by Aria Bell
“If you’re busy,” I interrupted, trying to look as boring and unappealing as possible. “I can just take a shuttle and leave.”
He cast a sidelong glance my way. “And deprive me of your charming company? I think not, little human.”
I gritted my teeth but held my tongue about his “little human” jibe. To distract myself, I peered around the landing bay, taking in my surroundings in case I really had to escape on my own. That sounded crazy. I wasn’t military or some kind of action vid heroine. But it still made me feel a little better, as if I was doing something useful. Keeping hope alive and not submitting.
It was jarring how different the Defiance Blade was from the Mero Tallasa. This bay was filled with tools and workstations and spare parts. Snub fighters and small ships, most of them in some state of disassemble and undergoing repairs. Sparks danced along the deck as one mechanic welded a hull patch. The whirring and clank of automatic tools filled the air.
“Interested in ship repair?” Dra’sten asked. He’d slowed his long strides to match mine as we made our way to the heavy-duty doors leading from the landing bay. “I didn’t know you were a mechanic.”
I gritted my teeth. “I was looking for one to steal. Unfortunately, I see they’re all junk. No surprise on a ship like this. Do me a favor and try not to ruin the cargo shuttle you stole from me. I’ll need it to make my getaway.”
He stopped and turned to me. I stopped too and had to steel myself against stepping backward, wondering if this time I’d gone one step too far. He was so very big. And he was looming. Definitely looming over me like a mountain about to fall on my head. I would’ve been even more frightened, but he had that cocky grin on his face again, and his pale eyes danced with amusement.
“You are like no human I’ve ever met, Captain,” he said in his deep voice.
“Kidnap a lot of them, do you?”
He tapped his finger on his chin as if considering. “No, you’re the first. But I’ve experienced my share of human females.” The look he gave me smoldered. “In bed. On the bridge. In the spa. On the floor—”
I swallowed hard, my heart still beating fast. “Yes, thank you. You’ve got an incredibly vast well of carnal knowledge. Moving on.”
He tilted his head to the side as he looked at me. “What does it take to impress you, Captain Trasker?”
“More than a few bawdy lies and a set of pecs,” I shot back. Which was also a total lie. Because I could feel my cheeks heating at the thought of those wide, hard pectorals…and lower, the washboard abs firm as a rock wall. I bit my lip, even more annoyed. “You could try wearing a shirt.”
“Jardan warriors don’t wear shirts. It’s a challenge to the universe, showing the fierceness of our hearts to our enemies.”
I glanced at his synth-leather long coat. “And the coat shows…your love of swashbuckling?”
He glanced down at his coat, with its rows of bright brass buttons, as if I’d just insulted his mother. “What’s wrong with my coat?”
“Nothing. If you’re auditioning for a role in a historical Earth action vid. It goes well with all the jewelry.”
“I wear this because I am the captain of a corsair ship. In a melee, it helps if my crew can spot me in the chaos to rally on me or follow my orders.” His grin widened. “But I can take it off if you’d prefer to see more of me.”
Damn cocky bastard. I fixed him with my coldest look. “I’d prefer to see less of you. Are we almost there?”
His laughter was deep and rolling. I actually liked the sound of it. I silently cursed him again and cursed myself for being such a fool.
“Nearly there, Your Glorious Worship,” he said. “I’ve had to slow my pace to make up for those pathetically short human legs.”
I didn’t deign to reply, but I did fall into step beside him again. Or at least I walked as quickly as I could to keep up. His long strides would’ve left me in the dust if he hadn’t deliberately slowed his pace. Which irritated me even more than his arrogant bragging. But I kept my annoyance hidden. He got way too much delight out of irritating me.
The corridors of the pirate ship were long, dirty, and dark. It looked as if a battle had been fought inside the ship at one point. I saw multiple plasma burns along the metal walls and lots of repairs that hadn’t been repainted to match the original gray. I guess pirates weren’t big on ambiance and décor. I just prayed this flying piece of space junk had working toilets.
Finally we reached a room that, if I had my bearings right, was close to where I suspected the bridge was. The door slid open at his approach as the biometric scanners spotted him.
He stood aside for me to enter and swept a hand toward the room, bowing slightly, his bright blue eyes sparkling. “Your rooms, my queen.”
“That routine is really getting old, Captain Dra’sten,” I snapped as I strode past him into the room with my head held high.
“I humbly beg pardon, Your Shining Eminence,” he said from behind me. Then he stepped into the room and used the door panel to shut and lock the door.
I turned to face him, my heart beating faster in my chest, suddenly afraid all over again. It didn’t matter if the primal, animal part of me found his body unbearably sexy. Being trapped in here with no way out—with him—made me uneasy.
The room was small and barren. Gray walls. A metal-frame cot along the wall large enough for a Jardan had only a thin mattress and a brown blanket. A small vid screen hung on the opposite wall. In the corner stood a battered wardrobe with a hole in the front panel as if someone had punched it. On the opposite side of the room sat a desk and chair. I backed up until my ass hit the desk chair, putting space between myself and Captain Dra’sten. He was so big he seemed to fill the room and suck all the oxygen out of the air.
He picked up on my distress. “Don’t be afraid. I will not lay a hand on you.”
“I was more concerned that you’d cut one off me,” I quipped, sounding braver than I actually felt.
“You’re upset about what happened on the dropship,” he replied, frowning.
“You’ll have to forgive me. We don’t see a lot of severed limbs in the space hospitality industry.”
“I’m sorry you had to see that. These are pirates, not soldiers. I rule through strength. Tleg forgot his place and threatened someone I’d already made my guest. Then he forced the issue by reaching for his sword. I don’t expect you to understand, but I could not let that stand. Believe me, I did not enjoy hurting him. But the others will remember the lesson and leave you in peace if they know what I will do to keep you safe.”
I opened my mouth to reply…then shut it again. The only thing I could say to that was thank you. But I’d cut my own hand off before I allowed myself to offer gratitude to this pirate. He had kidnapped me and intended to ransom me back to my parents, which was both an outrage and a humiliation. Not to mention a waste of time. Why on any of the nine planets of Ketix would I feel gratitude to this underdressed, sword-swinging pig of an alien?
When I didn’t respond, he nodded once and turned back to the door. “I have matters to attend to on the bridge. I’m sure you’ll understand that I must lock you in. For you own protection.”
“Of course. Wouldn’t want my stolen cargo shuttle coming inside and mysteriously flying off with me.”
His expression grew serious, and he looked every bit the villain standing there with his dark hair setting off the pale blue of his skin and the even paler blue of his eyes, the shift tattoos on his muscular torso sliding from red to black to silver, and the gold and gemstones in his ears winking in the overhead light. “I promised to keep you safe, and I never break a promise. I’m sorry this had to be. If it means anything to you, it wasn’t my choice to take you hostage. But…” He turned the annoying smile back on, full wattage. “There’s another way to keep you safe if you don’t like the idea of being under lock and key.”
“Does it involve taking me back to my ship? Because I’m pretty sure I’d be safe from your bar
barian hoards onboard the Mero Tallasa, once the Galactic police arrived.”
“Better. I could mate you. Then no one would dare challenge me for you.” He raised his eyebrows, giving me an innocent look. “You could have the run of the ship.”
“Mate you? I’d rather apply my lipstick with a blowtorch.” Which didn’t really make much sense, but he seemed to get my point.
“Ah, well.” He nodded as if he’d expected as much. “Lock and key it is.” And without another word, he stepped out of the room. The doors slid shut and the door panel turned red.
Locked in.
My tiny room seemed much larger, and emptier, without the huge Jardan pirate. And quieter, too. I sat on the cot and looked around. There was nothing to do but sit here and wait to find out what was going to happen to me.
It looked like I was in for a long wait.
CHAPTER FOUR
Captain Kash Dra’sten
What an incredible space wreck this was becoming. And the worst thing was, this was only the beginning. I now had the most sarcastic female in the known universe prisoner on my ship. I couldn’t fault her for hating my guts, but did she really have to be so enthusiastic about it?
How the hells did a woman put on lipstick with a blowtorch? What did that even mean?
I stomped my way up to the bridge, ready to break heads if anything else didn’t go my way. Usually I could roll with the blows when things didn’t go as planned. The unwritten rule of piracy was to remain flexible, ready to adapt. Ready to fight if you had to, and ready to run if it came to that.
Of course, nowhere in those rules was there anything about babysitting some royal princess who’d been slumming it as…well, as captain of a luxury space liner. It was time to acknowledge that Captain Sylvis Trasker might just be crazy—and I wasn’t sure whether it was because she was human or because she was female.
And yet I couldn’t stop thinking about her.
Unfortunately, things were only going to get worse. The princess captain with the cute ass was now my responsibility. It was my duty to keep her safe, not because we still had to ransom her, but because she was a good captain, putting the needs of her crew and her ship first. Hell, it wasn’t even that—not completely. I liked her. Her fire, her insults, her eyes when they flashed in that pretty face. Her body, small but with such tempting curves. I wanted to run my hands across those curves, especially how her uniform pants stretched tight across that shapely rear end of hers. I wanted to pull her to me, protect her, own her. Make her mine in every way a male could claim a female.
I was a damn fool.
She was only a ransom. She was trouble. A complication. Damn Gren’don and his greedy, mutinous threats making me do foolish things. Things were tense and dangerous enough deep inside galactic core space. I did not need the added risk of hostages and ransoms and prisoner exchanges that nearly always went bad, one way or another. I wanted her off my ship as soon as possible because she was too risky, too much of a problem.
Seething with frustration, I had to restrain myself from punching the biometric scanner at the bridge doors when it took forever to verify me. Finally its AI program decided I was really and truly Captain Kash Dra’sten and opened for me.
All chatter stopped the moment I stormed onto the bridge. I knew what they’d been talking about. How we’d taken on a rich human princess—one I was going to make my concubine and then ransom back to her family when I was finished with her. After all, I was a rogue and a bastard and that’s the kind of thing space scum like me did.
But I hadn’t asked for the incredible headache of bringing a hostage aboard my ship. Neither was I going to allow any challenge to my authority stand. Far’lak would be cleaning away buildup on the sewage processing system for telling the Gren’don about Captain Trasker’s secret instead of informing me first. If he had followed protocol, I wouldn’t be in this situation, and we’d be safely on our way back to the outer rim, counting our easy money and planning for some R&R as soon as we hit the outer planets.
After a glance at the main viewscreen—which was filled with stars and dangerous-looking asteroids—I headed for my captain’s chair, setting my blade aside as I sat down. “Give me a status report, Mr. Surdal.”
“We are cloaked and inside the asteroid belt on your orders,” Gren’don replied.
Good. At least he was still obeying my orders. I wondered how long that would last. “Any sign of pursuit?”
“Long-range sensors detected a Galactic Police cruiser that warped into the area. So the Mero Tallasa managed to get its systems back online after we left. But the GP seem to be remaining close to the ship to render aid and assistance. It looks as if we escaped clean, Captain.”
I only bothered to respond with a grunt as I brought up a holo-terminal and scanned the status readouts, making sure everything was green and ready to go with our systems and hardware. Mostly I did it to take my mind off the human female I had confined to a cabin not far from the bridge. The way she bit at those full lips when she was thinking sent a thrill of lust shooting right to my cock. I shook my head, trying to dismiss those distracting thoughts, but not being very successful.
Asteroids. I had to stay focused on the asteroids.
Gren’don walked over to me. His expression was hard to read. “May I have a word, Captain?”
“No one’s stopping you.” I wondered if this would be the moment Gren’don went from his passive-aggressive insubordination to something more active. Something that would lead to me spilling his blood on the deck.
“In private.”
I had to hide a flash of annoyance. I’d just arrived here and sat down for hell’s sake. In no way was I in the mood to deal with friction from my first mate, and certainly not when we’d just entered an asteroid field, one of the more dangerous hiding places in space. The viewscreen showed the scattering of large rocks of the Reavic Alpha asteroid field as we approached, our ship still cloaked. The massive asteroids could smash our frigate to space dust, shields or not. But right now, the danger outside didn’t compare to all the other dangers we faced. First among them was offloading this aristocrat we’d kidnapped before the wrath of the entire quadrant came down on our heads.
“Speak your mind here, Mr. Surdal. We are in an asteroid field, and I don’t have time for counseling sessions.”
Gren’don’s icy cold eyes narrowed, and his tone was not much warmer. “I suppose congratulations are in order.”
“For what?” Although I’d already guessed where he was going with this. And I was glad we were having it out on the bridge, where the rest of the bridge crew could hear. It was time to disabuse them of some of the fantasies my first mate had shoved into their heads.
“We are going to be rich,” Gren’don said. “That human we captured will see us in liquor, weapons, and luxury until the day we die.”
“Rich?” I growled, shifting my gaze to stare him down, my fury boiling inside me. “We won’t be rich if we don’t live long enough to reach the outer rim. This was supposed to stay simple. Raid some fat ships in a wealthy star system. Burn engines back out again before the galactic police responded. Now we have a hostage on board, complicating everything, making us ten times as wanted by the GP.”
His lip curled in a sneer. “Since when did we fear the galactic police? None of them are the match of a Jardan in battle.”
Just the kind of unthinking bravado I’d come to expect from him. May the heavens help this ship if he ever ended up captain. “I applaud the sentiment. I too wish to die in battle the same as any other Jardan.” Both of those were a complete and utter lies. I wanted to die in bed, drunk, after the best meal of my life and a wild fuck with a beautiful female. “And now we’ve made dying in battle a very distinct possibility. It is one thing to chase pirates who steal from the rich, when everything is insured and no one is hurt. Kidnapping the daughter of some heir to some king or other, that is going to earn us more than a few enemies and a sun’s worth of heat. And we’re very alone
out here.”
“It almost sounds as if you’re afraid, Captain Dra’sten.”
The bridge was utterly silent. The tension in the air was thick enough to choke on.
“I fear nothing,” I said, my own voice icy cold. “But I promised my crew riches and plunder for all they’re risking. And now we can’t leave until we turn over this human alive, all while half the quadrant searches for us. We have a time bomb on this ship, Mr. Surdal. And you’re the one who put it there.”
“It’s worth the risk, Captain. She isn’t just any human. She’s Sylvis Trasker, daughter of Duke Archa Trasker.”
I cocked my head, waiting for more. I didn’t like where this was going, and I didn’t like how he seemed to be out-maneuvering me. He had some piece of information I didn’t.
