Driven Read online

  It looked damn sexy, though. Linna waved her arms some more. Sexier than she'd have expected.

  "And there's the museum," Del was saying.

  "Sorry?" Her mind had been wandering, caught up in decadent fantasies involving Del's nipples.

  Del pointed. "The museum. Over there, the marketplace."

  Linna looked where his finger was pointing. "It looks like something out of an ancient Egyptian viddy story!"

  Del laughed. "I told you Xanderra was different."

  "But you have technology." Linna looked at the small hoverscooter whizzing by. "You have space travel. Advanced medicine. Stuff like that."

  "Limited, compared to what you're used to. But we're not entirely primitive. We have lots of stuff imported for us. Xanderra's a wealthy planet with large mines of precious gems and rare minerals valuable to other places."

  "Who owns the mines?"

  He grinned. "Technically, all of us. Every citizen gets a share. Who controls them is another story."

  "The Melekim Gadol." It was a guess, but not a difficult one. Linna knew how governments worked.

  "You got it."

  "Can we visit the marketplace?"

  "If you want." Del pointed. "Sure you wouldn't rather go to the Bays D'en? The House of Learning?"

  She wrinkled her nose. "Let me think about that for a minute. Um, no. Marketplace."

  Del laughed. "All right. Come on. You got money to spend?"

  "You know I don't," Linna answered. "Unless they take Newcity credits."

  "I doubt it."

  Del nodded at several men, dressed the same as him, as they crossed the street. The men answered him with grins and what she assumed were traditional Xanderran greetings. They even spoke to her, though of course she didn't understand what they were saying.

  "You won't find that in Newcity," she said under her breath as they passed.

  Del put his arm around her shoulder. "I told you, Linna. There's no attending thine own business stuff here. Your business is everyone's."

  "I think your mother illustrated that to me quite perfectly," she said with a sigh. "It's just going to take some getting used to."

  As they passed another group, this time made up of women dressed the same as her, Linna put a bright smile on her face and greeted them with the small bit of Xanderran she knew. "Shalem!"

  The women nodded at her, their eyes wide, but returned the greeting with soft voices. A few of them looked over their shoulders at Linna as they passed, and she heard whispering. Linna frowned.

  "Did I do something wrong?"

  "No." Del squeezed her shoulder. "You're a little more...exuberant than they're probably used to."

  "Exuberant?" Linna looked over her shoulder to the pack of women, now giggling together. "Never thought of myself as particularly exuberant before."

  "Don't worry about it." Del paused. "And I'm sure they know who you are. It's bound to cause talk."

  She stopped him from walking with a hand on his elbow, and waited until he faced her before asking, "How do they know who I am?"

  He looked a little uncomfortable, bless his heart. "Well, they know who I am, and I'm sure the word's got out that I'm behsherit. They'd assume you are my behshera."

  "You weren't kidding when you said everyone knows everyone's business." Linna looked again at the group of women who'd crossed the street, but still cast assessing looks their way. "That's going to take some getting used to."

  "Don't worry about it."

  She bit her lip. "I'm not worried."

  But she was, a little. She knew what it was like to be married to a man in the public eye. Daniel had thrived on the exposure and attention being a Newcity Ruling Council member had provided. He'd loved nothing more than to attend the fanciest functions and keep the most illustrious friends. It had been more important to him she wear the right clothes, say the right words, have the right opinions, than it had been for him to know the woman she was.

  She'd hated it.

  "You all right?" Del lifted her chin with one finger until she looked into his eyes.

  Linna nodded and shrugged. "Being a political wife doesn't change, no matter where you go."

  She hadn't meant to remind him she'd been married before. Del's gaze flickered and his mouth thinned before he put a smile on it. "You're not a political wife."

  Linna became aware they were blocking traffic and causing curious glances. She pulled him toward a small alcove in the building next to them. With the illusion of privacy shielding her, she put her hands on her hips to face him. "Is that because you're not political or because I'm not your wife?"

  Del tried to pull her into his arms, but stopped when she resisted. "I'm not political. And you're my behshera. That's more than a wife."

  She nodded. "Right. Because there's no dissolution or divorce on Xanderra."

  He tilted his head to look at her, and this time, she let him pull her closer. "Does that bother you?"

  Linna sighed. "Del, I just don't know. I've been in the public eye before. I didn't really like it. I like my privacy. Here..."

  "Here, everyone lives in everyone else's back pocket. It took me a long time to get used to life in Newcity, where a man can fall onto the street and nobody will stop to pick him up. On Xanderra, the worst thing you can do to someone is to ignore him. Turning your back is the biggest insult." He paused. "When I left home, I turned my back on everyone here."

  She slipped her hand into his. "It must've been difficult."

  His face looked stony. "I had my reasons."

  "I feel very out of place here."

  "You'll learn to fit in."

  She thought of lowered heads and complacent attitudes. "I'm not so sure I want to fit in."

  The conversation was rapidly heading toward disaster, and she didn't want that. Before he could answer, Linna pointed toward the entrance to the marketplace. "I thought you were going to take me."

  "Linna ..."

  She stood on her toes to kiss him. "Later, Del. Let's just have some fun."

  "All right." He looked like he was going to say more, but didn't. "C'mon."

  The marketplace entrance was tucked just inside an alley. Fluttering banners and flags beckoned her, and in another minute, the smell of something delicious added to the welcome. Linna breathed deeply. Spices. Food. Perfumes. It smelled better than any mall she'd ever been to, and way, way better than shopping via System.

  Her stomach rumbled. "Can we get something to eat?"

  "If you want." Del's laugh made her pause.

  "You say that like I'm going to regret asking."

  When they ducked under the hanging banners and into the marketplace proper, Linna could only look around in gape-mouthed amazement. The enclosed courtyard, walls formed by the buildings surrounding it, was like something straight out of Arabian Nights. The 20th century movie version, not the more recent porno viddy series, she amended. Booths covered in hanging beads, multi-colored scarves, baskets and more made aisles and rows. The vendors called out to the passers-by in cajoling tones, mostly in Xanderran, but sometimes in Universal.

  "Fresh bloodflower root!"

  "Imported Shaddran silk for the lady?"

  "Body piercing and inking, right over here! Meet the artist!"

  Linna paused in front of that booth. "Del, wait."

  He stopped. "You want to get yourself pierced?"

  That didn't much appeal to her. "You told me if you'd taken a behshera before you left Xanderra, you'd have had her name tattooed on your wrist."

  "That's so, pretty lady," said the booth's owner in Universal. He eyed her quite boldly, and she waited for Del to get angry before she realized the artist wasn't looking at her with lust. Not sexual lust anyway. He stared at the blank canvas of her skin as she pushed back her sleeve to expose her bare arm.

  "Shalem, Fiyero," Del said. "Long time. This is Linna Fortense. My behshera."

  "Seven full turns of the sun, at least." Fiyero tilted his head. "You here for your final