Alien Paladin's Redemption - Mina Carter Page 0,23

look that would have shriveled a lesser warrior on the spot. Indeed, his balls still ached from the force of her ire, but he met her gaze levelly. He was not leaving, as she obviously wanted, until he had delivered her safely to her quarters.

“That one there,” she snapped, jerking her chin toward a door to the left of them.

“Excellent.” He smiled. “That wasn’t so hard now, was it? Shall we?”

He indicated the door, which slid open as soon as they approached. A small warning prickled in the back of his mind. These doors should not auto-open, not even in a supposed safe space like the human sector aboard. He would have to look into that tomorrow.

“You’re not coming in.” She stopped in the doorway, her mutinous expression back.

“I do not intend to,” he reassured her, staying safely in the middle of the corridor. “I merely wish to see that you are safely settled in your quarters and then I will return to duty.”

Her eyebrow winged up, a strange expression crossing her face he didn’t recognize. “Huh. Good. I wouldn’t invite you in anyway, not if you were the last man on Earth.”

He shrugged. “I fail to see the relevance of your comment. I am not a ‘man’ but a warrior and we are not on Earth.”

“No, you’re a pain in the ass prick jumped up on his own importance!” she hissed and stepped backward, glaring at him until the doors closed between them.

He grunted in approval and turned to go, which was when he realized he was being watched. A male stood in the doorway a couple down, one shoulder against the edge of the retracted door. The sight of him brought Nyek up sharp. At first glance he’d have said the male was Lathar, but his odd clothing and something about his bearing said he was not.

Which meant…

“I didn’t realize there were any human males on board.”

The human grinned, thumbs looped in his belt in a nonchalant pose. “I’m the only one. Kinda special in that respect.” His gaze flicked to Indra’s closed door but he didn’t comment.

“You’d be the new XO then.”

“Indeed. You are?”

“Stephens.”

The male didn’t offer any more information, so Nyek just nodded and continued on his way. He still had to train this evening and then there was a mountain of reports to catch up on before he could even think about assigning warriors to the AI retrieval mission.

A deep sense of calm filled him as he put the disturbing female from his mind and sank back into the comfort of the familiar lines and routines of his duty.

All was as it should be. Order was restored to the ship without random humans wandering about.

“Fucking pain in the ass alien!”

Indra hissed at the door after it closed on Nyek standing there. She didn’t care if he heard or not. He was an arrogant pain in the ass alien and also the hottest man of any species she’d ever seen.

“Wouldn’t touch him if he was the last man on any damned planet,” she huffed and turned away from the door.

The rooms she’d been given were so large that when she’d arrived she’d had to check with Madison that this was, in fact, all for her.

It wasn’t a room. It was a suite. She’d never had a suite before. Ever. A large sitting room with comfortable couches facing a holographic entertainment system that could call up any film she cared to mention or even half remember was sectioned off from the bedroom by double doors that wouldn’t look out of place in a swanky hotel. The bedroom itself was just as large with a huge bed she could get lost in set against one wall. The other held closets bigger than the nooks she’d slept in on the streets and a door that led to a sumptuous bathroom.

She’d expected something like the guest room on the mercenary ship that had rescued them—barely big enough for a couple of bunks with a claustrophobic excuse for a shower and WC in one corner. Even still, it was more than she’d had for years.

And, more to the point, it had a locking door, something only someone used to living on the streets could consider a luxury. For her, it was freedom… the freedom to relax completely, knowing she was safe. The rest of the world was locked away and she could let her guard down.

Even hot-as-hades Mr. Stick-up-his-ass hadn’t barged in here without permission. Something that surprised her, she mused