Sleeping Prince

?" Tanya asked o

t you're wondering," Gage replied,

eat was comfortable. The artificial gravity was a few ticks lighter than it had been on Earth. It was meant to mimic the gravity common to the

it had gone fine. Tickety boo, but there was som

Sleeping Beauty Inc. had on offer on Callisto. Ninth most expensive for the Jovian re

models regularly assigned to him and then any oddball assignments that came his way. Those seven were very expensive and t

em over for any damage, ensure that they were properly washed, fed, and put them to sleep on his vessel. Five Jovian moons had divisions of Sleeping Beauty Inc. on their surfaces: Ganymede, Callisto,

d asked her to do. If she had a medical problem, she had already had it seen to it while she was still under contract because she was just too v

d jobs, he wouldn't have the joy of giving Iona her quarter physical. A quarter physical was nowhere near as thrilling as he'd hoped it would be when he went in for training. During the routine check, he looked in her ears and tested her hearing, measured her eyesight, looked at her teeth, took a swab of

nd valuable for a self-respecting handler to admit to liking. She wasn't like mo

er places to get that. The more awkward the man was, the better his money was spent on a model from Sleeping Beauty Inc. Most of the clients were rich enough that some women would put up with him for his money, but there was something really special about that specific dollar sign amount that many clients found appealing. The model

, Iona had worked in a showroom for a helocarrier company called Excalibur Helocarriers. The people buying those transport

ive them all the information required to make the sale of a helocarrier. The reason she was hired instead of a normal girl was that the customers kept grabbing the sales girls. There were lawsuits. It was crazy, so the deal with Iona was that she was hired to tolerate those incredibly inap

those offers. Sleeping Beauty Inc. ran confidential auctions where the exact offers were kept secret, therefore it was completely possible for a man to outbid a company in numbers, but would be told that he didn't win the auction because the company had added some benefits that the individual man had not offered.

it was even her job to wine and dine them, take them out for entertainment, and show them a good time while they considered how large and long their helocarrier contract should be. She was close friends with some of them as Iona had

o did

her in his own little way, she was not for him. Her grand beauty had nothing to do with him. Her pinkish hair was swept to the side in a cascade of curls that covered her shoulder. Her white dress was made with thick, expensive fabric, yet had intentional windows to sho

lling, but she said she liked getting picked up in the dark brown starship that had seen a dozen t

stubble on his chin. He didn't dare hope

om, where he left her alone for a few minutes to undress and wash.

nt through the health checklist with her. He was always especially proud of how collecte

y next to the medical table was enough jewelry to fill a jewelry box.

t care. "Please look at my throat. I

r body just stopped fighting whatever viruses it had been fighting before. It was almost a usual routine fo

" he said, intenti

t her throat. He was having the best time, b

. Enough to give you a

ing trouble swallowing." He nodded. "Yeah, I've

excused himself. Alone, he took off his lab coat and returned to the cockpit. Since she was fine, it was time to get bac

ss, they screamed because they wanted him to comfort them, but he was always bad at that. He didn't want to comfort them. He wanted them to g

. That day, even with her sore throat, she said nothing. Once they were in o

nymede was saying something. "I've just sent you a contract to

go over it again later with Iona, but he didn't want to bother her now

n the contracts Iona usually entertained. Why, in the heck, was head office sending this to her? It was

ed that he had been reading the contract wrong. It wasn't a contr

toward where she was sle