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Stunned, I pull the goggles off and rub my nose, where I’m now bleeding just a bit. “What was that for?”
“For being an unmitigated ass.” She lifts her chin defiantly and crosses her arms. “You’re a terrible host. Where’s a comm-link? I want to call Adiron and tell the crew to come get me. It’s obvious I can’t stay here.”
I rub the blood off my nose bridge. “There’s no working comm-link. This is supposed to be an abandoned station. Not gonna seem very abandoned if we’re constantly sending out comm signals all over the universe, is it?” I don’t tell her that I have a private communicator in my quarters for emergencies. This doesn’t qualify as an emergency in the slightest. A tantrum, yes. Emergency, no.
“So I’m trapped here?”
I spread my hands, my cybernetic one creaking as I do. “I’m just as thrilled about it as you are.”
The human female gives me the most ferocious little scowl, marching right up to my face and glowering at me. She stabs a finger close to my face, angry. “You…you…”
Her expression changes and she goes silent.
“Me, me,” I goad. “Come on, spit it out. I what?”
She lowers her finger and plants a brilliant smile on her face. It’s…startling. She seemed interesting-looking enough when she arrived here, all big dark eyes and slender, delicate form. But when she smiles, her face transforms and she lights up like the sun, and it steals my breath away. This human is…beautiful.
Annoying, but beautiful. That’s going to make being around her even more difficult.
Her smile radiates, and she tilts her head at me. “You need to be nice to me.” Her voice is oddly sweet, her tone completely different than before.
“I do, huh?” I’m not fascinated by her smile. I’m not. I’m not. “Why is that?”
“Because Sleipnir decides if he needs to attack based on whether or not I like a person.” She tilts her head, still giving me that fascinating smile.
I’m suddenly hyper-aware of her scent and how soft her skin looks. How she has these intriguing breasts that are far more prominent than anything I’ve seen on other females. How small and delicate her features are. I’m so busy staring at these things that it takes a moment for her words to sink in. “Sleipnir?”
“The carinoux who’s right behind you,” she says in a sweet, sweet voice.
I hear the menacing growl a split second later.10SOPHIESleipnir has the worst timing.
Of course he'd show up in the middle of an argument with Jerrok the Jerk and start growling. The cat's protectiveness is on full display as the scales along his spine suddenly flare, turning into spikes, and his ears flatten. His lips curl back and the jagged teeth look twice as menacing as he prowls forward, toward me.
I'm not scared of him, but I also can't let him kill Jerrok.
So I keep smiling even though it's practically painful, and I try to remember the tactics I used to get Sleipnir used to the va Sithai brothers. I take a few steps forward, keeping my tone friendly and sweet. "The carinoux is very protective of me," I coo at the startled junker. "So I have to talk like this so he doesn't eat you."
Jerrok remains completely still. After a long moment, he breaks into a smile, too, and grits out a pleasant-sounding, "When were you going to keffing tell me that you brought a keffing pet into my keffing home?"
Sleipnir keeps on growling as he pads forward, so I close the distance between myself and Jerrok and put my hand on his shoulder in a friendly way, and then pat his chest. I keep smiling and even manage to force out a reasonably cheery-sounding laugh. "What, you mean you thought I arrived here by myself? You thought I was that much trouble that I'd get dumped on you instead of going with them to the Slatra system?"
"I did think it was a little odd," he agrees in a pleasant voice, still beaming at me in that too-fake way.
It's distracting, being this close to him. He's an asshole—and he smells like layers of grease and sweat. But without the oversized, clunky goggles, I can see his face. And he's…normal looking.
Maybe even handsome.
He's also a hell of a lot younger than I expected. All that dirt and the rags he wears make him seem an indeterminate age. His hair is covered and his horns are tarnished, so I thought he was older, and the lower half of his jaw is smudged a dark shade of sooty gray from working on whatever the hell he's doing all day long. But with the goggles gone, I can see bright blue skin, a proud, armored nose and brow, and an intelligent, sharp gaze.
I would say that he had attractive eyes, because his lashes are long and thick, but one eye is completely cybernetic, the pupil a strange metallic gray instead of black, and it makes his gaze slightly jarring.
