the job. She had a serious problem with a dirty man wanting to touch her.
The off-worlders who were hired to run the landing port never stayed for long. She’d seen too many of her friends get involved with them. It never resulted in anything but the heartbreak of being left behind. The promises of lasting relationships were usually lies. Those men always left when the job was done. Most didn’t even have the courtesy to tell women they were leaving. Just up and gone without warning.
It was also a reasonable fear that she’d get pregnant and be abandoned, like many other women had, if she’d let someone get her into bed.
She pulled her knees up and hugged her legs. There’d never been a man who had tempted her to take that chance.
Until meeting Blade…
The two weeks she’d spent locked inside the captain’s quarters had given her a lot to think. Mostly about regrets. She was a twenty-six-year-old virgin, which was a bit depressing. But in all those years, she’d never met one single man who’d tempted her to change that. She’d also concluded she didn’t want her first exposure to sex to be the nightmare experience it would have been at the hands of her kidnappers.
Blade was a clone. She’d heard once that they were all sterile but wasn’t sure if that was true or not. The thought of asking him outright had her burying her face against her knees to groan. He’d saved her life, and the memory of him in just those lounge pants kept flashing through her mind. He had a lot of muscles, a lot of golden skin. The glimpse he’d given her of the side of his hip had been the closest thing she’d seen to a man’s bared lower half. He’d also just bathed, and he smelled wonderful even from across the room.
“Pathetic,” she muttered.
“What is?”
Blade’s deep voice had her jerking her head up. He stood just a few feet away. He hadn’t put on a shirt but he’d changed into another pair of pants. They hung low on his lean hips and were light gray in color, accenting his tan. He took a seat in a chair opposite from her and leaned back. The position stretched out his flat stomach and broad upper chest. He rested his thick forearms on the arms of the chair.
“Nothing.”
He glanced around the room. “You didn’t need to straighten up. I planned to do it myself.” He held her gaze. “There’s no need for you to do manual labor, but I appreciate it.”
“It’s what I do when I need to think.”
“You should take it easy.” He glanced at her taped thumb.
“It’s feeling great. You wrapped it really well, and I almost forget that it’s even hurt unless I try to bend it at the knuckle.”
He nodded, turning his attention to her face. “Are you going over escape plans? Ways to kill me? I left the door to my sleeping cabin unlocked. That should make it easier for you.”
He astonished her with the crazy things he said. “Stop it.”
He tilted his head slightly, regarding her with his dark blue eyes. They were arresting. “I’d do the same.”
“I’m not strong like you.” Helpless. It’s how she felt, but she wasn’t going to say that word aloud. “I can’t fly a shuttle or hack the communication systems. I wouldn’t even know who to contact. With my luck, I’d reach out to the pirates and lead them right to me. I teach people how to read, that’s the extent of my skill. Most of my students are children, but I hold an evening class a few times a week for adults.”
“How did they reach that age without learning?”
“Some families are poorer than others on my planet. They send their boys to the mines to work instead of to school. Most of them don’t have an interest to learn until they have children of their own. It’s tough to help them with their homework otherwise.”
“Do girls work in the mines, too?”
“No. I mean, there are a few, but not many. Most of us become teachers, run stores, or work in the food-growing industry. We have large gardens outside of town where we grow our fresh vegetables in greenhouses to feed the colony. A lot of supplies come in through the port, but few can afford to buy off-world stuff. Mostly it gets stored there for transports to take deeper into space, to other worlds.”