as they got food ordered, tea served, and left alone.

Blakeslee smiled.

“The engine runs so much better that it almost feels like I bought a brand new unit,” he replied. “I stayed up half the night typing from the pure joy of how easy it was.”

Maru grinned. Budding gearhead on her hands. She remembered that first time she’d put something back together and had everything work right.

Almost no better feeling in the universe.

Almost.

“As for my intentions, I might be accused of something ulterior,” he continued with a hesitant look. “Lunch today was my way of thanking you for your help, your patience, and your knowledge.”

“Ulterior?” Maru pressed.

“After lunch, I had hoped I might be allowed to seduce you,” he said simply, smiling carefully at her.

That was his charm. The earnestness he brought.

He didn’t dabble. Didn’t dance eloquently around the point without ever quite touching it.

At the same time, he didn’t make the masculine assumption that she was seducible. He’d be wrong, but now was not the time to say anything.

She looked forward to watching him work for it. To bringing his immense intellect to bear on the problem and calculating the correct steps to arrive at his destination.

The pleasure she would derive along the way was entirely secondary.

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