Nokx (The Sraibur Crew #3) - Layla Nash Page 0,115

through the door as he spoke to the other Earther. “He’s actually a very good security chief.”

Estelle arched an eyebrow and answered coolly. “Doesn’t matter to me. Seems like that’s your business if you return to that ship.”

“I just thought he might be able to teach you a thing or two,” Nokx said.

EJ turned just as Nokx stepped into the room, and she glimpsed Estelle’s bright red face before the door closed. EJ frowned at the Xaravian. “What was that about?”

He grinned and picked her up. “Harzt was eyeing her and she pretended not to notice. Thought we might be able to make him suffer a bit to get back at him for locking me up and dragging you back to the Hollbrd. He’s not used to females ignoring him.”

A good idea to get even with him for throwing her back on the Hollbrd, although she didn’t want Estelle to be uncomfortable. The first mate had been through enough in her short time on the Lovelace, from what Bula said. EJ dangled in Nokx’s arms as he brought her to the unmade bed. “Make him suffer, but leave her alone, will you?”

“Of course.” Nokx put her down so she could sit up against the wall, and he took a chair next to the bed. “How are you, my marmox?”

It seemed like she’d been asked that more times in just two days than in the last five years combined. And not once did she feel like she had a good answer. “I’m not sure.”

He smiled just a bit and stretched his legs out. She marveled at how relaxed he seemed, but perhaps it was deserved after what they’d heard. What she’d learned. Had he planned to ever tell her about being locked up on the Sraibur? “Why didn’t you tell me what they did? To keep you from me?”

He took a deep breath. “In the end, it doesn’t matter. I wasn’t there to protect you. The circumstances would have sounded like an excuse.”

“You are ridiculous.” EJ wanted to shake sense into him. Thick-headed barbarians. Perhaps the scales blocked oxygen from reaching his brain and affected his reasoning. “Of course it matters. You were literally unconscious and locked away. I couldn’t hold that against you. I wouldn’t have blamed you for leaving me. I might not have said some of what I said.”

“Might not have?” Nokx smiled with half his mouth and leaned forward to kiss her before she could keep talking. It was a gentle brush of his lips, but it was enough to distract EJ from the rest of what she meant to say. Nokx touched her cheek, his silver eyes burning with a kind of emotion she’d never seen in anyone looking at her. “Nixtava, what matters is that we are together now.”

She swallowed the knot in her throat. It looked like love in his eyes, the kind of love she’d never dreamed of experiencing. She felt terrible for assuming the worst when he wasn’t there. “I shouldn’t have doubted you.”

“I thought we were starting from new?” Nokx raised his eyebrows in challenge, and she flushed. Those had been her words, after all, though she’d meant something different when she said it. He leaned to squeeze her ankle. “Ellie Jane, do you want to be with me? To stay with me, no matter where the winds take us?”

She’d never been more certain of anything in her life. Even if there wasn’t any wind in space. “Yes.”

“Then that’s all I need to hear. That’s it.” Nokx put his knee on the bed so he could catch her face and draw her closer for another kiss. EJ closed her eyes as his lips drifted over her cheek and down her throat. “We start new from this moment. We say the Lovelace brought us together. Okay?”

EJ cleared her throat, but her voice still came out a little rusty. “Okay.”

“Now,” he murmured, nuzzling behind her ear. He teased under the hem of her shirt and EJ squirmed. “I remember someone promising me a workout.”

“That’s true,” she said. EJ laughed and wiggled out of his arms, even as Nokx tried to hold her close. She’d been thinking of this moment the whole time he was in sickbay recuperating. “But I have a plan. A very specific plan.”

His eyes lit up and a slow smile spread across his face. Nokx slid across the bed so he leaned against the wall, lacing his hands behind his head, and arched his eyebrows. “Oh yeah? What’ve you got