The Renegades' Reward

by Maddie Taylor

  Sighing over yet another interruption, he rested his forehead against hers, but said in a low tone to Jaylin. “Someone should go up top.”

  “Because we’re stopping?” Dani asked.

  He sat back, searching her face, relieved to see her distress had been replaced with curiosity. “We have to replenish the backup fuel we used with the cold shields when we evaded the pursuing ship.”

  “Do they have more than fuel?” she inquired further.

  Jaylin chuckled while he lifted her off him, and they all rose to their feet. “Yes, and you’re in for a treat if you like to shop. Would you like to get something else to wear?”

  “Could I?” She looked between them, her features bright with anticipation.

  Although still raw from the experience, Malik got caught up in her excitement and smiled.

  “Of course, or I wouldn’t have mentioned it.” Grinning, Jaylin tapped her on the nose. “Malik will take you.”

  “What?” The prospect of a shopping expedition with a female who had only a tunic and tights to her name seemed suddenly daunting.

  It’s your penance for not listening to me and being a stubborn ass for almost a week, came Jaylin’s response in his mind. He clapped him hard on the shoulder. How you held out when I caved on day two, I’ll never know.

  He sighed. “Get dressed, Dani. I will be honored to spoil you rotten.”

  She laughed with delight, stood on her toes, and kissed the underside of his chin. Next, she gave Jaylin a hug and a kiss on his jaw. Then she whirled and dashed to the bathroom.

  “New clothes!” she exclaimed. “No offense... Your facsimulator may do the job in a pinch, but purple on gray is getting old.”

  When the door closed behind her, Malik stared at where she had been. Jaylin had moved to pick up his trousers.

  “She is our third,” he murmured, as if he still couldn’t believe it.

  “Yes, which I told you from day one.”

  “Don’t rub it in.”

  “I was ready to pummel it in, brother.”

  He turned. “And don’t sound so smug. We have a problem.”

  “What’s that? She’s happy. As you should be, after getting some for the first time in five years. You’d have had to lock me up.”

  “Jay—”

  “And I’m damned thrilled I don’t have to go shopping.” He grinned while buttoning his shirt. “I’ll gladly deal with the fuel.”

  “You’re forgetting something.”

  “What?”

  “You’ve got her convinced I’m a cyborg.” His twin’s golden skin muted as his head came up. “Yeah, you’re in for a freeze out I think. I’ll enjoy watching you squirm your way out of this one.”

  He closed his eyes when he uttered, “Fuck me.”

  Malik found this ironic and chuckled. “That’s what you’ll be begging Dani to do when she finds out. While things are frigid in space, a bed with a pissed-off woman can reach absolute zero.”

  “You’re hilarious, Mal. And don’t think you’re off the hook and will be cozying up while I can’t. You did nothing to dispel her misperception.”

  The truth in his observation sobered him. To get in after so long without, only to be shut down for Jaylin’s stupid slip, the prospect was maddening. “Damn your asinine automaton comment.”

  “Yeah, but your silences and sour faces did the convincing. Why didn’t you explain?”

  “I thought it would be easier to keep her at arm’s length as a cyborg.”

  “It seems we both might be frozen out.”

  Malik’s emphatic, “Shit,” was uttered right as Dani walked back in.

  “What’s wrong now?” she asked. “I’ve never heard you swear before.”

  “Approaching destination,” the computerized voice announced.

  “I’ll deal with docking the Renegade,” Jaylin announced. “You explain.”

  “The hell I will,” he shot back.

  “Explain what?” she inquired, looking back and forth between them.

  Jaylin spoke over her head, addressing him when he replied, “Then we’ll both deal with it later.”

  Brimming with impatience, Dani demanded to know, “Deal with what?”

  His brother shook his head and grabbed her hand. “We don’t have time to get into it now. We need to dock.” He towed her toward the door. “And while Malik gets dressed and prepares for your shopping spree, you’ll come upstairs and strap in, just in case.”

  “But you’ll explain this deal?”

  “When you get back.”

  “Okay,” she said more agreeably. “I’ll let you work while I stay quiet as a mouse.”

  “No need, sweetness. This I could do in my sleep.”

  You’re stalling, brother. Malik had to broadcast this to his departing back.

  I know.

  You must tell her, he insisted.

  I will in the morning.

  Why morning?

  Jaylin stopped, glancing his way, seeming more determined than concerned over the outcome. Because I plan for the three of us to spend tonight in the captain’s bed.

  Big enough to accommodate four, Malik had wondered why Jaylin hadn’t introduced Dani to it before now. While hers slept two comfortably, in his brother’s huge bed, they could spread out, roll around, get adventurous. His body stirred as he imagined the possibilities.

  And that’s why I saved it until you got your head out of your ass.

  He glared at his twin.

  “Excuse me, but you’re doing the thing again,” Dani announced. “Is Malik programmed for silent communication mode or something?”

  He stiffened, then his head snapped around, and he looked down at her, wanting to shout he wasn’t a damn cyborg. Except this was Jaylin’s hole to dig out of. He rolled his lips inward to keep silent. Dani’s essence still lingered, deliciously sweet, very much like the succulent pershada berries back home. His tension faded away as his twin’s unusual nickname for her suddenly made sense.

  His cock hardened, ready for more of her, despite having spent himself minutes ago. Malik’s thoughts echoed Jaylin’s from earlier, although unlike his brother, his were groaned in his head. Fuck me!

  “Arriving at destination in five minutes,” the computer announced. “Incoming communication requesting identification.”

  “Let’s go,” Jaylin said while pulling her with him to the door.

  “Can ‘later’ include an explanation of this weird head thing you two have going on ’cause it’s freaking me out.”

  “Pershada, what happened to the quiet mouse?”

  “We’re not on the bridge yet!”

  He stopped and curled her into his chest. “Shall I make you hush in another way?”

  “Arrival in four minutes. Prepare for impact.”

  “Impact!” Dani echoed in alarm. “Shouldn’t you do something about that? Like now?”

  “Yes, except you keep interrupting me.”

  “Squeak, squeak,” she muttered, gesturing as if she’d locked her lips and tossed away the key. It didn’t work because she added, “Now, can you stop the Renegade from plowing into the spaceport, please?”

  Malik chuckled. As Jaylin had claimed, she was cute as can be.

  His brother grinned, too, but did so while crossing to the communication panel on the wall. He opened it, switched on the audio command, and gave his orders. “Slow to impulse speed. Provide ship identification and request docking slip coordinates.”

  The computer immediately responded. “Initiating slow down. Request for docking coordinates sent.”

  “You could have told me it was so simple,” Dani muttered, her brow wrinkled and her mouth in a pretty pout.

  Jaylin bent and caught it in a hard, quick kiss, before he advised, “Or, you could trust your captain to know what he’s doing.”

  “I could, and I do.”

  His head jerked back in surprise. “Then why are you baiting rather than obeying me?”

  She glanced at Mali
k and winked. “Because baiting you is more fun.”

  Jaylin’s jaw dropped. “You’re teasing me, on purpose?”

  “Absolutely. Like you do to me.”

  Watching them and listening to their banter, he smiled. “In you, Dani, our captain may have met his match.”

  Her soft laughter filled the room. His brother merely grunted as he moved to the door, their adorable redhead following behind because, with her hand in Jaylin’s bigger and stronger one, she had no other choice.

  “After we dock, I think we’ll to discuss your teasing me further, perhaps with you draped over my knee.”

  “What? Wait?” She dug in her heels, resisting, although not too aggressively. “I thought Malik carried out the discipline.”

  Jaylin’s grin reappeared, wolfish in appearance, his tone husky with intent when he replied, “Who said anything about discipline?”

  She blinked in surprise. “But we arrive in three minutes.”

  “True, it doesn’t mean we have to disembark right away.”

  He watched as she bit her lip, cheeks flushed, eyes bright, clearly torn between two tempting pleasures. Next, she said in the most conflicted voice he’d ever heard, “But, Jaylin, there’s shopping to do.”

  Their third was a delight, and Malik felt more lighthearted than he had in years. He laughed, not just a chuckle, rather, a full-throated, head-tossing, belly laugh that brought tears to his eyes. Jaylin gaped at him, obviously in shock after not hearing the sound from him in years. His dumbfounded expression made him laugh harder, until he bent double.

  When this went on for a while, she became concerned. “Is he all right?”

  Jaylin, who had recovered by now, gathered her into his arms and hugged her, lifting her off her feet as he buried his face in her hair. When he answered her question several moments later, his voice was gruff with emotion. “He’s going to be, Dani. Thanks to you.”

  Chapter Eleven

  All did not go as expected with the docking. Word had not gotten out the Renegade had been deeded back to the rightful owners, and security had demanded to board as soon as the mooring arms had snapped onto the hull, and the oxygenated hangar had sealed around the airlock. Jaylin, displeased by the questioning and the delays, dealt with the extra paperwork, and subsequent refueling, while Malik escorted Dani into the spaceport and out into the shopping hub.

  Dani’s shyness had reemerged—never having expected to take on two lovers at once, let alone aliens, and never one who was half man, half machine. Thinking about what she’d done to them, and what Jaylin and Malik had done to her in return made her blush and her heart stutter in rhythm. It also tested her morals forged by years of conservative private tutors and the practically puritanical all-girls college her father had decreed she attend. Not that Daniel Alltryp was the pillar of decency and decorum. Far from it, with a different woman on his arm every time the media photographed him, but he had a different set of standards for his only daughter.

  To the world, he seemed doting and concerned; Dani knew better. She put it aside, however, as she took in the spectacle before her.

  The spaceport’s cavernous central hub consisted of multiple levels, some offered services ranging from a hair salon to a medical clinic, but most were exclusively for shopping. While any woman’s nirvana, it was every man’s nightmare. Malik, in an easygoing mood for a change, took it all in stride. The reason behind his current disposition not escaping her, it was also the cause of her cheeks heating every time she came close to meeting his eyes.

  “You’re going to set fire to the oxygen inlets with your blushes,” he teased when her gaze darted away from his for the umpteenth time. “You have nothing to be embarrassed about.” His hand tipped up her chin, giving her a light, yet tantalizing kiss—their first, if she didn’t include the searing kisses he’d laid on her body, or she on his. The memory made her flush even more furiously, and he laughed softly. “More exposure to what we shared will take care of the problem.”

  “Sounds like a technique I learned in a psychology class.”

  “You studied psychology?” he asked, while leading her out into the flow of traffic circling the first ring of shops.

  “A required class among others intended to make me a well-rounded student. My major, however, was art history.”

  He nodded, his attention divided between her and the patrons—aliens of every size, color, and skeletal structure, most beyond her wildest imagination. She couldn’t keep from eyeing one tall, thin purple creature, who stood taller than Malik. It had large dark eyes, in an oversized head, and not a hair in sight. The oddest thing about her—she couldn’t be sure of its gender, female being simply a hunch—was she lacked lips or anything resembling a mouth.

  The strangely beautiful creature glanced at the tall man beside her, who nodded as if agreeing to something she’d asked. Before she could inquire about this exchange, Dani heard a soft, feminine voice in her head. “Greetings, Earthling, your mate is very attractive. I applaud your choice.”

  She stopped dead in her tracks, her jaw slack, staring rudely at the being as she passed. Dani clutched the strong arm she held even tighter. “I think that alien woman just spoke to me without— No, I must be mistaken!”

  “You aren’t wrong. She is Artruvian; they are telepathic. They used to have mouths, many millennia ago, but preferred not to speak. Evolution took care of it.”

  “Wow.”

  “Indeed. Makes me want to use all of my parts so nothing falls off.”

  She grinned, thrilled by his spark of humor. “Such a cool superpower,” she whispered, drawing an odd look from Malik. “Except how do they eat?”

  “By osmotic absorption of nutrients. It sounds unpleasant, but they live nearly two hundred years and are the healthiest species I know. They are obviously on the right path. Me, I’d miss chewing, and the flavor of foods. Like a grilled steak, or the delicious milk chocolate produced on your planet.”

  “No chocolate!” she gasped. “Why, that’s a crime against nature.”

  His grin transformed his handsome face to gorgeous. “I couldn’t agree more.”

  She twisted, looking after the creature while repeating “Wow!” still incredulous. When she did, she learned the Artruvian wasn’t the oddest alien in the vicinity, case in point the green lizard-like creature with antennae who passed.

  “You’re staring, sweetheart.” Malik put a finger beneath her chin and closed her mouth for her. When he took it away, it gaped right back open. She couldn’t help it.

  He shook his head, though his golden eyes gleamed with amusement. “There is a shop with Earth clothing on the other side of the pod. Let’s go there before you insult someone with your gawking.”

  She followed where he led, glancing over her shoulder for one more look at the strange lizard man, a being straight out of sci-fi books from her youth.

  “So, Dani,” Malik said, also squeezing her fingers to capture her attention. “The study of ancient works—paintings and sculptures, and such—was it your calling?”

  “Hardly,” she said with a huff. “I wanted to go into medicine.”

  Surprise registered on his face before he asked, “Why didn’t you?”

  “Becoming a physician wasn’t on the Daniel Alltryp approved list of careers for a mere woman.”

  His dark brows snapped together in an infuriated frown. “Your father is a real piece of work.”

  Her head tilted his way, eyes big, then she laughed.

  “What’s funny?”

  “The way you and Jaylin toss around Earth slang, curses, and phrases, I forget you’re from another world, sometimes.”

  “We have worked closely with your kind for years. I suppose we’ve picked up a saying here and there.”

  “By osmotic absorption?” she asked.

  His expression softened as he grinned, his handsome face becoming more so when he smiled.

  “You need to do more of that.”

  “What? Learn more Earth phra
ses?”

  “No, smile.”

  Pausing at the door to the shop, he clasped her hand more firmly. “With you around, I believe I’ll have reason to.”

  Her heart melted, and she marveled over having such strong feelings for a man, who really wasn’t.

  “Come on,” he said. “We need to get a move on. Jaylin doesn’t like to be kept waiting.”

  “And we wouldn’t want to upset the big, bad alpha captain.”

  “You’re learning,” he observed, with some amusement. “Although most often his bark is much worse than his bite—which is another Earth expression, I know. Jaylin can be intense, but has reason to be while on a mission. He’ll do whatever is in his power to keep you safe.” His suddenly serious gaze caught and held hers. “As will I, Dani. Don’t think because I’m a second, I won’t bark like the captain when the situation warrants. And, you learned firsthand, I can also bite. Now, let’s hurry and buy what you need. After this, we’ll need to restock our fresh food and get a few other provisions.”

  Malik stood guard while she made her selections. The store, she was pleased to see, had a little of everything. She picked out two tops, a pair of loose-fitting wide-leg pants—which were a new style back on Earth—a comfortable dress, and even found a pair of vintage Levi’s, something she practically lived in while in college. Also available necessities like makeup, a hairbrush, and hair bands. When she came to the lingerie section and was sorting through a table of bras with matching panties, Malik pulled the pretty pink satin-and-lace pair from her fingers and tossed them back on the table.

  “Hey!”

  “You won’t be needing those, and we need to get back.”

  “But I don’t have any underwear. Can the facsimulator make me some? Is that what you mean?”

  “No, Jaylin doesn’t like them. He would just throw them down the expulsion chute.”

  “You’re joking.”

  “Have you met Jaylin Sin-Naysir?” He chuckled when she rolled her eyes. “The dress, he’ll love. The pants, not so much, but he’ll tolerate them. Panties blocking his way when his mind is set on something else? No.”

  “Has he ever read Earth history? If not, he needs to learn what happened to cavemen. They became extinct a few million years ago.”