Queen of Nowhere by Jaine Fenn

Author:Jaine Fenn
Language: eng
Format: mobi, epub
Tags: Science Fiction, General, Fiction
ISBN: 9780575097001
Publisher: Gollancz
Published: 2012-01-01T00:00:00+00:00

JIO

(Port Viridian, Tethisyn)

Everyone has secrets.

Jio Maht devoted his life to helping other people, especially those with secrets. He had a face and manner that inspired trust; he was one of nature’s born confidants, and helping people gave him considerable satisfaction. Any large corporation needed counsellors like Jio, positioned far enough outside the system to be perceived as neutral and safe. He had an enjoyable career that provided a decent living.

If only they knew.

It had begun twenty-eight years ago, when he was first starting out as a vocational stress consultant. Clients sometimes fixated on people in his profession. More rarely, the converse occurred. A good counsellor has the insight to see into a person’s heart and the empathy to not be repelled by what they find there. But there is a risk, however unprofessional it might be, of falling for someone you are trying to save.

Not that what he had with Merice was exactly love. From the start, it was a very physical relationship. She had been in a junior position back then, but he had recognised her obsessive need to succeed. He remembered being surprised and impressed that someone with such drive also possessed the humility and self-knowledge to seek a counsellor of her own volition. When she had told him about her strange, loveless childhood on a distant anarchic world, he had felt deep and genuine sympathy.

He had also, from the instant he saw her, wanted to go to bed with her.

They had moved on to discussing boyfriends, of which she had had many. She freely admitted to valuing her career over interper-sonal relationships. What she really wanted was a man who would get close when the time was right, but otherwise keep his distance.

Jio tried hard not to start thinking of himself as that man. She was his client, and to take advantage of the trust she put in him was an abuse of power. He saw too many victims of abused power in his work: ThreeCs was like a parent in both good and bad ways.

After three months of weekly sessions, he started to believe she felt something for him too. Part of him desperately hoped she did, because he was beginning to obsess about her. Part of him hoped he was wrong, because he needed to disentangle himself before something irrevocable happened.

When something irrevocable did happen, she initiated it. All these years later, the details were both clear as crystal and hazy with nostalgia.

He had become concerned she was holding something back; when he’d finally coaxed out her secret, she had confessed to falling in love with him. At least, that was how he remembered it. The cause mattered less than the effect: amazing sex, in his consulting room. Such a cliche. Such a transgression.

Naturally he insisted they could not go on as client and counsellor. She said - and this he did remember perfectly - that she saw no reason why not, given she had no intention of ever sleeping with him outside his office.

He had been incredulous and appalled.

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