AllFreeNovel
Share Us
“On the house,” Theo announced.
Yeah, right.Kaia would bet one of Loran’s lackeys got him to do it. A shit-faced mark is an easy mark.
Orion ripped the packet open with his teeth. “Finally some good service.”
Kaia resisted rolling her eyes. Theo did it for the both of them.
She had no idea how she was meant to pull this off: not only seduce a colony heir, but convince him to take her back to his ship with him. Judging by her interaction with Orion Halen so far, she’d be lucky not to kill the man even if she did manage to get him interested.
“So you’re a scavenger. What do you scavenge?”
Kaia opened her mouth to, but hunks of metal didn’t seem like the most exciting answer. She had to up the ante here, get this guy invested or something, right?
“I’ll tell you over another H2O,” she offered.
“Done.” Orion was already waving Theo over.
CHAPTER4
ORION
His blood alcohol levels were rapidly rising in his Neurosync visual overlay—they had some strong shit in these backwater stations. He supposed they needed it, with water so scarce and misery so high.
But he barely paid attention to the percentage ticking ever upward. He was too busy learning about the life and work of the scavenger sitting before him. She had one cheap combat boot perched on the rung of her stool, the other dangling. It had started swinging with excitement, threatening to kick him in the shin as she told him about that day's spoils.
Both of her cheeks were now flushed with the alcohol, obscuring the red welt he'd noted on the left side of her face.
Orion widened his stance a bit on his stool to keep at a safe distance without interrupting her. He’d even caught himself grinning at her animated enthusiasm as her small but pouty lips curled up in a wicked smile.
“So what was the best thing you found today?” he asked.
Her eyes narrowed, chin dipped in that coy way that told him she wasn’t quite sure how much she wanted to say. What was she afraid of? That he’d want whatever she found? That he was digging for info to take it from her? Hadn’t he bought enough water for her to be convinced he didn’t need anything she could give him?
The scavenger must have come to the same conclusion, because she shoved a hand in the thigh pocket of her cargo pants and pulled out a single ring. She pinched it between black-tipped fingers. Red was more the style on Mars, but they suited her. The ring gleamed against the darkness of her painted skin.
Orion’s brows shot up. “Gold? How many karats?”
With a flick of her fingers, the ring disappeared in her fist. She shrugged. “Doesn’t matter. It’d fetch a pretty chip though, I know that.”
“You’resellingit? Such a special find?”
She leaned forward so suddenly that it caught Orion by surprise. Not even that close, but his eyes gravitated back to that delicate mouth as she said, “There’s three more.”
“No shit.”
Gold was rare. Not just rare for this shithole either.Colossalhad about a dozen pieces in its own collection. And here she was, with four gold rings? Sure, they could be worthless. They probablywereworthless… but Orion couldn’t help but be excited for this scrawny girl.
But mostly he was jealous.
“Damn, wish I could go flying around scavenging treasure like that.”
“Why can’t you?” Kaia leaned back. “You look like you have the chips for it.”
Orion groaned. His whole life was lived in luxury, yet still under his mother’s thumb.
“My mother sent me to fuckingMarsto prevent me from flying.” And he had let her. Took it all like a bitch.
And here was a girl with no family, no name, no wealth to speak of, flying her own ship with no license.
