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“Not here,” Asher replied. “Back onDragoon. We had the same system installed for practice.”
Onnika lurched forward and planted both palms flat on the table. “No way! You have an AVFS on your ship?” Her expression exuded such awe and delight, was so attractively lively, Aidan had to look away.
“It’s not a toy,” he told them.
“No, you’re right,” Onnika replied placidly, then grew animated again. “You have to let me play with it!”
“Where is the other one?” Asher suddenly demanded, glancing around. “Cleaning out our coffers, no doubt.”
“Not so,” came Onnika’s lofty reply. “Caryn’s the good one.”
Zeek leaned over and gave Onnika what he probably thought was a smoldering look, wiggling his brows. “Then that makes you the bad one?”
Onnika bopped the tip of his nose with her finger. “You have excellent deductive skills.”
Zeek ate up the praise, clearly smitten. “I like her. Can we keep her?” He aimed a fat lower lip at Aidan.
Onnika unleashed a similar expression on him, though hers was awash with self-satisfaction. She leaned closer to Zeek, their shoulders touching.
Aidan had a tough time unclenching his jaw. “Enough, Zeek. How many vouchers did you get?”
Zeek barely registered the sharpness in Aidan’s tone, his answer blasé. “We each got one so far, except for Vin. He got none, zero, zip.”
“Give me time,” Vin said confidently. “I’m going to master that friggin’ ring toss.”
Asher cracked his knuckles. “You should enter a challenge that requires actual skill rather than luck.”
“Bashing in other people’s brains is a skill?” Vin countered.
“It is whenIdo it.”
“Well, not everyone has an iron-hard skull like your own, Ash. I’m sure that helps.”
“It doesn’t hurt…me.”
Aidan was only vaguely paying attention, too distracted by Zeek’s continued adoration of Onnika.
“You look thirsty,” he informed her. “I’ll buy you a drink, and you can tell me where you learned how to pilot a ship.”
“I’d like that,” she replied brightly. “Should we move to another table?”
“No!” Nearby conversation halted at Aidan’s outburst, and his crew once more stared at him like he’d lost his mind. He hadn’t meant to sound so severe, but he’d hit his limit with her games. Slashing his palm through the air, he declared, “No one is to spend any money on her or Caryn until they pay back what they stole or produce three more vouchers.”
Onnika penetrated him with a loathing stare. He glared back with equal fervor.
Caryn appeared at that moment, alongside Lear, her expression bright. “Oni, look what Lear bought me.” She held out her wrist, displaying a bracelet with what appeared to be locally sourced stone beads polished to a gleam.
“That was very sweet of him,” Onnika said, giving Aidan another censuring look. “Better see if you can get a meal out of him too, before Aidan orders him to let you starve.”
Awkward silence followed the statement, and again, the attention of the group landed on Aidan. How had she madehimthe bad guy here?
He pushed away from the table. “Forget it. Do what you want.” He could feel their perplexed gazes on his back as he marched away. His dragon stirred with burning ire. If he shifted now, he could raze this tent to the ground.
He should sign up for another event, maybe work off some of his aggression in the fighting pit, but his irritation led him to the nearby pub instead. He bellied up to the bar and ordered an ale. The first sip cooled his esophagus, the second, a bit of his wrath. After another moment, as if sensitive to her presence, he glanced at the entryway and saw Onnika standing there, those blue eyes sweeping the room until they landed on him. He had to wonder why some of the tension suddenly left his shoulders.
She crossed over to him and plopped that pert little ass of hers on the stool beside him.
“Hey,” she said in a solace tone, as though she had followed him for the purpose of comforting him or something. Or to manage him.
