“Well, I wouldn’t want to bother him,” she said. The Earther’s nerves grew even more visible: her hands trembled as she patted at her hair and tugged on her awful gray clothes.
Nokx felt just a hint of sympathy for her. She was frightened, and with good reason: stowing away on an unknown ship with an unknown crew was a huge risk for any female, but particularly an Earther female. “You don’t know as much about Xaravians as you think, girl. If someone on this crew was named Fryx—and there isn’t anyone with that name here—and he’d invited you onto this ship, there is no way he would put you in quarters with a broken door on a ship full of other males. You would be in his quarters and he would have marked you as his. You sneaking around is clear evidence that you’re a stowaway.”
Her face lost the flushed color and terror rose in her eyes. “But—”
“Stowaways go to the captain. He’ll decide what to do with you.” Nokx nodded once more at the corridor. “The longer you put it off, the worse it’ll be. Let’s go.”
She gulped for air. Her voice shook when she finally forced words out. “Please. Please don’t. Just let me hide here. I’ll disappear at the next port, I promise. I’ll be quiet and won’t cause any trouble, I promise. No one needs to know.”
Nokx frowned as he studied her. What was she running from? She clearly had no plan for where she went, if she was bargaining to be left on any spaceport. Which meant she ran away from something instead of running toward it.
She spotted his hesitation and lurched forward a step, her hands held out in supplication. “Please. Just walk away and you won’t hear a peep from me.”
Which was another lie, since she’d have to eat and drink and deal with other physical needs. But something in her expression, in the hopelessness and helplessness, tugged at his hearts and tapped into an emotion he hadn’t felt in a very long time: protectiveness. Nokx frowned at her and wrestled with whether he could actually allow a stowaway on the Sraibur. Impossible. And yet the look in her eyes...
He steeled himself for a very long argument, since he knew an Earther female wouldn’t give up without a fight.
Chapter 3
EJ
EJ had been ready to bolt for an escape pod—if she could have gotten past the massive shoulders that blocked the door—when the Xaravian caught out her lies and said he’d take her to the captain for judgment. It was the last thing she needed. She’d been so careful sneaking out of the cargo bay and had made it through what felt like half the ship, searching for a good hiding spot and a place to use the facilities, when the heavy footfalls of the Xaravian alerted her to pursuit.
She’d almost evaded him. Her whole body shook as she’d hidden in the wardrobe and he’d still found her, and then she tried to spin a story to explain her presence. And since she hadn’t had time to come up with a good cover story, she made one up on the spot and paid for it when he saw through it completely.
Although the part about a Xaravian keeping her in his quarters and somehow marking her made her skin prickle with alarm. She’d never had to seduce a male in order to find safe passage; as a rule, she avoided romantic entanglements, since those were more difficult to extricate herself from than the Fleet enlistment contract she’d signed.
The Xaravian, whose name she still didn’t know, was actually a handsome beast of a male: tall and broad and intimidating, muscled beneath the Xaravian scales that swirled with blue-green colors and a hint of red, with a deep voice and easy manner that definitely appealed. She figured he was the disciplined type and wouldn’t even consider letting her hide away on the ship without notifying his captain.
And then he hesitated. A hint of sympathy crossed his otherwise craggy features, and his silver eyes studied her as he debated.
He was handsome enough she wouldn’t mind sharing his quarters, even if that meant sharing his bed and having some fun. He obviously wouldn’t be looking for a long-term relationship, and neither was she—so why not have fun together? It was a way to pass the time, that was certain. And that would buy her more distance from the gen ship,