Charlotte tested the water with one foot, then shrugged out of her towelling robe. She was wearing a bright scarlet crossover-back swimsuit underneath. Fabian watched her with a bold face and timid eyes as she dived cleanly into the pool.

She swam over to the windows, and looked out at the Mediterranean below. Floating in water that was floating through air. How strange. And there was that feeling of something being out of kilter again. It was mid-afternoon, with the sun sinking towards the horizon ahead of the Colonel Maitland. She decided that when she got to Odessa she'd call Baronski and tell him to find her another patron. Fabian could nearly be classified as sweet, he was certainly gullible, and easily controlled. But there was no way she was going to spend the next month cooped up in an airship with no one else to talk to.

"Do you want the wave generator on?" he asked.

"Maybe later. I'm still getting used to the idea of a pool in the air. Waves would be pushing it."

He turned onto his back, and drifted away. "The pool makes a lot of sense, you know. It weighs less than the hydrogen the ship used to store; and water is the best kind of ballast, quick to dump."

"Are you telling me that if there's an emergency we're going to go down the plug hole?"

Fabian laughed. "No, course not, stupid. There's a grille over the drain."

Charlotte pushed off from the windows. "Fabian, where do you go to school?"

"Here, I use flexible rate learning programs on my terminal. But I'm going away to university. Father said I am. Cambridge, I hope. That's where he went. I want to do economics so I can take over the trading company from him."

"So when do you get out?"

"Out?"

"Of the Colonel Maitland."

"Oh, when we reach a port where Father has some business. Or if we go to a party."

"So how do you make friends?"

Fabian's good humour faded. He stood up in the middle of the pool. "There are the other kids on the party circuit. And I talk to people on the phone chatlink."

She swam over to him, and stood up, the water coming up to her elbows. His head tilted up to look at her.

"That's nice," she said. "You must meet a lot of varied people."

Fabian nodded. His gaze dropped to the scoop of her swimsuit and stayed there. She eased her chest forward a fraction. Regretting it almost immediately as Fabian became very still; teasing him was such a delicate business. He was on the verge of panic.

"Yes?" she said gently.

"Charlotte…" He visibly gathered courage. "Charlotte, can I kiss you now? You don't have to say yes."

She took a slow step forwards, amused by his suddenly startled expression. Her hands held his shoulders, and she gave him a long kiss, finishing by sucking his lower lip as they parted.

If anything Fabian looked even more confused and lost than usual.

"Didn't you like that?" she asked.

"Crikey, yes! It's just—"

She gave him a fast impersonal kiss on the tip of his nose. "Don't feel guilty, Fabian. Never that. I'm here for you."

"I didn't ask for you to be brought on board," he said defensively.

"I know. So, friends?"

"Yes." He gave an anxious nod, then experimented with a grin.

"Good."

"Why did you want to know about my friends?" he asked.

"Just curious."

"Where do you live?"

"I have a flat in the Prezda, that's an Austrian arcology."

"But you can't live there much."

"No. I don't suppose I do. But it's nice to have somewhere to call home. Somewhere you can always return to and shut the door on the rest of the world. Everybody needs that."

"If you don't live there much, then you can't have many real friends either. Not steady ones."

Charlotte couldn't manage to summon up her usual smile. "Fabian, have you got a bioware processor implant?"

His satisfied expression dissolved into perplexity. "No. Of course not. Why?"

"Because you're a very bright boy, that's why."

His grin reappeared. "Really? You really think so?"

"Yes."

"I didn't want to be rude," he said contritely. "I thought—"

"Go on, I don't bite."

"Well, I thought that might be why you decided to come with me, because we were both the same. Neither of us has anybody really close."

She let the water flow back over her, twisting idly.

"Could be."

Charlotte waited for an hour after dinner before she tapped on Fabian's door. The meal had been another exercise in high discomfort; the three of them sitting in the aft dining-room as the twilight faded into night. Jason Whitehurst had asked about New London again. Where she stayed, who she'd met, actually wanting to know which flights she'd used, for Heaven's sake. Even Fabian had begun to shift uncomfortably in his seat.

"Busy?" Charlotte asked.

Fabian shook his head, and backed away from the door. The flatscreen on the wall was showing a Western. His cabin's layout was similar to hers, but personalized, with clothes scattered about, real books piled on the dresser, shoes underfoot. Biolum panels glowed dully, reddish pink embers.

Charlotte closed the door. Fabian gave the impression of wanting to jump on her, and flee at the same time. He stared miserably at his bare feet.

"I wasn't sure if you'd really turn up," he said in a thick voice. "I still think you might be a dream."

Charlotte turned the flatscreen off, deepening the shadows. "Fabian?"

"Yes?"

"Am I really so hard to look at?"

When he lifted his head she gently pushed the lock of hair from his forehead, then put her hands on his cheeks and kissed him. His skin was singularly smooth under her fingers.

She let go, slightly disturbed by the amount of adoration in his gaze. "Before we go any further, I just wanted to thank you."

"Me? What for?"

"For not trying to order me about."

"I wouldn't do that. Honestly."

"Yes. I know." Charlotte showed him a slow enticing smile.

"And now you don't have to." She slipped the straps off her shoulders in an easy motion and let the gown slide to the carpet with a silky rustle. Her self-control nearly cracked at the sight of the outright astonishment on his face as he stared at her breasts. Baronski had said they were big enough not to need enlarging, but she'd taken a hormone course to strengthen the Cooper's ligaments which supported the ductal lobes, keeping them high and firm.

Fabian flipped his hair aside, and scrambled for his shirt buttons, his eyes never leaving her.

"No," she said, and the huskiness of her tone surprised even her. "I'll do that."

She started at his collar, kissing his skin as it was exposed, moving down his chest on to his belly. There were no blemishes, nor spots, it was baby-flesh. She reached his shorts, and pulled them down along with his pants.

Fabian was biting his lower lip, drawing breath in judders when she rose to stand in front of him. She slithered quickly out of her panties.

"Bed," she said, and took him by the hand.

He lay down on the rumpled sheets, an almost fearful expression on his face. Charlotte sat across his hips, her gaze holding his eyes for a long moment, then slowly leant forwards.

It was a strange sensation, to be in bed with someone so inexperienced, having to guide and whisper encouragement. But she discovered a secret miscreant pleasure in being dominant for once, bigger and stronger. It was exciting listening to him whimper as her fingers dug into his hard buttocks, tongue making love to his erection. She let him play with her breasts for a long time.

Then finally he was up between her legs, pumping wildly. It was over quickly, Fabian crying out as he fell on top of her.

She held him until his shaking passed. Kissing his brow as she gently stroked his spine.

"I got it all wrong, didn't I?" he said wretchedly.