Saved (Alien Space Pirates 3) (SciFi Romance)

by Mara Frost

  I look around awkwardly. “Okie doke…” I was hoping for a little more, but I guess beggars can’t be choosers right now. I watch silently while he inputs commands into his ship’s console. I watch how fast his large hands move effortlessly over the smooth surface and I’m struck by how something so big and cumbersome – like his giant hands – can move so quickly and seamlessly.

  My eyes then travel up his arms, his shoulders and finally land on his face – his focused and stern face. A small knot bunches at my throat. It hits me then. He’s really alive…

  “H-how are you a-alive?”

  This actually makes him pause. He stops and looks down at me. I see I have his attention, so I continue, “I saw you shot dead. I felt your dead body…”

  “Yes, you did.”

  I shake my head in both frustration and confusion. Okay, so he’s not helping me much here. Did he die then? Does his people have some weird regeneration ability? Are they zombies? I need a little more or else my imagination is going to go into overdrive.

  “And…?”

  “Maxaya.” The ship engages and opens the comm, waiting for his commands. “Is the Talia 1 within hailing range?”

  ** AFFIRMATIVE. DO YOU WISH ME TO HAIL? **

  “Yes, please.”

  Okay, so he’s going to just ignore me entirely. That’s really awesome. I lean back and let out a slow sigh. I suppose I should just be patient. I mean, we ARE still running away from the scene of the crime.

  “Dakhar! I see that the commandeering of the Imperial ship went well?”

  My eyes shoot up at the sound of the loud and booming voice and see an arrogant grey pirate staring back at me in the visual comm.

  “Vorak, how did your ship fare back there? Any major damage?”

  The pirate smirks and rolls his eyes. “Nothing significant. Just a few bumps and bruises. That Imperial tug boat has got nothing on my ship.”

  Dakhar nods his head approvingly. “Good, you should –“

  “Uhm…” I raise my hand, interrupting their little buddy catch-up session. I want answers and I want them now. I look back and forth between Vorak and Dakhar. “Can one of you please tell me what’s going on? While I appreciate that Vorak fired onto General Piggy back there, what the Hell is he doing here? Didn’t he kill you? And why aren’t you dead?” I shoot out all the questions that I can think of off the top of my head, but I’m fairly certain I forgot a few million.

  Vorak chuckles, clearly amused by my frustrated confusion. I shoot him a lethal gaze and it only makes him laugh more.

  “I’ll leave it to you to explain, Dakhar.”

  I glance back at Big Blue and cross my arms. I raise my brow, expectantly waiting. For whatever reason, this seems to actually amuse the big blue man and he smiles.

  “Yes, I will explain,” he says, his voice surprisingly patient.

  “Good,” I reply abruptly. “Are you dead?”

  “No.”

  “Why not? I saw Vorak shoot you. I felt your body. You felt…dead. Dead like a big dead fish.”

  He raises an eyebrow questioningly, probably unsure of what a fish is and whether it’s a good thing that I just compared him to one. He then nods towards the visual comm. of Vorak, who is still smiling annoyingly. “Vorak did shoot me, but the setting was set to stun. The blaster also shot an tranquilizer injector dart, so it would look and feel like I was indeed dead.”

  I feel anger start to boil inside. “Did you two plan this together and not tell me? Did you actually allow me to think that you were dead?!”

  “No. Actually I can’t take credit for much of this plan. Vorak is the one who came up with it.” He nods towards the grey alien. “Honestly, I’m a bit surprised myself.”

  “I’m hurt, Dakhar. You wound me.” Vorak looks to me, smirks and then adds, “And yes, I must admit I did concoct this plan. Once I heard that a certain General was out for blood and looking for a double-crossing Truvian, I was faced with a very interesting situation; I could either out my dear friend, Dakhar, and make a lot of money…OR…I could do the honorable thing and save his worthless hide and pretend to lead General Xuraan to Dakhar with the promise of money that will satisfy my wildest dreams - or at least an average dream that can keep me busy and drunk for a few cycles at a pleasure planet.”

  At this Big Blue snorts, but remains silent. Vorak doesn’t seem to notice and continues without skipping a beat.

  “And despite what Dakhar might think, there is honor among thieves. So I opted with saving his sorry ass.” He shrugs. “I expect he’ll return the favor one day.”

  Dakhar turns to me and says evenly, “So, as you can see, Vorak was merely acting from the pure kindness of his pirate heart. A kindness that he expects to be paid for in full.”

  Still a little confused, I ask, “But if Dakhar didn’t know about this plan then how did he know not to shoot you dead when we were all on the planet?”

  “Ah! Yes, good question! Yeah, that was a gamble. I knew that there was a chance that our little trigger-happy friend here was going to blow me up the second he saw that I was double-crossing him…but I was banking on the fact that there was some working brain-meat up there in his blue head.”

  “Okay…” I say slowly, waiting for one of the two men to continue.

  Dakhar decides to interject. He’s probably not enjoying Vorak’s storytelling ability. “Despite the fact that I was more than eager to shoot Vorak – several times in fact - the moment he mentioned that he saved me in a battle that never actually took place in the ‘Antrean quadrant’, it made me realize that something was up.” He shrugs. “So I decided to take a risk and see what he was up to. It was risk and it went against my instinct to kill the bastard, but it paid off.”

  “And you aren’t you glad you didn’t kill me, Dakhar? See how useful our new friendship is turning out to be? So beneficial for everyone it would appear. Perhaps you would like to…expand on our little alliance to business? I know of huge pay day in the uncharted territories and I could use –“

  “Don’t push it.” Dakhar’s tone is tired and bored, but it’s apparent that he has zero interest in anything that Vorak has to say.

  The pirate shrugs. “Your loss.” He turns his gaze to me and winks. “More booty for me I guess.” At this I openly roll my eyes and snort in both disgust and mild amusement.

  Truth to be told, yes, maybe the grey smuggler could actually be sexy under the right conditions – like if he wasn’t was so damn annoying all the time – but until then, he’s just a pompous ass with a high opinion of himself.

  A pompous ass who saved Dakhar though…

  “Thank you for helping, Vorak. Really…” I clear my throat and prepare myself to hear some sort of grandiose response from him, mentioning how magnanimous he is or something.

  To my utter surprise, he only smiles and bows his head towards me, genuinely accepting my thanks. He then looks back to Dakhar.

  “Well, my friend, I’ll be leaving you then. I look forward to our future business ventures.”

  “Yeah sure, Vorak. Just watch yourself and don’t get overzealous.”

  “Of course. Oh and Dakhar?”

  “Yes?”

  “Remember what I said. Don’t get attached to the merchandise.”

  Vorak laughs one of his hearty boisterous laughs - like he just said the best joke in the universe - and then the transmission is abruptly cut.

  And then there’s only silence. I just stare at the blank screen awkwardly, unsure of how to respond to his last comment. Attached to the merchandise? Merchandise? Is that me?

  “Idiot.”

  I look over at Big Blue, leaning against his chair and rubbing his temples. He looks almost as dead as I thought he really was only a few hours ago. I suppose he’s been through a lot. Sigh. We’ve ALL been through a lot. But that doesn’t change the fact that I need some answers.

  “Dakhar?”

  He continues to rub his eyes in exhaustion. “Yeah?”

  “Why
did you do this?”

  He glances down at me. His brow furrows in confusion. “What do you mean? The General captured you.”

  “No, that’s not what I mean. All of it.” I make a big dramatic sweeping motion with my arms. “Everything! All of it! You went back and saved me on the Commerce Planet, you saved from getting eaten a few times on that freaky jungle world, you risked your life and your…” I pause for a second and search for the right word. “And your friend’s life while saving me on the General’s ship. That’s a lot of risking from you, Dakhar.” I glance up at him and see him staring straight ahead. Perhaps lost in thought? Maybe not even paying attention to me. I keep going. “Why?”

  Silence. Nothing. He says nothing. He continues look out into deep space with his jaw clenching, but says nothing.

  Just as I’m about to give up, he replies lowly, “I told you, Dani. I saw the logic in your argument regarding humans. It wasn’t right to abduct you and it wasn’t right to sell you. It was wrong. I had to right that wrong.”

  I nod slowly as his words sink in. “He had to right a wrong...” For some reason, hearing that hurts more than I thought it would. I thought that after everything that’s happened…after everything we’ve been through… Well, I suppose it really meant nothing. It was just business for the big blue brute and apparently he just likes to mix a little bit pleasure with his business. Whatever.

  “Right.” I cough, trying to hide the emotion in my voice that seems to want to betray me. “Right, okay then. Well, I’m a little tired. Is it alright if I take a nap? I mean, is it alright if I use your quarters to sleep?”

  He nods once.

  “Great. Thanks,” I say quietly as I stand and walk off the bridge without sparing a glance at him.

  I walk through the ship and find his quarters without a problem. I walked through the ship enough before to at least know how to get to his room.

  Once there, I haphazardly use the bio-cleanser and then literally collapse onto the bed without even bothering to put any clothes on. My body erupts in both pleasure and pain from my muscles instantly relaxing once I make contact with the soft surface. Up until now I had no idea how tense I’ve been. I roll over and close my eyes. I’m finally safe.

  Then why is it that I’m not happy?

  ***

  Dakhar

  I stare ahead as she leaves the bridge. I don’t move. I don’t think. I just stare ahead. And that’s the way I remain for a while.

  Until I stop doing that.

  “Shit.”

  I stand up.

  Chapter 6

  Dani

  I drift in and out sleep, somehow stuck in that fuzzy place that’s neither very restful nor relaxing. It’s actually pretty exhausting. Whenever I’m about to sink into a deep slumber, I think I’m on the General’s ship or on a planet that’s about to eat me…and then I panic.

  I just need to go home. Screw the International Space Station. Screw space. I need to go home. Even if there isn’t much at home waiting for me.

  I close my eyes tight and try to will myself to fall back to sleep. I’m so determined and focused on falling back asleep that I don’t even hear the doors open or the big lumbering alien that barges into the room.

  “Dani!”

  “Huh?”

  I groggily open my eyes and see a Big Blue’s angry face staring down at me. Well, he might not be angry. He just always looks that way, so I can’t really tell if he’s angry or not.

  “What?” I mumble as I sit up on the bed, just barely covering my nakedness with a sheet.

  “You are very frustrating,” he growls.

  My eyes widen. “O-kay…”

  He pauses in frustration and then adds, “I didn’t want to save you because it was the right thing to do.”

  “Gggreat…” I say as I scoot up the bed, trying to put some distance between us. Did he blow a fuse or something? I have no idea what’s going on with him right now, but some distance is a probably good thing.

  He growls loud, apparently not pleased by me inching away from him.

  “Dani, stop.”

  “What? You’re being crazy!”

  “You make me CRAZY!”

  I stop. “What do you mean?”

  “YOU. You make me crazy.” He takes a slow and deep breath and steps closer to the bed. “I did not save you because it was the right thing to do, I did it because I couldn’t NOT do it.”

  I squint and shake my head. He’s not very good at this whole ‘talking thing’. Now, I see why he always chooses to take the strong and silent approach.

  He growls, but continues. “You are impulsive and loud. You don’t think things through. You are way too positive, even when things look dismal and shitty. You have way too much confidence in your fighting ability, especially against beings three times your size. You find every opportunity to put yourself in the most dangerous situation and think little of the consequences. And you never shut up.”

  I say nothing. I just sit shocked with my mouth open wide. In fact, my mouth is open so wide, a big alien bird could probably fly right in and nest in there for the winter. Big Blue just strung together the most number of sentences that I’ve ever heard from him and it’s all to insult me? Great. How sweet.

  His face is now a pretty shade of purple, but he still continues.

  “And I want that,” he growls through gritted it.

  “Uhm…”

  He takes another step closer. “That’s why I saved you. Yes, trying to auction you was wrong and I see that now,” he mumbles quickly under his breath and then adds, “But I continually saved you and risked everything to save you because the idea of a universe that didn’t have all of that…all of you in it…is not one that I would like.”

  My body is trembling, but I don’t say anything. I just listen and watch silently.

  He sits next to me on the bed. “The moment you tried to kill me and dig my heart out with that…that…ridiculous ‘spork’, I knew I wouldn’t be able to carry through with my original deal. I couldn’t let anything harm you – including me.”

  I say nothing. The silence apparently making him uncomfortable, he just continues to talk.

  “I can’t let anything harm you. Ever. The thought of something happening to you makes me…angry…and…” He searches for the words. “And uncomfortable.”

  Uncomfortable? Okay, so Shakespeare he’s not, but he’s close. So close… He’s more like if Terminator and Shakespeare had a lovechild. My chest tightens as I fist the blankets in my palms.

  He clears his throat as his back stiffens. “I need you,” he says lowly. “I’ve never needed anyone. I’ve needed a weapon. I’ve needed shelter. But I’ve never needed anyone.”

  I gaze up at him silently. For once, I can’t find the words. This makes him nervous. His brow furrows slightly in frustration.

  “You are so quiet. You haven’t been able to keep quiet since the moment I abducted you and now you are quiet? You are very frustr-“

  “Shut up.”

  I leap across the bed, abandon the sheet and tackle him. And he receives my tackle like a champ. I slam against him and he grunts, but opens his giant arms and envelopes me the second he realizes that I’m not attacking him.

  I press hard against him and squeeze and then tremble in his arms. He pulls away slightly and gazes down at me. “You’re shaking. Are you unwell?”

  I chuckle quietly. “No, I’m good. I’m…happy.”

  Noticing my nakedness and unable to take his eyes away from my bare breasts, I feel his grip tighten around me. He lowers his head into my thick hair and growls lowly.

  “I need you.”

  I smile. “I know…I need you too.”

  “No. I need you now,” he growls.

  “Wha-“

  My already rapidly beating heart drums faster as I feel the heat of his breath and lips against my neck. A trail of shivering goosebumps dances all the way down my back. “Oh…” I moan and lean into his embrace. I throw my
head back and give him my exposed neck – basically silently saying, “Take me now, you big amazing sex beast!”

  And oh my God, was he determined to do that.

  He rips his mouth away from my skin and I feel the cool kiss of air touching the area where his wet mouth was. Without taking his eyes away from me, he rips his shirt off, instantly showcasing the blue pulsating tattoos across his hard chest and arm. My mouth unexpectedly waters as if he’s a big chunk of juicy steak.

  I pause for a second at the weird comparison. I must be hungry.

  My eyes follow his hands as he unbuttons his trousers and then they widen with anticipation once I see the bulge at the center. My breathing becomes labored as my breasts heave wildly up and down in the air. And he just stares quietly and watches my body react to him, appreciating the flushness of my skin and the panting of my breath. He then removes his pants and his hard cock bounces freely in the air, throbbing up and down with excitement.

  Following him in kind, I grip onto the thin sheet that is just barely covering my lower body and slowly remove it, showcasing everything that he can take. Everything that’s his. My eyes move up his body and land on his face and see the hard rigid lines of his jaw clenched, suggesting that it’s taking everything in him to exhibit a small dose of restraint.

  I don’t want that though. I want it all and I want it now. I don’t want him to exercise an ounce of restraint right now. I want him to give my every delicious inch of his body, of his cock, to me. But I have an idea first.

  I get on my knees and I crawl across the bed towards him. His brow furrows slightly as he watches me crawl, my bare ass moving in a way that’s probably making the alien in him want to growl like an animal. He watches intently.

  Once I reach the edge of the bed, I gaze up at him, my eyes wide and innocent. “I want you in me so bad.”

  He breathes hard and moves to push me onto the bed. I shake my head. “No, not like that.” He cocks his head to the side and raises an eyebrow. I smile wickedly. Yeah, he’s picking up what I’m putting down.