AllFreeNovel
Share Us
Kaia had none of those things. Well, they’d find out about the fertility part. Orion expected her to wither under Mare Halena’s chilled gaze. Instead, she just went more rigid and straightened like a statue under his arms. He looped his forearms over her chest, squeezing his pride at her reaction.
“Not a problem, my son. You can pick one or two more from our list.”
He smirked. “No thanks, I think I’m fine for now.”
The commander of the largest colony ship in the known galaxies drummed her fingers against her seat, and Orion knew that would be the closest she would come to showing her agitation. Her husband, of course, kept his mouth shut. He stayed out of colony business and out of his wife’s way. As a good commander’s spouse should.
“Well, if there’s nothing else…” Orion pressed.
“There is plenty more, Orion. Per, get the girl quarters for the night. My son and I have a lot to discuss.”
Orion’s father moved to action, and Orion’s grasp across Kaia's chest tightened as he approached them with a placid smile. “She’ll stay in my cabins.”
Per Halen hesitated, looking back at his wife, Orion’s bitch of a mother. But before she could make this a fight, his fucking bride-to-be chimed in.
“No.” Kaia ducked out from Orion’s arms. “I’d prefer my own cabin for now.”
Father didn’t even try to hide the relief on his face, offering his arm to the girl. Conflict avoidance was his happy place. “Very well then. Come, dear.”
Orion scoffed at the pretense of Kaia having any choice in the matter. She’d be in his cabins soon enough.
Per Halen offered Orion a placating smile. “Don’t worry. I won’t keep her far.”
And the fucking girl grimaced. Shit, she wanted to be nowhere near him. That wouldn’t do at all. The smug satisfaction on Mother’s face burrowed into his sternum. He’d sort this out with Kaia later because this shit was not going to fly.
Orion watched as his father led her away, this time through the common entrance as his blood necessitated.
CHAPTER16
KAIA
“Sorry, we didn’t have anything larger prepared,” Kaia’s father said from the doorway as she stepped into the most luxurious cabin she’d ever seen.
She didn't know where to look. Her gaze bounced from one feature to another, unable to absorb any of them. Not the large plush bed against the wall. Not the soft rug beneath her feet—which she’d cringed at stepping on, denting the thick fibers with her shabby old boots. There was a transparent, possibly real glass door on the other side, leading to what appeared at a glance through the opening to be a bathroom. A separate, private bathroom.
Kaia’s attention finally fell to the alcove just off the wall to her right.
“Is that…”
Her minder followed her gaze. “Oh, yes, I suppose you may not have had one of these. Each cabin is allocated five hundred milliliters of H2O and two liters of bathing water per day. Where are you from?”
Half a liter of water? And wait… did he say… bathing?
Kaia stared at the stack of shot-glasses nestled into the side of the hydra station, though she did manage to answer the question. “Riker 109.”
“That was Orion’s last layover, wasn't it? Is that where you met?”
Kaia nodded.
They were so clean, the glasses. They looked heavy stacked on top of each other like that, in a neat little column of transparent polymer.
“You must’ve made quite an impression in such a short time.”
Kaia turned to him then, dragging her eyes from the stack of drinking vessels. The man’s face was kind enough, but those eyes betrayed a hidden shrewdness Kaia had long learned to recognize. The smartest people always knew how to play dumb.
“You’re Orion’s father?”
“Yes. Per Halen.”
