“Three?” Rosie snapped, standing from her chair.
“Yes,” Rokai answered. “It’s a personal best,” he confided, using his tongue, his long tongue, to lick the creamy dessert from the insides of the dish it was cooked in.
“You’re a dick,” she spat at him, shoving her chair behind her and stomping quickly away from the table.
Rokai didn’t answer. He shoved all his dishes toward her now vacated place at the table and moved around to her seat. He pulled his plates closer and just barely moved hers out of the way.
By the time she’d made it to the door, Rosie couldn’t help herself. She had to look over her shoulder to see what Rokai was doing. Her eyes met his, and he grinned at her, raising her own drink now held in his hand, in acknowledgment of her before he winked at her and sipped from it.
Rosie growled a little human growl and stomped through the door cursing under her breath.
Rokai smiled and sat the drink down before beginning to eat his meal. He chuckled to himself. This was fun. This female had fire. And no one knew better than himself how much he loved to play with fire.
Rokai sat there, eating his meal, thinking about Rosalita and the look on her face when she’d stormed out of the commissary. He thought about her eating the peach from his hand and licking his fingers clean at breakfast this very morning. Then he thought about her trusting him enough to show him her back in the lift the previous night. He thought about her taste, her scent, the feel of her beneath his hands and his lips. He thought about his need to find her, seek her out and simply assure himself that she was still aboard and near. Rokai sat back in his chair, tossing his serrated spoon onto his plate. “Fuck!” he said to himself. Shaking his head at his own ignorance. He’d driven her away, just like he had the ones he’d not been able to slip away from during the nights he’d taken what he needed from them. But he didn’t want this one to go away. He liked this one. And now she believed that he’d bedded three other women after he left her last night and that she was no more to him than a warm-up session.
Rokai got up and hurried from the commissary, moving so quickly he actually bumped into Gaishon as he rushed through the doorway.
“Whoa! Slow down, is all well?” Gaishon said, looking bright and chipper.
Rokai noticed in passing that Gaishon was wearing a uniform shirt of the personnel of the Cruestaci Warship 1. Rokai glanced down again at the insignia embroidered on the shirt and back up to Gaishon’s face before looking each way up and down the corridor.
“What?” Rokai asked distractedly, still looking up and down the corridor. But he’d waited too long, there was no trace of his Rosalita.
Rokai’s face became a surprised mask. His brows slamming down over his eyes, his eyes rounding comically, his mouth open and his lips parted in shock. His Rosalita. She was his. She was really his.
Rokai stood there, shaking his head disbelievingly.
“What is the problem, Rokai? How can I help?” Gaishon asked.
Instead of answering, Rokai raised his voice and spoke to the space around him. “Missy?”
“Yes, Captain Rokai ahl.”
“What is dick?” he asked.
“On Earth, the term ‘dick’ is used as slang for one’s penis.”
Rokai’s brows furrowed.
“It is also a term used to describe a male who is careless, brazen, rude, arrogant, and intentionally insulting. One who makes every effort to offend any that he is able to offend.”
Rokai stood rooted to the spot, not speaking, just thinking of the information he’d learned.
“Will that be all, Captain?” Missy asked.
“Yes. Thank you, Missy,” he muttered, not really thinking of the fact that he’d thanked Missy as though she was a breathing, sentient being.
“Rokai?” Gaishon prompted.
Rokai turned his attention to Gaishon. “I am a dick,” he said, meeting Gaishon’s amused expression.
“I know that. Everyone who’s ever met you knows that. But what is the problem?” Gaishon asked again.
Rokai’s mind clicked into gear, working overtime as it always did when he was in a bind, looking for any avenue available to him to redeem himself in the eyes of whomever he had to impress in order to achieve his own survival. “I need a ship. Now,” Rokai said.
“Ours has been disabled. There is no way to leave here until Commander Tel Mo’ Kok decides to let us leave,” Gaishon said unnecessarily.
“I know that. Which is why I need another one,” Rokai snapped.
“I’m not sure I’m ready to leave here. I rather like it,” Gaishon confided.
“I’m coming back. But I have to take care of something,” Rokai answered, starting to stride quickly down the corridor with Gaishon following along beside him.
“What could you possibly have to do that would make you willing to sneak away from our confinement while at the same time planning to return?” Gaishon asked.
“I have retribution to deliver,” Rokai said, coming to a stop and looking around himself. “Maybe she went the other way,” he said to himself and began to retrace his steps.
“Who?” Gaishon asked, becoming more and more frustrated with the erratic behavior of his friend.
“My female. I have angered her. She thinks something of me that is not true.”
“What gave her the idea you did something you shouldn’t have?”
“I did,” Rokai answered, before coming to a stop and giving a quick little snarl of his own frustration.
“Why then, would you do that?” Gaishon asked.
“Because I am a dick,” Rokai said with a smile on his face and a slight shrug to his shoulders.
Gaishon had realized the rest of what Rokai had told him. “Your female?!” he nearly shouted. “You have a female? Since when?!”
“Since now,” Rokai answered, glancing back toward Gaishon. “Try to keep up here,” Rokai said, deliberately being somewhat evasive. His brows furrowed again as he took a closer look at Gaishon. “Since when do you dress in the official uniform of the Cruestaci warriors?”
Gaishon looked down at his skin tight, dark-charcoal grey uniform shirt, proudly embroidered with the crest of the nobility of Cruestace. It showed off each well-defined muscle and contour of his slim yet powerful body and small waist. “Since now,” he answered.
“You cannot wear that once we leave here,” Rokai said, a small edge of irritation to his voice.
“But I look good!” Gaishon objected.
“You look like a Cruestaci warrior,” Rokai declared.
“Perhaps I will be,” Gaishon said, his eyes narrowing to dare Rokai to make a joke out of his semi-planned future.
Rokai shook his head. “Do what you wish, Gaishon. Just be aware that you cannot have both the life of a mercenary and the life of a royal warrior. One must be given up.”
“I am aware,” Gaishon answered.
Rokai stopped and looked closely at his friend. “Whatever you choose, I wish you well.”
“Thank you,” Gaishon answered. “We have not parted ways, Rokai. I am still at your side.”
Rokai smiled. “Good, then come along, my Cruestaci-loyal friend. I have need of a new ship — just for a little while,” Rokai said.
<<<<<<<>>>>>>>
Rosie walked the corridors of Warship 1, meandering her way to medical. She’d used almost all the antibiotic creams the healer had given her, and she needed more. Her hands moved in the air above her head as she cursed a certain pale-green alien and his ability to rebound so quickly from her carefully planned expulsion of him from her general vicinity and by default her life.
The doors to medical opened, and she marched through, still soundly cursing Rokai. “Selfish, self-serving, arrogant, pain-in-my-ass, wish I’d never seen you, infuriating green alien bastard! I should strangle him with his own braids! He was not supposed to be okay with me ditching him! He was supposed to miss me, to reach for me! He was supposed to chase me longer!” she proclaimed. “Ar
rrggghhhh!” she growled, her hands in fists at her sides, her arms straight and tensed, her chin lifted as she growled into the air.
Rosie realized she was not alone. Slowly, she turned her head to the side and was greeted by several sets of very large, very shocked, male alien eyes watching her small temper tantrum. “He’s a dick!” she said haughtily. “I hope all three women get pregnant, and he’s got to support them all. Marry them all and have three wives harping on his every move.”
“Very well, then,” Zha Quin answered, bowing ever so slightly to her. “May he be triply blessed and have many children.”
“Blessed isn’t what I’d call it, but okay, whatever you say,” she answered. Rosie looked around the medical waiting room and didn’t see any but the three males seemingly loitering about. “Is the doctor-healer guy around? I need some more antibiotic for my back.”
“I believe he is near the back, hoping that we do not call on him,” Zha Quin said in his own language, waiting patiently for Missy to relay his words to the curvy female before him.
Quin watched curiously when Missy translated his words, but they were not in English. “What language does this human speak?” Zha Quin asked Missy.
“She speaks both English and Spanish. I responded in Spanish because Sirena Vivian told me that their native languages may make them feel more at ease,” Missy answered.
Zha Quin took a step closer to the female. “Do you understand English?” he tried to ask her, in English.
Rosie looked curiously at the huge, red, horned alien before her. “Did you just talk to me in English?” she asked.
Zha Quin nodded.
“Can you say it again, but slower?” she asked.
“Do you understand English?” he said again, paying particular attention to each syllable.
Rosie grinned. “I do! And I understand Spanish, too. I grew up speaking both.”
Zha Quin smiled. He’d been working hard to learn his Ehlealah’s language, so they could speak without a translator. And she’d been working to learn Cruestaci as well. They only rarely needed the translators anymore.
“You’re Vivian’s husband, right? The commander of this ship?” Rosie asked.
Zha Quin drew himself up to his full height, puffed his chest out. “I am Sire Zha Quin Tha Tel Mo’ Kok, Commander of this ship and all the militaries of Cruestace, mate to Sirena Vivi-an Tel Mo’ Kok of Cruestace and Earth. How may I be of service?” he asked, performing another little bow.
Rosie nodded, the expression on her face said she was impressed. “I just wanted some more antibiotic cream from that idiot healer.”
Chapter 17
“Healer!” Zha Quin bellowed.
Only seconds later a very flustered healer hurried up the hallway toward them.
“Yes, Sire. How may I be of service?” he asked.
“You may provide this female with the same medicines she was given on her last visit.”
“Yes, Sire,” the healer answered and quickly gathered what she needed from an empty exam room to their right. As he handed them to her, he asked her questions. “Has your back healed any further? Do you need additional treatment?” he asked.
“It doesn’t hurt quite as much. I can tell it’s better, but not yet healed,” Rosie answered, gratefully taking the packages of creams from him.
“Very well. If you decide you’d like more precise treatment, do not hesitate to come to me.”
“Yeah, don’t bet on that happening. I’ve had enough of the males of your kind,” she responded. Then she realized Zha Quin and several of his friends still stood off to her left. She looked to him quickly. “I didn’t mean any offense. I’m just a little put out with one of ya’ll. Male has no clue how to deal with a woman,” she said, shaking her head.
“Really? And which male is that?” Asl, unable to contain his curiosity asked.
“Rokai. He is the most arrogant, most insensitive, most infuriating male I’ve ever met, here, there or anywhere!” she finished on a near shout.
Zha Quin raised an eyebrow. “Has he… dishonored you in any way?”
“No! I turned him down!” Rosie said.
“Sounds like you’re a little angry he didn’t keep focused on you,” Vivian said, walking slowly with Ada Jane leaning heavily on her. Ada Jane was a big girl. She wasn’t fat by any means, but she was tall and built more solidly than Vivian was. And Vivian being smaller just made Ada Jane seem all that much larger.
“Who, me?! No way I wanted any type of attention from his kind,” Rosie answered.
Vivian stopped walking so that Kol could help steady Ada Jane on the other side. Vivian spoke softly to Ada Jane. “Remember what I told you about Blue-Dude. It’s okay. Stay calm, he’s going to help me get you to my home, so you can take a bath.”
Ada Jane watched Kol anxiously as he very, very slowly reached out to put an arm around her waist and shift her weight to himself.
The moment Ada Jane’s weight was against Kol, Vivian looked up at Rosie. “And what kind is that?” Vivian asked.
“He’s a player,” Rosie said simply.
Vivian nodded. “I can see that,” Vivian answered. “Rosie, I mean this with the utmost respect, but are you sure you want nothing to do with him? You seem more than a little put out. And if what you were saying when you first came in to medical was about Rokai… it sounded like you were irritated he moved on so quickly.”
Rosie looked at Vivian with a fire in her eyes. She was wanting to blast the petite brunette for saying such things. But she couldn’t. Vivian was right. And she was the princess of the damned ship they were all on. Maybe even a freaking planet for all she knew. Instead she lifted her chin. “I got mine. That’s all I know. The rest is on him.”
Vivian smiled. “Ohhh, so who’s the player now?”
“Hey, I don’t owe nobody nothin’. I appreciate all you’ve done for me, but I don’t take nothing I don’t deserve. He tried to play me, I played him instead,” Rosie said.
Then Rosie remembered the dagger she wore. She reached down to where the dagger was tucked into her waistband. She pulled it free and offered it to Zahn who stood beside the Commander and the other warrior who’d moved closer to Vivian.
“Here, I think this is yours,” Rosie said, offering the dagger back to him.
Zahn looked at the dagger she was offering him and shook his head. “It’s yours, female. Wear it with pride.”
Rosie shared a look with the warrior for a moment longer, then nodded. “Thank you.”
“You are most welcome,” Zahn answered.
Rosie looked down at her left hand, now holding multiple packages of antibiotic creams against her chest. “Thank you for this,” she said, looking around at the healer, the commander and finally at Vivian.
“You’re welcome. Is there anything else that I can get for you?” Vivian offered.
“No, thanks. I’m good.” Rosie turned to leave medical, and Vivian’s voice stopped her.
“You know, he’s not a bad male. He’s just so lost. He’s lived his entire life feeling like he wasn’t enough. He’s made a practice out of pushing everyone away before they can throw him away. If you care about him — and I’m not saying you do, but if you do — you may want to take a more obvious approach. He doesn’t do innuendo well. You either want him or you don’t, I’m guessing is the way he’ll read it.”
Rosie hadn’t turned around, but had stopped to listen to what Vivian had to say.
“How do you know this? You know him well?” Rosie asked.
“Not really. I just kinda got the feeling that he just needed a hug. Then he came up to me all blustery, and I hugged him, and he was so taken off guard, he didn’t know how to react. He needs acceptance. He needs love,” Vivian answered.
“He said he’s infamous — a criminal,” Rosie said.
“Maybe. But even the worst of us need a place to feel safe and loved,” Vivian said.
“He is a criminal,” Zha Quin added to the conversation. “But n
ot in the way you think. He has broken laws, he has been convicted of smuggling, and he has killed — but only when necessary. And he is a thief, and some say, a mercenary. But the majority of what he’s stolen has been slaves. He returned them to their homelands.”
“He does steal money and valuables, too,” Kol added.
“Well, he’s got to fund his freedom runs somehow,” Vivian said, smiling.
Ada Jane whimpered a little.
Kol looked down at her, trying to hold herself strong while they selfishly talked. Kol swung her up into his arms as though she weighed no more than a little kitten. “Rest easy, my little one, I have you,” Kol said assuringly.
Ada Jane gasped as she found herself swept off her feet, literally. She pushed against Kol’s chest to keep some distance and looked nervously for a way to get him to put her down.
“I can walk,” she insisted, still pushing against Kol’s chest. “I’m too big, I’ll hurt your back,” she said as a way to get him to put her down.
“That makes no sense. You are much smaller than I. Please allow me to carry you. There is no reason to push yourself. I will place you safely on your feet when we reach Vivian’s home and wait for you outside so that I may then take you wherever you wish to be. I will not harm you in any way. You will never, NEVER again endure anything you do not wish for. This I vow,” Kol promised.
Ada watched the big blue male that held her close to him and vowed so sincerely to keep her from harm. Then her eyes wandered over to Vivian’s.
“You’re completely safe. He’s just keeping you from having to walk all the way to my home. It’s a ways from here,” Vivian said.
Ada looked from Vivian to Kol, then back again. Finally, she nodded.
Vivian led the way, walking past the healer, her own guard, Quin, and paused slightly beside Rosie. “If you are indeed involved with Rokai, the only thing I know for sure is he has no clue how to do this. You’re going to have to take the lead. If not, then please forgive me for assuming you are.” Vivian offered Rosie a genuine smile, and Rosie smiled back, neither confirming or denying Vivian’s assumption that she was involved with Rokai.
Haven 2: Redemption Page 13
