[Innerworld 03] • Gallant

Cherry Cochran, a feisty Terran actress in Innerworld, witnesses the murder of an intergalactic trader. When Gallant Voyager, an agent for the Consociation, sees the victim speak his final words to Cherry, he kidnaps her "for her own protection".

Gallant needs his prisoner's cooperation to discover why the trader was permanently silenced. But he has no idea how much trouble he's brought aboard his ship. While tracking the killer to a distant galaxy, his verbal battles with Cherry turn physical as primitive passions burn away their differences.

Then Cherry discovers Gallant's truth: he is slave to the barbaric alien behind the murder, and a double-cross is in the works.

With her own life in danger, Cherry faces a choice: put on the performance of her life to escape the captor she's come to love and warn the Consociation of impending invasion or rely on a suspicious offer of help from one of the barbarians to save her lover.