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I should.
I just…don't. Instead, I pretend that I really am Lankham os'Riit, with his delicate, beautiful mate at his side. Lankham never saw war. Lankham lost his limbs in a station maintenance accident. Lankham sleeps well at night, better with his mate curled against his chest. Lankham might not have many credits, but he's happy. When the elevator gets to our floor, my gut is burning with jealousy over Lankham's life, even though it's all make-believe.
A fresh round of solar winds muffles the normal station noise as I lead Sophie to the end of the hall and then open the door to our room. It quiets down as we step inside. I shut the door behind her. "It's safe to take your cloak off, if you like. We'll be staying here until the storm passes, and then we'll head back to my asteroid."
Sophie lowers the hood and pulls the mask off, rubbing her face. When her human features come into view, it's like I've forgotten how attractive she is. Her delicate face is flushed and her skin shiny with sweat, her hair sticking to her head as she looks around. She drapes the cape on a hook on the wall and then lifts her hair off her neck to cool it, and I'm fascinated at the slender column of throat revealed. "Jerrok," she says in a low voice. "There's only one bed."
I glance over at the square bed in the center of the room. "Of course there's only one bed. We're supposed to be mated."
She turns to me, dark brows furrowed. "You…did you plan this? So you could get into bed with me?"20JERROKDid I plan this?
Is she serious? Did I deliberately plan to get us stranded at the station so I could end up in the same bed as her? Doesn't she know that she's been my guest for the last while? If I wanted to push her into my bed by force, I could have done so any number of times. I could have threatened not to feed her, or to cut off the oxygen to her end of the station. I could have threatened to shoot her pet. I could have locked the damn thing in the terrarium and forced myself on her. There's so many different ways I could have taken advantage of the situation and never did, because that's not who I am. The va Sithai brothers wouldn't have left her with me if they thought I was that kind of male.
Her accusation stings. I scowl at her. "Did I plan this? Why yes, actually." I gesture at the shaking walls, sarcasm dripping from my voice. "I brought in a solar storm so I could waste a ton of credits sleeping on the floor in a strange room because I really like to give my cybernetic limbs a good keffing-over every now and then."
She flinches at my words, crossing her arms over her chest and hunching as if I've struck her. Instead of feeling better that I've made her feel stupid, I feel worse, and that pisses me off even more.
"Sorry," Sophie mumbles. "I just…saw the bed and panicked." She stares at the floor. "Bad memories from my last owner."
I grunt acceptance of her apology. At least she acknowledged her accusation was silly. I cross the room, trying not to think about how much my limbs ache, or how much staticky feedback they're sending through my raw nerve endings. It's been a long day, and it's just going to get even longer. Still, I hate that all the life has gone out of her. I didn't want to destroy her with my words. I prefer it when she attacks back. I don't know what to do or say when she gets all wounded. I sigh and grab one of the blankets folded at the foot of the bed. "Praxiian, right?" When she nods silently, I think about all the things I've heard about praxiians. How their family honor is tied to everything. How their entire culture is based on war and noble houses. How dismissive they are of other races…and other things. "So, uh, they really sleep together? All of them? Even guests?"
"All of them," she says. "I really don't want to talk about it."
I guess not. I can't imagine sleeping with an entire family of praxiians. And guests, I silently add on. Add in the fact that she was a slave and I can only imagine what a nightmare nights were for her. "Well, like I said, I'm going to sleep on the floor. You can have the bed. And this wasn't planned, because if it was, I'd have picked a station with better bedding." I toss the blanket down and inwardly grimace at how thin it is on the hard tile flooring. I'm going to feel like real shit in the morning.
