by Avery Rae
I puffed out my cheeks and rocked back and forth on my heels. "So, um, I take it you had too much to drink, too?"
He lifted his head. I quickly looked up and away, a blush stealing over my cheeks. I puffed them out and rocked back and forth on my heels. All I could think about was that he'd seen me nude. The worst kind of nude, at that. Just apologize and get out, Vera.
"What do you want?" he growled before I got the chance. I pursed my lips. Someone wasn't managing their hangover well.
"I just came to say sorry," I murmured up at the ceiling. "I couldn't remember anything that happened last night."
"You could at least look at me when you apologize."
I held out my hands in a placating gesture. "Yes, I could and I probably should, but I'm a little mortified right now. Just know that I'm very sorry for everything. I get why you're so angry though."
"You don't get it."
I tore my eyes away from the ceiling and gave him a confused look. "I don't?"
"You don't."
"Care to enlighten me?" I asked slowly.
"You want me. That much is obvious, and has been since you first looked at me. Yet when you woke, you were horrified by the thought you might've had sex with me. Why?"
I made a face, taken aback by the borderline analytical tone of his voice. Was me not sleeping with him really worthy of that much thought? "It's just . . . not my sort of thing."
"What isn't?"
"Casual sex. Especially with men who sleep around." Seeing his hardened look, I fumbled for an explanation. Some apology this was. "Look, it's not like I'm trying to shame your choices, that's your thing or whatever, but that's not a good place for me. It's not . . . healthy."
I clenched my eyes shut. I knew I hadn't made much sense, but I wasn't exactly in love with the idea of baring my soul to someone I'd known for all of a day. Plus, he didn't really need to know what I'd been through. It wasn't like he'd care anyway. I wasn't even sure why he cared in the first place. Hurt ego, maybe?
"I see."
I opened one eye. "You do?"
"Not really, no, but it would seem as if neither of us really understands each other." He ran his eyes over my face like he was trying to puzzle out what was going on inside my head. "I thought I had you all figured out from the moment I saw you."
"Surprise," I offered with a half-shrug.
"Surprise, indeed." Talys slid out of bed, stretching his mostly-nude form, muscles rippling beneath his pale purple skin. "I truly don't know how to handle you. It's vexing."
"Handle me?" I laughed, unsure of what he was getting at.
"Ever since I laid eyes on you, I knew I would do anything to touch you, taste you, to be inside you and feel you writhing beneath me—"
"I think I get it," I choked out as a sudden, overwhelming heat boiled to life under my skin.
Talys arched a brow. "Was that too much?"
"Maybe a little."
"Well," I said once I found my words again, "it's a good thing I drank that Novusian Reserve, right? That ended in a one stop shop for all your anti-attraction needs."
"You would think so."
"What?" I asked, despite having understood him perfectly well.
"You frustrate me." He stood in front of me, quiet for a moment, tongue touching the corner of his mouth, a hand shoved into his dark purple hair. "I don't understand why nothing works on you, and yet I want to keep trying."
"Have you ever thought of just, I dunno, not trying to work me?" I blurted out. I didn't know why I felt the need to help him. The guy only wanted to have his way with me, then give me a swift kick off his ship when we were back on Korystus.
"What do you mean?" he asked, and I honestly believed he didn't know.
"You're handsome, you're sexy. I get it. But I don't care."
"On the contrary, I think you do. I see the way you look at me, there's no mistaking—"
"You're still not getting it. Yes, I think you're attractive. You said yourself that you know how you make women feel." I shrugged. "And, y'know, congratulations on that or whatever. But that doesn't mean I'm going to sleep with you."
"You're right. I don't get it. At all."
"Yeah, I had a feeling." I gave him something between a smile and a frown. I wasn't sure why those words saddened me as much as they did. Maybe because I'd been with guys like him before. Hot shots in the ship's hierarchy. They could have any woman they wanted on the ship, and so often they chose me.
And by chose, I mean they chose to sneak down to the depths of the ship to have their way with me, promising me all sorts of wonderful things, then avoided me entirely when we crossed paths on the upper decks, not wanting to admit they'd been banging the janitor girl.
It was a great way to get the urge for casual sex out of my system. I would never let someone use me for their personal satisfaction again. And it bothered me far more than I wanted to admit that Talys was just like them. Or was he? He'd taken care of me at my worst, hadn't he? That pointed toward a much different type of man—err, Korysti—than I would've assumed he was.
Even still, I knew that I should leave. Yet, I gravitated toward the shelves lining his walls. There was much more than the books I'd seen before, but those were particularly of great interest to me. I could've sworn I'd recognized one of them, and it was calling to me again.
I gravitated toward the familiar fuchsia spine, confirming instantly that it was exactly what I thought it was. I pulled it from the shelf and whirled around, the graphic novel pressed to my chest. "How did you ever get your hands on a copy of Sera and the Space Pirates? Better yet, why would you pick it up in the first place?"
Sera was my teenage idol. Scratch that, she was every teenage girl's idol. We all wanted to sail through space on ships of our own, meeting dashing, handsome aliens and, y'know, kissing them. I'd been so pissed off when I realized I'd never get to find out what happens to her—because of fleeing Earth, it getting taken over by a violent alien species, and so on.
Funnily enough, my life ended up kind of like Sera's, only it was way less glamorous. I'd sailed through space, but I'd spent that time cleaning toilets instead of navigating treacherous planets with said handsome aliens. Although . . . I narrowed my eyes at Talys in thought. I'd met my own sexy aliens. Only that had turned out less glamorous, too.
"I like to collect things. A salvage trader sold it to me as a work of human art. It cost me a hefty sum."
I laughed and started flipping through the glossy pages, inhaling their familiar scent. Despite all the tablets, holos, and whatever else tech companies tried shoving in front of our faces, old-school paper and ink never went out of style.
I had only started to read the first few lines when something about what Talys said hit me. I looked up and found him staring off to the side, jaw tense.
"You didn't get this off our ship. We didn't have any copies on board—I would've known. And . . . salvage? That means it came from a wreck or something, doesn't it?"
"Yes."
My heartbeat was starting to pick up speed. "A human ship that wrecked?"
"Correct." He still wasn't looking at me.
"More of us ended up around here?"
"Many of your ships ended up nearby. Relatively speaking. Not all were as lucky as you."
"What do you mean?"
"Some ended up in warring territories . . ." He turned his head back to me, giving me a look that asked me not to make him say it. But I had to.
"And what?" I pushed, my heart beating so fast it ached.
"They didn't make it."
"And then their ships were salvaged." I dropped the copy of Sera I was holding like it was on fire. I stared down at the bright cover with its appealing, cartoonish drawings, and imagined the human who had once owned it. What'd happened to them? I didn't even want to think about it.
Maybe I was too idealistic, but some part of me had figured every other ship that fled Earth that day had managed to make it somewhere great. Somewhere just like Earth, where they had a
ll settled down to live in peace. Maybe . . . I'd hoped to find it someday.
"Do all Korysti know about this? Why haven't you told us?"
"Most don't care to know," Talys replied, blunt in his honesty. "I brought it to one or two politicians, but gave up when I was brushed aside. When Senator Rylos began his campaign, I brought the information to him. Maybe that's why Elyos was trying to get you out. There are already a few humans scattered on Nexion 6."
"And you just weren't going to tell me?"
Talys walked in front of me, picked up the copy of my once-favorite graphic novel, and reached over my shoulder to place it back on the shelf.
"Why would I? That would be like taunting you."
"Or you could just let me go."
"It's not that simple."
"So you're just too much of a coward, unlike your cousin."
"I like my life as it is," he replied plainly.
I swallowed thickly and gave him a flat smile. "Yeah? That must be nice. Having your own life. I wouldn't know. My fate is always in some other asshole's hands. Congratulations on being one of them."
As I was turning to leave, Talys placed a hand around my wrist. "Vera."
"Whatever you're going to say, save it for someone who cares."
"For what it's worth, I'm sorry."
"See that?" I said with a hollow laugh. "That's you mistaking me for someone who cares."
I jerked my hand from his grasp and thundered out of his room as quickly as I could manage. For whatever it's worth? I laughed again, the sound bitter as it bounced off the walls of the hallway. Your apology is worth nothing, Talys. Nothing.
5
I'd been holed up in my room, avoiding both Talys and Artos as much as possible. Mostly because if I'd seen them, I would've opened my big, dumb mouth and told them exactly how I was feeling. If I did that, they'd probably lock me up when we landed on Nexion 6.
Although, I still wasn't sure if that was already the plan or not. I hoped it wasn't. I hoped they mistook me for someone too sensible to rush off onto a foreign planet, entirely alone and with no money. Who would do something that dumb, right?
I sighed as I stared up at the ceiling from my bed—so tiny that it was the perfect width and length for me. I was hungry and needed to use the bathroom but I didn't want to run the risk of leaving even though I knew I had to. Some things were just unavoidable. I rolled out of bed and onto my feet, confronting the door to my room with a scowl.
The ship was big enough that I could probably avoid the other two people if I was careful enough. The trouble was that both of their rooms were so close. They'd probably hear me coming out. I knew Talys didn't care whether I lived or died, but Artos had been coming around every hour or so to knock on my door.
I lifted a hand to the screen by my door, then pressed down on it. I waited for a moment, listening, but there was nothing but silence. I cautiously stepped into the hallway, deciding against shutting my door for the time being. I looked at Talys's door. Closed. I swiveled my head to Artos's. Also closed. No signs of anyone anywhere. Phew.
I made quick work of rushing to the bathroom, then raided the kitchen for whatever looked good. Arms stuffed and overflowing with food, I raced back to my room, resisting the urge to cackle in triumph and I deposited my ill-gotten goods on my bed. Only to realize someone else had already put something there.
The entire released series of Sera and the Space Pirates, even the spinoff featuring the adventures of her dashing, but ultimately rejected bad boy pirate lover. I hadn't even noticed the full collection was there. I sucked in a breath as I ran my fingers over the glossy covers. It must've been Talys who put them here, but why?
I would get my answer soon enough, apparently, because my door slid open and shut. Leaning back against it, a smug smile firmly in place, was Talys. His arms were folded, one of his bare, muscled legs crossed over the other. I knew he wasn't the type to knock.
"I'm impressed," he said with a chuckle.
"With what, exactly?" I asked.
"How long you held out in here. You've made Artos worry." He nodded toward the bed. "He asked me to give you some entertainment."
Something inside me deflated. Was it hope? Maybe. Either way, it was silly to have it in the first place. Of course it wasn't his idea to give me the books. I wasn't sure what I expected.
"I don't see why he would be. I'm just a dumb human, right?"
Talys's smile faded. "Nobody here has ever called you that, and Artos has been nothing but kind to you."
A stab of guilt made me wince. I cleared my throat and gave him a tense smile. "Sorry, you're right. I don't need to drag Artos into this. This is all because you're a selfish jerk."
"And, what, your motivations are wholly altruistic?" He'd taken on a tone so thick with sarcasm I was surprised he could get the words out. "There's nothing selfish about what you want? Nothing at all?"
I didn't reply because I couldn't without admitting he was right. I was selfish. All I wanted was a life of my own. The life I'd dreamed I'd have someday. I wanted to sit on a stage, night after night, on a big stage or even in some smoky bar, and sing my heart out to a crowd. It was the thing I dreamed about as I mopped up other people's filth and got sneered at for it. I'd been holding out for someday, and that day seemed like it was never going to come.
Talys pushed away from the door, crossing the distance between us with slow movements that reminded me of a predator stalking his prey. I backed away, but soon hit a wall. I cursed the tiny room under my breath and stared hard at Talys, daring him to come any closer. But he didn't. He stopped just in front of me.
"What do you think will happen on Nexion 6?"
"I won't be someone's property?" I countered with a hint of irritation.
"I see the way you talk about your Ulyr, you didn't mind living with him on Korystus, did you?" He searched my eyes for a moment. "No, you didn't. You might've even been content to stay. But something happened."
"Okay, yeah, you figured me out." I pretended to be unimpressed, but the truth was I was incredibly surprised he was able to suss that out. "I could never do what I really wanted to do on Korystus."
"You want to be a singer, don't you?"
"How do you know about that?"
"You sang for me."
I blanched. "What?"
"You tried to clean up the bathroom after you bathed. You managed to find the cleaning supplies and everything." A funny little smile played at the corners of his lips. "And you started to sing. You told me it was the only thing that got you through the ten years you were in space. Singing and dreaming as you toiled away."
"Why're you telling me this?" I asked, eyes downcast. "Are you trying to make a point? Embarrass me, maybe?"
"I could give you that life."
I took a step forward, eyes wide. "You're going to let me stay on Nexion 6?"
His expression hardened at the edges, warring with softness in his eyes. "No."
"Are you just screwing with me, or . . .?"
"Stay with me. Give me a chance to prove I'm not what you think. Things are changing on Korystus, you must know that."
"I don't even know you that well. You don't know me that well, Talys. Not enough for a decision like that." I waved a hand in front of his face. "Have you lost your marbles? All you know is that I'm a singing janitor who gets hungry, and naked, when she drinks too much."
"And I want to know more."
"Talys, I don't understand where this is coming from, I don't—"
He interrupted me again, but this time it was to surprise me with his lips crashing against mine in a kiss that stole the air from my lungs and set my body aflame. If I were smarter, I'd have pushed him away, but when he sank his lips even deeper into mine, and his hands dipped to my lower back, tugging me in closer, I lost my ability to think.
He wasn't a liar, at least where his abilities were concerned. His kiss was a perfect mixture, alternating between gentle and rough, coaxing a moan from somewhere deep
inside me with nothing but his lips. But that was his fatal mistake. Hearing myself snapped me from the daze and I jerked away—so fast that my head bounced off the wall with a hearty thwack.
With a pained groan, I slumped forward and Talys caught me in his arms with a curse. He pushed aside the pillow and food on my bed and carefully laid me down. I tried to blink him into focus, and found that he wouldn't stop multiplying in front of my eyes, so I clenched them shut. The bed sank beside me as he sat down.
"How's your head?" Talys asked in a soft murmur, brushing cool fingers over my forehead.
"Concussed, I think."
To my surprise, he chuckled. "That's a new one for me."
"A new what?"
His fingers brushed over my hair, then down the sides of my face, dropping to my neck. "Kissing a woman into a concussion."
"To be fair, I got the concussion trying to stop kissing you."
He leaned in close to whisper, "Even better."
Although my heart skipped a beat, I replied, "That I'd rather injure my brain than kiss you?"
"More like . . . that it took that much effort to pull yourself away."
I popped my eyes open, saw double again, and thought better of it. I did, however, manage to catch him smiling. A particularly genuine smile that made my heart squeeze in a funny way. Vera, you're playing with fire, I warned myself, so I couldn't act surprised when I got burned.
Eyes closed once more, I rolled them in the darkness of my lids. "Is there anything you can't sway into your favor?"
"You, apparently."
"Funny."
"I would do anything to win you over."
"Anything but let me stay on Nexion 6."
"Anything but that."
I cautiously opened my eyes once more. Thankfully, there was only one copy of Talys this time. Two or more was fairly overwhelming. Especially at a time like this, when my mind was weak and fuzzy, and my body was acting like it was parched and the only drink that could cure it was Talys.
I licked my lips, mulling things over in my head for a second. "Maybe with time we could . . . explore what's here, but . . . I can't if you won't let me go."
"You know I can't do that."
