The Pleasure Palace. Evangeline Anderson

little Minister heard her as well.

      “Why of course you’re going, my dear. You’ll be going with our Chancellor’s hopes and thanks and you’ll be outfitted in style. No expense will be spared; you have my word. As for danger, well…” He turned back to Tyson, who was watching him expectantly with a frown growing on his sharp features. “Well, there’s no denying that there will be some. Quite a lot, actually. Syrus Six is a lawless place and if you were to be found out…” He shook his head mournfully, the silver goatee glinting in the office’s overhead glows.

      “Wait a minute, Syrus Six? You want us to go to the Pleasure Planet?” Tyson demanded, incredulous. “But why? What’s there?”

      “The Chancellor’s only son, we believe.” Minister Waynos looked sadly at him. “As you no doubt know, Syrus Six is at the heart of the illegal slave trade. Paul, the Chancellor’s son, was abducted over a month ago by people he believed to be his friends. We tried to keep it quiet at first, hoping for a ransom demand, but there was nothing, just nothing. The Chancellor has been quite beside himself.

      “Just this morning we received information that Paul is at the Executor’s Palace on Syrus Six. The Chancellor has been forced to accept the fact that the boy is being held there and is possibly even being trained as a pleasure slave. A most reprehensible fate, I’m sure you’ll agree.” He nodded sagely at the Chief, who, Ty noticed, had put on his most concerned face. He supposed he couldn’t blame him. This man represented the Chancellor, as close to royalty as New Brooklyn got.

      “There must be a personal motive behind this.” Shaina spoke up for the first time. “Surely even a well-trained pleasure slave wouldn’t bring as much as the Chancellor could afford to pay in ransom. Whoever took Paul wanted his father to suffer. It wasn’t just a random abduction.”

      “Impossible…the Chancellor has no enemies that we know of on Syrus Six.” The Minister spoke a little too quickly, Ty thought. “However, I like the way you think, young lady: already on the job.” Waynos beamed at her approvingly.

      “So the plan is what, to auction ourselves off as slaves in hopes that we might see the Chancellor’s son somewhere along the way?” Tyson didn’t even try to keep the sarcasm out of his voice. He couldn’t believe what Shaina had gotten herself into now.

      The small Minister blinked at him in surprise, evidently unable to believe that anyone would be less than overjoyed to risk their lives for the esteemed Chancellor’s brat. “Most certainly not, Officer…Tyson, was it? No, if you both go as slaves, who will protect you? Slaves on Syrus Six have no legal rights whatsoever. They are chattel to be bartered and bought and sold. Most dreadful, really.”

      “Not to mention completely illegal,” the Chief pointed out drily. “Tyson, one of you will pose as a pleasure slave and one of you will pose as a wealthy owner. The officers who go on this mission will be responsible first and foremost for bringing back the Chancellor’s son. As a bonus, it would be nice if they could find out who was behind the abduction.

      “So…” The Chief had risen from his desk and was staring meaningfully at Tyson. “Officer McCullough has already come on board this mission. Very eagerly too, I might add. Her ambition is a real credit to our station and your own training, Tyson. The ship is being equipped as we speak and we were only waiting for one more volunteer to start. Obviously, from the Chancellor’s point of view, the sooner things get under way, the better. Are you in or out?”

      Tyson looked at Shaina, who was giving him a stony glare out of those deep green eyes. Obviously she was hoping he would decline the mission and just as obviously she was determined to go herself. Chief Hamilton was sanctioning her decision and making it very clear that he would brook no arguments from an overprotective ex-mentor and partner. The only way to protect her from herself was to go along.

      The notion of just letting her go alone never even entered Tyson’s head. From the moment she had come into his life, he hadn’t wanted to let Shaina McCullough out of his sight. There was an innocence about her, and a passion for life, that made her unlike any other woman he’d ever met. Ty wished he could lock her up someplace and keep her safe, keep her all for himself. He knew that sounded dominant and possessive and overprotective but damn it—those were the emotions Shaina had roused in him from the first. His D’Lonian blood boiled when he even thought of her with anyone else, when she ought to be Bonded to him. He could no more give her up than stop breathing—although he could cheerfully have strangled her for getting them into this position.

      “Well?” Minister Waynos was looking at him expectantly and Tyson realized he’d been taking too long to think over a decision that was no decision at all. The minute Shaina had volunteered herself, she had volunteered him as well, whether she knew it or not.

      “Yes. Count me in. Although I can’t understand Officer McCullough’s affinity for dressing up in skimpy outfits and going undercover lately. I hope her slave-girl costume covers more than the hooker outfit she had on last night.” He gave Shaina a sly wink.

      “That was a cheap shot, Ty.” Shaina glared at him with her arms crossed over her full breasts. Tyson only grinned back, meeting her eyes and baring his sharp white teeth. He let his D’Lonian half show because he knew it made her uncomfortable. As he stared into her green eyes, he was already wondering what her luscious body would look like in a skimpy slave-girl outfit…maybe it wouldn’t be such a bad mission at that.

      Tyson could just imagine getting a handful of that silky auburn hair and holding her down while he sucked her ripe nipples. He wanted to part those long, gorgeous legs and taste her sweet, creamy pussy until she moaned and begged for more. He could almost feel her slender fingers digging into his shoulders, pulling him closer while he pressed his face between her firm inner thighs and tongued the tender cleft between her legs. It was only a fantasy, of course, but a man could dream, couldn’t he? Hot amber clashed with ocean-green as he let his desires fill his eyes. A deep blush stained Shaina’s cheeks, but she refused to look away.

      “I’m afraid you are laboring under a misapprehension, Officer Tyson.” Minister Waynos interrupted Ty’s lascivious thoughts. He cleared his throat and Ty looked up, dragging Ty’s eyes reluctantly from the silent battle of wills he had been engaged in with Shaina.

      “What do you mean? I thought you said one of us would be posing as a slave and one of us would be posing as the owner?” He looked at the Chief for clarification. “You said that,” he pointed out.

      “Yes, but I didn’t say who was going as which.” Chief Hamilton said. “You see, the slave quarters at the Executor’s Pleasure Palace where you’ll be staying are sex segregated. Since the Chancellor’s son is male, or was when he was abducted”—he cast an apologetic glance at Minister Waynos, who looked troubled—“a male slave will have the best chance of finding him.”

      “So you’re saying…” Tyson hoped against hope that what he was thinking was wrong. But the Chief and the Minister were both nodding. Only Shaina looked surprised.

      “Yes, Officer Tyson. You will be going undercover as the pleasure slave. Officer McCullough will be going as your Master.”

      3

      Shaina McCullough sat staring in disbelief at Chief Hamilton, trying to process what he was saying. Ty would be the slave and she would be the Master? By the almost comical look on Ty’s face, he was surprised as well. She supposed that she could have accused him of being a sexist porcine for just assuming that he would be playing the Master, but then, she had assumed it as well. From the very first day she’d met him, Brent Tyson had always had the upper hand in their relationship. He had always been the mentor, the senior partner, the seasoned veteran to her green rookie. He was always dominant, and the heat in those golden eyes had been making her nervous from the first moment they met. Despite her speech to him the night before about being equal coworkers, Shaina had known in her heart it wasn’t true. Now here was a chance to not only be equal but to be superior—to be his Master, no less. Or would that be Mistress?

      Shaina felt a grin of pure anticipation begin to spread over her face. She