by Layla Nash
“Are you not?” His head tilted and the dark hair fell across his forehead, almost obscuring those intense eyes. “Why are you running away, then?”
Gemma bumped into the engineer’s panel, surprised by its proximity when she knew it had been on the other side of the room. Until she started backing up from Wyzak’s stalking approach. She cleared her throat and searched for some of that rage that had sustained her. He was trying to control her, dragging her off her ship because he thought it was too dangerous, dictating who she could talk to among the crew. “I’m not running away.”
The corners of his mouth quirked up and he paused where he was, just out of arm’s reach. “Then come here.”
“I have no reason to.” Gemma folded her arms over her chest and refused to react when his gaze dropped to her breasts, unfortunately supported and pushed out by her posture. “I need to speak with Violet. So whatever game you’re playing will have to wait.”
Wyzak’s lips parted and he breathed deeply through his mouth, eyes half-lidded, and he gave her a knowing look. “Are you sure you don’t want to play the game a little? Your heart is beating very fast and you smell... delicious.”
The rest of her caught fire. She had to clear her throat a few times so her voice didn’t come out husky and inviting, even though part of her imagined a quick makeout session there in the loading bay. There was plenty of room, plenty of random pieces of equipment they could lean against or lie on or use in some creative fashion. But Gemma knew it wouldn’t stop at making out, and Violet’s warning to break things off cleanly if she didn’t want to stay on the ship echoed in her mind.
It was better for everyone if she walked away.
If Wyzak let her, which seemed less and less likely.
Gemma turned her fiercest look on the Xaravian and hardened her heart. “I have too much planning to do, and Violet wanted to discuss what we’re going to do on Proxima. If you want to save your crew from the Tyboli, we can’t waste time—”
“It would not be a waste.” He smiled, his teeth rather pointy, and Gemma’s knees weakened. She didn’t remember him smiling before; it didn’t quite fit his face, but she figured with practice it would make him desperately handsome.
She almost gave in. She was a heartbeat away from tilting her head back so he could start sucking on her neck when heavy footsteps sounded in the corridor. Whoever approached gave them plenty of warning, talking loudly and stomping against the metal floor to signal their arrival. Gemma’s real hand trembled as she held both arms behind her back, grateful that Wyzak retreated a few steps and gave her some breathing room. Her cheeks still burned and she panted like she’d sprinted across an entire spaceport, but at least he wasn’t looming over her.
Faros sauntered into the large bay, dark eyebrows arched and a smirk on his face. “Everyone have their clothes on? I didn’t hear anything like a haugmawt squealing, so we figured it was safe to enter.”
Wyzak’s expression darkened as his captain grinned and showed all his teeth, though Gemma relaxed somewhat when Violet appeared on his heels. The other Earther rolled her eyes and kept her attention on Gemma. “Nokx said you had a chance to check out the ship. He thinks he can make it navigable, but are you willing to fly it to Proxima?”
“Yes,” Gemma said, just as Wyzak growled, “No.”
She refused to look at him. He didn’t get a vote. It was her ship, her life, her future. Unless he was willing to offer a hell of an alternative, she was going to Proxima. Gemma swayed with the sudden realization that she would stay if he asked. And if he stopped being such a dickhead about controlling everything.
She ignored the raised eyebrows from Violet and focused on the argument at hand. “The sooner we can repair the ship and get to Proxima, the better. Too much time has passed since Milo and I took Wyzak off the other spaceport. Word will have gotten around with a bounty that big. They’ll be looking for us to show up and flaunt the money, or bargain for a larger ship and a crew. The longer that doesn’t happen, the more they’ll be looking for problems.”
Violet ignored Faros as the captain and Wyzak argued off to the side, Wyzak apparently trying to convince Faros to forbid the women from doing something. It was a good sign that Violet just ignored him, since it was clear she managed Faros’s overprotective drive by simply doing what she wanted anyway. Maybe that approach would work on Wyzak.
Gemma shook herself and blocked that train of thought. It didn’t matter. She wasn’t staying. She didn’t have to worry about managing Wyzak’s anything. Even though he looked damn fine as he scowled and flexed in response to whatever awful, inappropriate thing the pirate captain said. Gemma cleared her throat and tried to focus on Violet, though she didn’t like the hint of a smile on the other Earther’s face.
Violet didn’t comment, thank Curie, but instead tapped her chin thoughtfully. “Will they expect your deceased partner to still be onboard, or would you have jettisoned him? We can do either, but it would be best to meet their expectations.”
“What?” A faint roaring filled Gemma’s ears. She couldn’t mean... “I thought Milo was gone. Laid to rest or sent to the stars or something. Is he… Did you keep him?”
“Well, yes. Wyzak brought both of you back here after the ship was damaged. You didn’t want to leave your partner, so Wyzak brought him onboard.” Violet glanced at where the Xaravians growled at each other, the volume and irritation rapidly increasing, then back at Gemma. “I wasn’t sure what tradition he followed, so I told the crew to store your partner until you had a chance to decide on rites. We can certainly send him on his way, if you prefer, although it might be more believable if he’s still on board your ship.”
Gemma couldn’t breathe. She held out a hand and tried to catch the engineer’s station so she could stay upright. “I... need to sit down for a moment.”
Milo wasn’t gone. Well, he was dead, but he was still on the Sraibur. She could still say goodbye.
When she wobbled, the fight on the other side of the bay silenced immediately and suddenly Wyzak was there. All of his lustful glances and hard edges disappeared into concern as he held her up. “What’s wrong?”
Gemma didn’t know what to say. He’d brought Milo onto the ship because she didn’t want to leave her partner. The chaos of the last moments on the Memphis had blurred into total confusion, but she remembered flashes of activity like stop-motion frames in one of the old movies her grandparents watched. Wyzak fighting off the Tyboli. Wyzak running down the corridor, standing over her as she tried to help Milo. Wyzak picking her up and ordering another pirate to carry Milo. Him leading the way through the smoke and alarms toward safety and the Sraibur.
Her throat constricted. He hadn’t even known her—except that she drugged him and kidnapped him—and he’d still gone out of his way to do a kindness for her. Gemma remained stiff and uncomfortable in his half-embrace, acutely aware that Violet and Faros both observed what felt like a very private moment, and tried to order her thoughts. “I didn’t realize Milo was still onboard. I thought he would have been…sent onward.”
Wyzak’s expression remained puzzled. “You did not indicate you were prepared for his departure, so he is still here. Why would we have disposed of him without your knowledge?”
She winced at how he referred to the burial in space, but couldn’t hold it against him too much; most species weren’t particularly sentimental about how they dealt with deceased crew while in deep space, but Earthers still held with some traditions. Gemma searched for an appropriate response, some way to acknowledge that his kindness was both unexpected and appreciated. “I didn’t think you’d want a body on your ship for longer than necessary.”
“It’s my ship,” Faros said under his breath, scowling as Violet elbowed him. “And I don’t want a dead Earther on my ship for any longer than necessary. How about you decide on disposition of the body quickly, preferably before we need to leave you on Proxima?”
Wyzak tensed next to her, no doubt wanting to argue about
the plan to leave her on the spaceport, but Gemma didn’t entirely mind the feeling of his arm wrapped around her side. “Yeah, I’ll say goodbye and…and say a few words, and then you can…send him on his way.”
“Good,” Faros said under his breath. He checked his comms unit and looked around the loading bay, his expression sour. “Why aren’t we at dinner? Unbelievable.” He caught Violet’s hand and muttered under his breath, trying to lead her back out of the bay, but she didn’t budge.
The other Earther looked at Gemma with a bit of sympathy around her eyes. “The medic can prepare your partner and we’ll bring the ship in range of a star. That will take some time. Let’s eat and toast your partner, and revisit the plan. Then we’ll hold the rites.”
Gemma nodded, since Violet’s suggestion meant she didn’t have to think of what to do next. Gemma’s chest ached. Maybe she’d seriously misjudged Wyzak. He went to some trouble to help her, even as her ship fell apart around them. He could have simply returned to the Sraibur and left her to deal with what remained of the Memphis and Milo, or he could have just taken her as a prize of boarding her ship and left Milo behind. Instead, he’d brought her partner and her ship along, despite that both made his life more difficult.
She exhaled as Faros dragged Violet into the corridor and back toward the room where they’d all eaten before, but Wyzak didn’t immediately follow. He waited, for once patient and calm. He even stroked her hair. Gemma slowly relaxed against his side, taking shelter in his embrace, and searched for the right words to convey her appreciation. It didn’t completely make up for all the possessive bullshit and ordering her around, but it helped. It definitely helped.
“Thank you,” she said quietly. They were the only words she could choke out before her throat burned and she didn’t trust herself to go on.
Wyzak grumbled and held her closer against his chest, tucking her head against his shoulder, and leaned down to kiss her forehead, her cheek, the line of her jaw. “For what?”
She took a deep breath, searching for an answer. It wasn’t just that he’d dragged Milo’s body onto the Sraibur. He’d listened to her, even when he didn’t have to and no one would have blamed him for ignoring her. “For knowing what was important to me, even if I…didn’t say it.”
His other arm tightened around her and Gemma found herself enveloped in a full-body hug. The Xaravian buried his nose in her hair and inhaled until his chest expanded against her. “You are welcome. I would do it again. I would do…anything that is important to you.”
She stilled, uncertain, and waited for him to take the words back. To rephrase. To deny it or make a joke or…something. Anything to take it back. He didn’t mean he’d do anything that was important to her. He couldn’t. She waited, and though Wyzak kept breathing, he didn’t add anything to his statement. There was no caveat.
Gemma squeezed her eyes shut and shook her head against the warm, somewhat rough fabric of his robes. “You don’t mean that. There’s no reason for you to think—”
“I know my own mind,” he said, arms tightening in a brief squeeze that made her ribs creak in protest. “I mean what I say, Earther. If something is important to you, I will do anything in my power to give it to you.”
She pressed her face against his shoulder, whispering, “Why?”
She needed to know. She desperately needed to know. It felt like she was losing her mind. They’d only known each other a standard week, maybe less. Their relationship started in deception and resentment. Why did he feel like that? Why did he want her, as broken and monstrous as she was?
Wyzak’s head bent and his lips trailed against the side of her neck, up to the soft spot behind her ear that made Gemma go up on her toes so he could reach more of it. His words tickled her skin and sent a thrill through her, all the way to her toes. “Because you are mine, and I am yours, and that is how a mate behaves.”
You are mine and I am yours.
She couldn’t breathe. She definitely couldn’t breathe. Her hands tightened into fists at her sides; despite leaning against him, she hadn’t hugged him back. Couldn’t make herself wedge her mech arm against his side and remind him that not all of her was as soft and pleasing as he’d seemed to think earlier. He didn’t fully understand what she was, that was clear enough. He wouldn’t want her if he really knew.
Gemma shook her head against his shoulder in mute denial, and Wyzak’s hand moved to squeeze the back of her neck, cradling her head with a gentleness she hadn’t expected. His gruff voice made her knees weaken. “It is not the way with Earthers, or so I have been told. But it is the way on Xarav—you are mine and I am yours. Together we are stronger than we are apart. I have been waiting a long time to find you, Gemma of Earth.”
She didn’t know what to say to that. It was the oddest and sweetest thing someone had ever said to her.
They stayed there like that for some time, although she couldn’t have said for how long. When she eventually straightened and leaned away from him, Wyzak hesitated before releasing her. His arms slipped away, as though he didn’t want to stop touching her, and his hand slid down her elbow to encircle her wrist. Gemma looked up at him, pondering the unexpected turn of events, and finally turned her attention to the door behind him. “We should... meet them. Eat. Figure out what to do about…everything.”
Wyzak grumbled but nodded, moving slowly and carefully to shepherd her into the corridor. He acted as if she were fragile, made of glass and likely to shatter if mishandled. It was quite a change from earlier in the day when they’d bounced around a boxing ring and then struggled across his bed. He hadn’t minded using his strength to position her exactly how he wanted, nor to lift her up and impale her roughly... She blinked rapidly and dragged her attention back to the present before her thoughts descended too far into lust.
His hands on her waist didn’t help matters, since he seemed incapable of not touching her as they maneuvered down the almost-too-narrow corridor. Wyzak had turned from an irritated, overbearing pain in her ass to a solicitous, considerate shelter. A safe haven, maybe, if she gave him the chance to be.
Maybe that was why Violet put up with Faros and the typical Xaravian behavior. Maybe their positives outweighed the irritation.
Maybe.
Gemma held her breath just a bit as Wyzak opened the door to the dining room and checked the occupants before nudging her inside, and she fought the urge to roll her eyes. Who the hell did he expect to be in there? It wasn’t like the Tyboli or a herd of Slasu had boarded the ship and taken over the dining room while they were hugging in the loading bay. But she swallowed the snide remark back as Wyzak’s hand touched the small of her back and guided her to an empty chair.
She tried to relax into it, to let that new aspect of Wyzak surround her and maybe make life a little easier, and braced for the disappointment that would no doubt come.
Chapter 28
Wyzak
Wyzak had been ready to brawl with Faros after the captain interrupted his moment alone with Gemma, particularly since her expression softened and her body swayed toward him in anticipation. Then Violet mentioned that Gemma’s former partner was still on the ship and everything changed. Gemma turned shades of gray-white—which he knew was not a color that Earthers were supposed to have—and swayed like she would collapse entirely.
His anger disappeared, consumed with concern for her, and Wyzak found himself across the loading bay as if teleported. He held her and felt the wild thrumming of her single heart against his arm, and wondered how such a fragile species had survived to travel through space. A single heart... imagine.
He was still distracted by thoughts of her oddly wondrous anatomy—although not particularly her heart—as they made it to the dining room and she sank into the seat he chose for her. Wyzak sat next to her and draped his arm along the back of her chair, wanting her entirely in his lap.
Violet and Faros were already there and had the table laden with food; none of the other crew joined them, even Harzt, and
Wyzak’s suspicions arose. Some other plot was afoot. Faros wasn’t the sort to come up with devious plans, so that left Violet as the conspirator. The only question was whether Gemma knew about it. And what the point was.
If Violet conspired to keep Gemma on the Sraibur, then Wyzak was wholly onboard. If not... he would have choice words with Faros and the captain’s mate about meddling in the affairs of others.
He dragged his attention back to the meal as Faros handed him a platter of meat and it was Wyzak’s turn to feed Gemma. He filled her plate absently, picking only the choicest bits, and listened with half his attention as Violet asked about Gemma’s dead partner. Wyzak tried not to bristle with irritation. His opinion of the dead Earther was only slightly higher than the Tyboli who’d double-crossed her and attacked her ship.
Gemma sighed as she leaned back in the chair, her shoulders resting against his arm, and toyed with the fork next to her plate. “We met years ago on a different crew. The captain liked using me for bait because he could hide my arm and then use it to force the bounty to surrender, or at least distract the bounty until the rest of the crew showed up. The captain never shared the bounty out equally, though. I only got a fraction of what I earned. Eventually I saved up enough to buy my way free of the contract, and Milo had the idea to get our own ship.”
Violet made a thoughtful noise, her gaze sliding to Wyzak and then away. “How successful were you? With just the two of you, it seems like a risky proposition.”
Gemma went on, picking at the food on her plate, and Wyzak sat back to listen. She talked about various bounties they’d chased together, sharing some funny stories, and periodically her voice caught or she paused. He leaned closer when she struggled, and gave her more room when her voice picked up and hints of laughter crept in.
