as she strode toward the bathroom and its waiting tub. She’d seriously expected him to want to check no one could crawl into her rooms through the bathroom window or the ventilation shafts. Even though he didn’t seem to see her as a woman, something that for some reason irritated the daylights out of her, he seemed that sort of nitpicky. Dot the I’s and cross the T’s and all that.
Shaking her head, she put the thought from her mind and started the shower. After living on the streets for so long and then being in prison, she had fallen in love with the thing as soon as she’d seen it. Quickly, she stripped down, leaving her clothes on the floor to pick up later as she walked straight into the large stall.
A groan escaped her as the water hit her from all sides. The pressure was so high it felt like hundreds of little needles blasting her from all directions, massaging all her muscles like she had a hunky masseur in here. She closed her eyes and fell into that fantasy… strong hands over her skin, smoothing over her body. She arched in the embrace of the water, her fantasy man smiling as he pulled her closer. He turned her in his arms until her back was pressed against his chest, his hand sliding over her softly rounded stomach and heading lower until it slid between her thighs.
“Hmmmmm,” she moaned, cupping her breasts and pressing back. In her mind’s eye she looked over her shoulder…
And realized the quirk of her fantasy man’s lips was all too familiar, as was the way he held her. The same way Nyek had held her less than an hour ago in the hallway.
“Fuck it!” she hissed, snapping herself out of the fantasy. Couldn’t the asshole leave her the fuck alone? Did he have to invade her private thoughts as well?
Annoyed, she washed quickly, rinsing the suds of out her hair and off her skin with short, irritated movements. That had been shaping up to be a fucking amazing, totally X-rated daydream that with any luck would have ended in a bloody fantastic orgasm and Mr. Sexy Stick-up-his-ass had ruined it completely.
Yanking the towel roughly across her skin to dry herself, she suddenly paused, her ears pricking up. For a second there she’d thought she heard movement in one of the outer rooms. Odd. She was alone in here. Safe. Or she should be anyway. That had been the point in her babysitter’s high-handed little display.
No, there couldn’t be anyone in here. She shook her head and tried to dismiss the feeling. She was in the human sector on an alien warship, in a locked room guarded by murderous combat bots. No way would anyone sneak in here with her. But still, the hairs lifting on the back of her neck and years of experience watching her ass on the streets wouldn’t let her settle.
With a sigh, she reached for her discarded clothes, pulling on her tank top and panties. Rule one in any kind of fight, clothing was not optional. Naked fights were only good when pillows and a good hard fuck were in the offing. Her inner diva wrinkled her nose at the idea of putting dirty clothes back on and she chuckled at herself. Just a few months ago anything under a week old she’d have seen as acceptable, longer if she really wanted to keep people away, but this high life had ruined her.
She padded silently into the main room, dagger in hand and all her street senses on high alert. A first glance revealed everything was in its place as it should be. She didn’t let her guard down, though. Something was wrong. She wasn’t sure what, or even how she knew, but something was off about the room. The way the light fell maybe, or the fact someone she didn’t know was breathing the same air as she was.
“Die human scum!”
The attack came from the closet behind her, a huge figure bearing down on her with the flash of a blade in her peripheral vision as she swung around. She dropped to the ground, the vicious blade shaving a few errant curls off the top of her mohawk. She slammed a foot up, catching her attacker in the gut and sending him sailing over her head more through the element of surprise than judgment.
Shit. She should have put her boots back on.
With a bellow she rolled back to