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“Ok, you win,” she choked. “Take it. I have a spare for my meal. I can get more tomorrow.”
He perked up, the feathers rising from the dark mass of his hair with interest and a look of awe came over his face as he accepted it. “Truly? You would gift me this?”
“Absolutely. Call it a mercy-gift if anyone questions it,” she added wryly.
He popped off the lid and drew in a breath, deeply scenting its steaming contents. Without waiting a moment longer, he plucked up a bit of potato and put it into his mouth, eliciting an immediate groan of pleasure from him.
“This is fabulous! Thank you, Jill. I’ve never had such a gift,” he exclaimed. He gave her an uncertain glance. “Are you certain that I may have all of this? It’s quite a bit of food compared to our standard meal rations.”
She looked at him in disbelief. That little package was his entire meal rationed to him? How would that feed such a large male?
“Of course, you keep it and enjoy! Tell me what you think of it tomorrow.” Her lips pinched thoughtfully. “Maybe I will take some spices with me next time to dress it up so you can enjoy its flavor even more. It’s nothing close to what I could make if I were at home with my own kitchen, but I can make it more palatable.”
He gave her an appreciative grin, displaying multiple sharp fangs, as he popped another bite into his mouth. “I look forward to it. Despite what our rations might tell you, we do enjoy much in the way of flavor. Flavor of all kinds is a feast for the senses and the greatest of pleasures,” he added with a sly look that made her cheeks heat.
Suddenly, it felt like they were speaking of something other than food, and she was uncertain of how to respond to the flirtatious behavior. She was intrigued by him and his twin, but it felt as if she were walking a fine line of something that could easily turn into either a dangerous or very heartbreaking situation. Could she afford to get attached? Did she really care? How much desperation did that reek of, and would he be aware of it?
“I’m glad. I will be sure to bring it by then,” she said quickly in reply. She patted her bag as she turned toward her quarters, desperate to escape and wallow in her embarrassment and uncertainty in private. “I should be getting back to my quarters and eat while it’s still warm.”
“Yes of course!” he replied with a friendly bob of his head, though his eyes latched on to her with an interest and intensity that was far more intimate than anything remotely friendly. She drank that appreciation in like a woman dying from thirst. As she was instinctively holding onto his every word, Jill did not miss his murmured goodnight as she quickly fled his presence and her confusion.
She had a feeling that she would have plenty to occupy her mind throughout the rest of the evening and well into the night. Whatever his actions meant, there was little doubt in her mind that at least part of her was wide open and willing to explore more. How she felt about that was still unclear, but she was intrigued.
Chapter6
Jill looked over the announcement sent electronically to her rooms. A ship-wide order to stay in their rooms. Really? That had to be in response to what happened yesterday. Clearly, the officer wished to avoid a repeat of that particular situation. Not that she planned on complying. With a shrug, she slid the missive into the trash, deleting the file, and set her tablet down as she turned her attention back to her work.
Glancing over the food she’d bought earlier; she shook her head in amusement. She certainly wasn’t letting all that food go to waste. It was far more than she could possibly eat by herself. Plus, she had spent the better part of the last hour reheating and modifying the food with the spices pulled from her luggage—spices that were still scattered across the narrow countertop of the miniscule kitchenette provided to lower-level passengers. She certainly wasn’t allowing all her hard work and such delicious food go to waste.
Nor was she going to leave the Geminidae twins to eating that terrible crap that was doled out to them as rations when Agor clearly disliked it as much as she did. She admitted that it was in part her own vanity that made her eager to see what his opinion would be of the food once he tasted what she could do with it. It wasn’t the same as giving him a sample of her home cooking, but there was still a certain undeniable satisfaction to it. And she wanted to see what Brydis thought as well. She didn’t consider her own cooking to be equal to that of her mother and grandmother, but she still possessed her own pride in what she could do and, for some reason, just really wanted to share that with the twins.
Beyond that, it was also the principle of the matter. She wasn’t about to be imprisoned in her quarters. It was bold as hell that the ship’s command would even try that. So, she was going to simply take it as a suggestion and ignore it. She didn’t make the trip all the way out to Ganymede just to be caged worse than she’d ever been on Earth.
Besides, what command didn’t know didn’t hurt them. Yesterday aside, she hadn’t seen officers on the deck for the majority of her trip. She didn’t expect that to change. And if they caught her out and about… what then? What could they realistically do that would be more than an uncomfortable inconvenience for a day or two?
Shrugging to herself, Jill collected the tightly covered containers, sliding them into her bag with forks. She didn’t know if Geminidae used anything of the sort when they had claws that could obviously tear through most food more efficiently than any knife or fork, but she figured it was polite to at least offer. A smile tugged at her lips as she shouldered her bag. As silly as all this was, she was very much looking forward to it. The trip had been long and lonely, and if she were being truthful with herself, she’d felt a bit lonely for quite some time. Finances made social outings difficult, and necessity forced her to live so far from her family that visiting them was infrequent. She commed them every few days but it wasn’t quite the same. It was no surprise that her entire life comprised of little other than working and going home to eat whatever she threw together for herself.
The twins brought something new and exciting, and she couldn’t help but thoroughly embrace it. New, positive things were definitely welcome.
Slipping out from her quarters, she headed out toward the open starboard deck. The way the levels were arranged, they were each attached to a viewing deck by the open mid deck. The open decks were arranged so that they alternated from level to level on either the starboard or port side. And each possessed an elevator that would take anyone traveling up from the lower decks to the dining floor for their part of the ship, or one deck higher to the main deck. The twins weren’t always both on the open deck and there were occasions that she hadn’t seen them at all, but she wasn’t entirely sure if that was because they were both absent or she just wasn’t looking carefully enough. Despite their bright coloring, the Geminidae possessed an impressive ability to blend in.
Taking the long hall that led from her quarters, Jill took the most direct route to the open deck, a flutter of excitement stirring within her chest. She couldn’t really account for her excitement, but she’d decided to enjoy it and so it was with a spring in her step that she arrived on the open deck. It stretched out with seeming emptiness in front of her as it was past the dinner rush, and she paused uncertainly. Her gaze trailed over the room, specifically along the tucked in deep corners and the pockets that comprised the nearly invisible security stations that were only noticeable from the rise in the wall. She’d noted before that they enjoyed to retreat out of human sight every so often, while maintaining a careful watch.
It all looked so empty, though, that she almost believed that she’d missed them altogether when she spied a subtle shift near one of the security stations. A smile curved her lips as Agor’s blue feathers made a brief appearance, as if he were stretching his wings just before he stepped out with an eager grin on his face.
“Jill! You have returned!”
“I told you I would when you saw me less than an hour ago,” she chided teasingly, her cheeks warming with pleasure as he crowded closer, his wings fluffing around with obvious excitement. It was all for the food in her bag, she was sure, but seeing the eagerness with which he greeted her with something that simple was charming. She had little doubt that he held such enthusiasm for nearly everything that brought him even the smallest amount of joy. “Here, I have something for you… for each of you,” she clarified.
When she’d found out that Agor had shared his food with his twin, she’d felt guilty that she hadn’t thought of the other male at all when she’d given it to him. And, in fact, Brydis perked up, his wings likewise fluffing out. They stretched briefly in a tiny flap as he too approached, a look of delight on his face.
“Thank you, Jill. This is beyond kind,” he murmured as he accepted the food she handed to him.
“Of course,” she replied, offering him a flustered smile. “If you don’t mind, I brought my meal as well and thought it would be nice if we eat on the viewing deck. There was an astro-feature update on the shipline’s app that popped up saying that we should have a great view of Jupiter and Ganymede along the starboard side. I thought it might be nice to enjoy it while we eat.”
She eyed them expectantly, unsure how they would react. She had never been good at dating games and was hopeless at making the first move. And they were aliens for fuck’s sake! For all she knew, eating and enjoying the atmosphere might be the most ridiculous, inane thing in existence to their species. They were certainly staring at her curiously. Her smile faded as Agor exchanged an undecipherable look with Brydis.
Gods, this was a mistake!
