Read Online Eros Ascending: Book 1 of Tales of the Velvet Comet by Mike Resnick - Free Book Online

which shoe he had slipped the skeleton card into.
    “I could have your room searched while you're at this end of the Comet," suggested Rasputin pleasantly.
    “Just be sure to tidy things up when you're done,” replied Redwine. He paused, then added seriously:
    “You know, if you find it, they're just going to send me another.”
    “I know,” agreed Rasputin. “That's why I'm not going to make you take your shoes off.”
    “My shoes? What are you talking about?”
    “Harry, the second I mentioned frisking you, you looked down at your feet like they were on fire. Now, either you're afraid to meet my steely gaze, or you've got more inside those shoes than your feet.”
    “I'll take them off if it'll make you happy,” said Redwine, forcing himself to look bored and deciding that Rasputin was a lot more formidable than he looked.
    The Security chief shook his head. “Don't bother. If I find out you lied to me it'll spoil a beautiful relationship—and besides, you're probably cleared to carry the card. I just want to know what you're doing with it.”
    “I wish I could help you out,” said Redwine sincerely.
    “You're the friendliest antagonist a man could ask for.”
    “I just never found that screaming and threatening did all that much good,” answered Rasputin. “But the operative word in your statement is antagonist." He shrugged, as if momentarily tired of the subject. “Is there anything I can show or explain to you before we go back to my office?”
    “As a matter of fact, there is,” said Redwine. “But first, how about answering a silly, question?”
    “I'll do my best.”
    “Calling the other two sections of the ship the Mall and the Resort makes sense—after all, that's what they are. But what idiot coined the term Home for this end of it?”
    “You're looking at him,” answered Rasputin. “And it made a lot more sense when you figure that the other end used to be called the House.”
    “As in, a house is not a...?”
    “Right. But when the Madonna took over a few years ago, she decided that it was too vulgar, and she changed it to the Resort.” He paused. “I liked my term better.”
    “So do I,” agreed Redwine, “It has a certain tasteless elegance to it.”
    “Well said,” laughed Rasputin. “All right. What else can I show you?”
    “I keep hearing about the Gemini Twins. They wouldn't happen to be hard at work right now, would they?”
    “Let's find out,” said Rasputin. He walked over to one of the computers, called up a complicated schedule, and studied it for a moment. “You just may be in luck, Harry,” he announced, walking directly to one of the screens. “Yeah, there they are.”
    Redwine joined him and stared at the small holographic display. Two dark-haired young men were sitting on opposite sides of a huge bed composed entirely of alternating layers of silks and furs. Between them sat a rather pretty redhead, perhaps forty years old, clad in a rather insubstantial nightgown. All three held long-stemmed crystal glasses filled with some exotic concoction.
    As Redwine watched them—and they appeared so identical that he could differentiate them only as The One on the Right and The One on the Left—first one and then the other began gently stroking the woman's arms and her legs. Occasionally one—though never both together—paused to take a sip of his drink, or to utter some comment which seemed to elicit a pleased reaction from her. Gradually, so slowly that Redwine was hardly aware of it, the intensity of their ministrations increased, and with no awkward pauses or cessation of their gentle touching and stroking, he noticed that they had somehow removed the woman's gown, and that her glass was now on the nightstand.
    The tempo of their love-making increased almost imperceptibly. The touches and kisses become more intimate, and still they seemed unhurried, relaxed, leisurely.
    Now one of the Twins, now the other, would pause to say something, or simply to offer