by H. E. Trent
“Without a bunch of assholes breathing down their necks.”
“Exactly.”
“Add in a full-service spa, a wine bar, and a traditional manor library with comfy chairs, and you’ll never get them to leave.”
Autumn laughed. “From a business perspective, that doesn’t sound like such a bad thing.”
Although Autumn wasn’t much of a golfer, she’d visited numerous golf clubs on Earth for meetings about real estate projects she was overseeing for her father. Far too often, the vibes of the places dripped with toxic masculinity. They were exclusive and exclusionary, and she knew without a shadow of a doubt that the only reason she was tolerated was because of her last name.
She was tired of the old boy network. She was tired of commercial projects in general. By hook or by crook, Jekh was going to be her pivot—her great rebranding. She wanted the people on her properties to be as happy to be there as she was to have built them.
As the group came to a halt in front of the largest of the round buildings, Autumn rooted her diary out of her purse along with a pen, and quickly jotted down some notes. She’d need to do some research. She was a bit out of practice for it. In the past, she’d had her assistant pull up data and reports for her, but her assistant had been her father’s first before getting transferred to Autumn. She had lured the woman away to do some work on the side, but recently Autumn had learned where her allegiances were. She’d been feeding information back to Autumn’s father.
No real harm was done as Autumn had suspected she’d do that and had been giving her bogus queries, but the betrayal still stung.
“Just wait here for a moment, and I’ll go greet the chief,” Luke said.
“Won’t take long,” Alex said. He pulled Luke away and they immediately starting up that furious muttering again.
Autumn shrugged and dropped her pen into her bag.
Cree put her hands on her narrow hips and let out an indulgent sigh. “You’re so lucky.”
“Hmm?” Autumn followed Cree’s lead and took a few pictures of the environment with her portable COM. She hated wearing them and never did on Earth, but on Jekh, the denizens seemed to be far more dependent on them.
“Duh,” Cree said, canting her head in the direction the men had walked in.
“I don’t know what you’re getting at.”
“I mean, he looked good in his 3D holo-shot, but moving around, he’s a stone-cold fox.”
He absolutely was. He was what Autumn’s eldest half-sister called “Grade A Pussy Bait”—the perfect mix of looks and swagger, and Autumn wasn’t immune to his charms. She was simply better at not fixating on them. All the same, she made a face at her little sister’s antiquated terminology. “‘Stone-cold fox’? Who the hell have you been hanging around? What seventeen-year-old talks like that?”
“Well, he is one. And you’re marrying him. Maybe.”
“No maybe about it,” Autumn murmured. “I’m definitely going to have to marry him.”
“I’m surprised you sound so upset about it. And why would you have to marry him? You can still choose, can’t you?”
There was no way in hell Autumn was going to address those questions. Not yet, anyway. She had to be sure that Cree understood why Autumn was there. Her relocation had been about opportunity, not romance. Moving to Jekh had been about standing on her own two feet and forging her own reputation. When people thought of “Ray,” she wanted them to think of a hardworking woman who singlehandedly built an empire the right way. She didn’t want them to think about a womanizing skinflint known for buying acres of property in beautiful, high-demand locations, only to plop gorgeous buildings onto them that began to rot even before the ribbons were cut at the grand openings.
Dexter Ray was smart, but he wasn’t fair, and she hated being associated with him. She knew he didn’t love her, or if he did, he had a funny way of showing it.
She would rather have had a poor, kind man for a father than the devil she’d gotten. What the hell else could she do but go somewhere else? Somewhere far from him? She wasn’t going to run away from the career she’d been forced into so this was her only chance and no choice but to be successful on Jekh. She didn’t know how to do anything else.
CHAPTER SEVEN
Alex pushed the door of the soominar closed and put his face close to the narrow window installed at the top at the wall panel. Autumn had been hovering in the doorway of her assigned lodging, holding a holo-camera and looking like she was about to take off on foot. When she retreated back into her soominar, he moved away from the door and put his attention where it belonged.
“Where’s Herris?” Luke asked. “And your friend?” Luke was busy making up one of the four low beds in the space, already barefoot and with his shirt unbuttoned. The man had a way of making himself comfortable no matter where he was. An interesting talent, for sure.
Giving his spine a good stretch, Alex grunted. “Oreva is braving the bed in my ship. He needs the Internet connection to get through his emails. Herris wasn’t up for company, so he stayed back as well.”
“Well, I guess they don’t have to be well-rested tomorrow.”
“I’m not entirely convinced Herris has been sleeping all that much, anyway.”
Luke grimaced and pulled his sleeve down his arm. “You’re probably right about that. Every time I see the guy, he looks one step removed from being a ghost. He’s just going through the motions of living. He’s eating and bathing probably, yeah, but I don’t think he has an awareness of people anymore. He’s not trying to connect.”
Putting his back against the wall near the door, Alex crossed his arms over his chest and watched the man undress. Soominars were communal housing units for guests, segregated by male and female, and sometimes further by age. Perhaps the situation wasn’t ideal for someone who needed to keep a close eye on a woman of questionable morals, but the circumstances suited Alex well enough for the moment. There were no other soominars available, and Luke was stuck with him unless he wanted to sleep in his ship.
“Think it’ll stay this hot all night?” Luke rubbed his face with the front of his undershirt and then fixed his intense, dark gaze on Alex. His eyes had the kind of depth that hypnotized, and his stares had certainly ensnared Alex a time or two before.
Alex forced himself to look away and shrugged. “If you’re uncomfortable, you can open the windows for cross-ventilation. The breeze outside is still quite strong.”
“Cool. So, you gonna lock that, or what?” Luke pointed to the door. “I guess bolting the door isn’t really necessary. These are probably some of the most honest folks on the planet.”
Alex locked the door and turned off the overhead light. Not all intrusions had to do with harm. Some simply found people in compromising positions, and Alex had no intention of being caught in one.
He moved to the bed he’d chosen, which happened to be next to Luke’s, and began to unfasten his various accessories and empty his pockets.
Luke lay on his back in boxer shorts, legs crossed at the ankles, his palms pressed against his closed eyes.
Alex didn’t need the bright light to see how well Luke was built. Lean but strong, like a wiry boxer. Alex was acquainted with that strength. He’d managed to pin Alex before, the perfect combination of timing and brute force, and Alex had been understandably stunned at how he found himself. Trapped against the bed on his own damned ship with Luke’s hand squeezing around his neck and Luke’s knees digging into his sides.
Alex had never been so hard before. No one had ever handled him that way. No one else would have dared to try.
He set everything from his pockets onto the short table between the bunks and settled onto the bed’s edge to remove his boots. “So, what should I tell you about your would-be bride?”
Luke turned onto his side. In the dim room, his deep-set brown eyes were beguiling hollows. Alex couldn’t read his emotions. Knowing Luke Cipriani, that was probably a good thing. Alex preferred to not know if the
man truly hated him. He’d prefer to believe that he had a shot in hell at taming the man.
For what?
He still didn’t know.
“You can tell me whether or not if the moment I get back to the farm I should be submitting a form to have her returned on the earliest possible flight,” Luke said.
“I would say yes.”
“You would probably say that about anyone.”
Alex grunted and shimmied his pants down. “Perhaps I don’t trust the motives of anyone who’d come this far to marry a man they’ve never met.”
“And you think folks trust your motives at all? You weren’t here initially on the noblest of missions. In fact, I’m certain that some of the missing person reports floating around about your father’s former business associates are all due to things you’ve done.”
Alex wasn’t going to deny the suspicion.
Alex wasn’t precisely proud of all the things he’d had to do to clean up his family’s mess on Jekh, but he wouldn’t apologize for them. He certainly wouldn’t provide any specific details about the jobs to a man who’d made a career of undoing people, though. He didn’t know how Luke would use that information against him. He’d probably hold it for blackmail purposes.
“I’m here legally.” Alex draped his pants over the table and pulled back the covers on his bed. “That’s all that matters now.”
“Well, I can pretty much guarantee you that her sister, Cree, isn’t here legally at the moment.”
“She’s not the one you should worry about. As of now, Cree is pretty clean. Not old enough to have been pressed into service.”
“Hmm.”
Alex laced his fingers behind his head and stared at the dark ceiling. If his goal were to simply send Autumn packing, he didn’t need to be so careful choosing his words. After all, Luke never filtered his. But Alex needed to be more tactful if he wanted to come out at the end of it all with Luke no more hostile than he was before. Ideally, he’d be less hostile.
Ideally, he’d understand that he’d been far too unreasonable and that there wasn’t any reason he couldn’t make some concessions. He didn’t have to have his way all the time. He needed to understand where Alex was coming from. Being a royal was all about appearances and Alex couldn’t let his slip.
“Specifically, what kind of shit has Autumn gotten into?” Luke asked. “I mean I did a little research on her. Nothing deep, like I should have, I guess. Been too fucking busy the past few weeks trying to do too many things at once. I saw that she worked in real estate development with her family, and I didn’t delve much deeper than that.”
“Yes, well, on the surface, nothing they’ve done would seem so suspicious. But people in the industry, or in industries related to theirs, know all about them.”
“Now you tell me?”
“You didn’t ask.”
Luke scoffed. “You’re fucking right, I didn’t. You don’t get to have input on my love life. What kind of sense would that make?”
Alex thought it would make incredibly good sense seeing as how Luke obviously wanted someone else. Namely him, and Alex had never said no to Luke. He’d just told him to keep his mouth shut. That had apparently been too much to ask.
“So, who did you allow to vet her? Hmm?” Alex asked. “Evidently, no one with useful information.”
“I vetted her.”
“And so fabulously, Mr. FBI.”
“Fuck off with that, Duke.”
“Stop calling me Duke.”
“Get used to it. I can’t even remember what your real name is half the time.”
“Lying doesn’t suit you.”
“Whatever.” Luke settled lower into the bed and draped his arm across his eyes. “Shame she’s pretty, though.”
“Takes after her mother, I suppose, as does Cree. Different mothers.”
“I guessed that. Or else different fathers. Big age gap there, huh?”
“Larger one between Cree and the youngest Ray sibling. For the ex-spouses to have so much public enmity with their former husband, it’s a wonder that so many of their daughters work in his company.”
“Maybe they don’t have a choice.”
“Perhaps not.” Alex wasn’t sure if he bought that, though. Everyone had choices. They just weren’t always easy ones.
“I’ll deal with it when we get back to the farm,” Luke said. “No point dredging up all that shit here. It’s not like I’d be able to leave her behind. If she gets into any trouble while she’s here, I could be considered culpable.”
“Call ahead in the morning and let your friends know what to expect.”
“Yeah. Or I’ll record a message and you can send it from your ship. Hard to have a private conversation on mine.”
“Would you like to record it now?”
“Nah. I’ll do it in the morning. I don’t feel like turning the light on.”
“I’ll do it.”
“Let me restate that.” Luke held up a hand. “I don’t feel like having the light on. I’m a creature of the dark.”
“I won’t argue that,” Alex said through gritted teeth.
“You don’t have to have a response for everything.”
“But you do?”
“Here we go again.”
“We could keep this going all night.”
“I detect no lie there. Do you usually run your mouth so much with people who are forced to share space with you?”
“You don’t have to sleep in here.” Alex regretted the words the moment they left his mouth. The last thing he needed to be doing was giving Luke ideas about places to go.
“My sleeping options are here, outside, or my ship. I think this bed’s more comfortable than the ship’s bunks.”
Alex let out a quiet exhalation of relief. The man was probably going to give him a stomach ulcer by the time they got back to Little Gitano.
“A lot more comfortable, actually,” Luke said. “I should ask the folks here what they stuff the mattresses with. I feel like I’m floating.”
Alex grunted and ground his teeth for a few seconds, curious about sleep. Luke’s sleep in particular. “Where do you even sleep when you’re not in The Tin Can?”
“Huh?”
“That old cargo ship you sleep in at the farm. Where do you go when you’re not there? You’re not always there.”
“How do you know I’m not there?”
Alex knew a lot of things, and he had many ways of getting information. No one on the Beshni farm was suspicious about him asking the occasional question. To them, he was querying about things anyone would have. But when he put all that information together, he had a reasonably good overview of how Luke spent his time. He just hadn’t figured out where the man spent so many of his nights.
Alex grinned into the dark and said, “You’re not the only one people talk to.”
“People, huh? Well, I’m sure those so-called people would have told you if they’d wanted to. If I’m not in The Tin Can, I’m at Ais and Owen’s.”
“I don’t believe their sofa is especially comfortable.”
“Who said anything about their sofa?” Luke scoffed.
That made Alex push up onto his elbow and squint at him. He couldn’t see much, but he was reasonably certain he made out the flash of teeth in the dark. “They rarely make up the guest bed.”
“You’re jumping to every conclusion except the obvious one.”
“You don’t share their bed.”
“Why not?” Luke asked glibly.
“Because you’re not sleeping with my sister.”
“If I were?”
“I’d kill you.”
“Nah, you wouldn’t. Fun to think that you could, though, right? It’d never happen. And not that it’s any of your fucking business, but I have a hard time falling sleeping alone.”
“And so, what?”
“And so most nights, Ais lets me sling an arm over her so I can nod off. And if she’s pacing in the hallway with Michael trying
to get him to sleep, Owen will relent. Normally he prefers to keep Ais in the middle, but he does what he has to.”
“So, you’re not…”
“Are we fucking?” Luke laughed. “Wouldn’t that be nice? But no.”
Alex ground his teeth harder. “You’re attracted to Owen?” he asked through them.
“You’re getting really damn personal now.”
“Your lack of an answer makes me assume your response would be in the affirmative.”
“Why do you care?” Luke asked.
“Christ, you’re insufferable.”
“Yeah, well, turnabout is fair play. If you’re gonna ask me scads of questions about my sex life, I’m certainly entitled to ask you about your motives.”
“I have no motives except to discern whether my sister is in a situation she shouldn’t be in,” Alex said.
“Dude, come off it. Almost every woman on Jekh is in a similar situation.”
“Most Jekhan women don’t sleep with their mates. They don’t share bedrooms.”
“Owen isn’t Jekhan, and Ais wasn’t raised here, so I guess she doesn’t know any different.”
“You still haven’t answered the question.”
“You want an answer? Fine.” Luke shifted in his bed and tugged the covers up higher. “Yeah. I’m attracted to Owen. I’ve been attracted to him since I was like fifteen. It’s not a secret. He knows.”
“And the attraction isn’t reciprocal?”
Luke didn’t respond at first, and Alex didn’t think he was going to. Just when Alex thought he’d perhaps nodded off, he said, quietly, “Owen loves me in the way he can.”
He’d sidestepped the question, but Alex got the answer he needed.
It wasn’t an answer he liked very much.
“Why can’t you move on?” Alex whispered.
“Why do you care so much?”
Alex didn’t see the good of responding.
“You think Owen’s the reason I keep refusing you?” Luke rolled onto his side, putting his back to Alex. “Nice try, but no.”
Alex didn’t like that—having people turn their backs to him when he was engaging them. Everything Luke did made Alex feel like dirt on the bottom of his boot—unimportant and far too easy to ignore. Luke was the one person Alex needed to pay attention to him.
