to start over with free equipment and bonuses for joining. Someone wanted to fill this gen ship enough that they promised a brand new world to the farmers and filled the rest of the berths with Fleet criminals.”
That wasn’t a good sign, particularly when combined with the possibility of a planned intercept. There weren’t that many reasons for sending a minimally-staffed gen ship into ungoverned space with a full load of passengers but not enough supplies. Nokx made a thoughtful noise. He was about to pose another question when he actually looked at EJ in all her glory. She knelt on the bed, cheeks flushed, and watched him like he was a co-conspirator and she’d just come up with the heist of a lifetime. Her hair wisped around her head in a halo and her green eyes flashed, and she even nibbled on her lower lip as she waited for him to comment.
It felt like Harzt had just punched him in the chest and knocked him on his ass. Nokx almost couldn’t breathe. She was... riveting. Arresting. Nearly stopped his damn hearts.
Her head tilted as she studied him. “What?”
“Just debating some options,” he said. He couldn’t have told her what he was really thinking—that the Earther female could have knocked him over with just a breath and taken everything he owned, and he wouldn’t have lifted a finger to stop her. Nokx’s hearts beat furiously against his chest as he struggled to find balance in his own mind. Nokx cleared his throat as his quarters suddenly seemed a lot smaller than they ever had before EJ set foot inside. “It doesn’t sound like a good situation.”
“No,” she said. EJ’s gaze drifted to the wall next to him as her attention wandered, and part of him missed the focus of her green gaze. “That’s why I had to leave. I had to get out. I didn’t want to be there when whatever is going to happen, happens. I didn’t mean to pick this ship; it was just the only one nearby with an open bay.”
Nokx watched the pulse flutter against her throat and wondered what her skin smelled like. He’d held her at least three times that day but hadn’t had the chance to know her. To learn her. He pushed the distracting thoughts away. There wasn’t time for that. It was just the infatuation of having been on a ship full of males for several months without a chance to find companionship on a spaceport. He needed to get his mind right.
He grunted, pretending disinterest, and pointed at the water closet. “If you wish to wash, wash. Then we will eat.”
EJ’s posture changed immediately and wariness crept over her face. She retreated to the very end of the bed and ended up tangled in the spare robe he’d offered. “Wash? I’m fine like I am.”
He shrugged and shoved to his feet. “Then put on the robe and we will eat.”
She picked up the fabric and frowned at it, trying to figure out how it worked, and eyed him sideways. “Do I have to?”
Nokx swallowed a smile. It wasn’t necessary, though it would conveniently mark her as his among the rest of the crew. It was the best protection for her, though he knew that wasn’t why Faros insisted on EJ staying in his quarters. He’d be damned to freezing to death in the desert if he let another male get close to her. “Yes.”
EJ huffed air through her nose and set to work figuring out the garment. Nokx stood back and tried to fight the sense that he was suddenly and completely in over his head.
Chapter 7
EJ
EJ expected some reaction from the big Xaravian when she listed out all the reasons she escaped the Hollbrd. But he watched her with that damnable blank expression and asked a few questions. No promise to prevent the captain from sending her back to the gen ship, no reaction at all except to laugh when she revealed what she overheard while ‘exploring’ the ship. It was too bad he assumed the worst of her, even though he was right that she’d been creeping around to find something valuable she could use to free herself.
As much as she hated to admit it, he had a great laugh: one of those deep belly laughs that had been stored up for a while and finally burst out. She didn’t think Xaravians could laugh, but Nokx seemed hell-bent on disproving everything she thought she knew about the barbarians.