Cyra cursed her body’s response to being alone with him. She glanced around the small room. There was no where to sit.
Her guilt crept up her spine. “You could have chosen more well-appointed quarters.”
He nodded but did not reply.
“May I discuss your request with you?”
“Yes, Captain.” His voice was scratchy.
If he was getting sick—No. That wasn’t an option. “You asked to go to Din’Gale where your family lives. Why would I agree to that?”
“My home has very good food, there are farms that grow grains and vegetables along with plentiful animal protein. You have to feed the thuringies. And the other women. And me. We have a long journey ahead. Wouldn’t it be best to make it as pleasant as possible?”
Great argument, but didn’t address her concern. “If I take you to your home, what would possibly compel you to reboard?”
“I won't harm you. In any way.” His yellow gaze turned hot, searing into you. “Your livelihood, your future, is secured by transporting cargo for others.” He scanned her body, and her breath caught while her core heated. “I will honor my contract as I have for the past five galactic years.”
Cyra swallowed hard, aching for the cool waves in her pool She studied him the way he’d done to her. Everything she knew about him confirmed his words. He’d saved her ship from the spiders. He’d helped with the dogs. He’d cooked the first decent meal she’d eaten since they left Cassan. Despite his appearance, he ate carefully, spoke respectfully, and was nothing but kind to everyone on board.
On the outside, he was designed to be an unstoppable predator. But he resonated a sense of calm and control. Peace. “I will take you home to visit,” she said rising. “Veda will return with more water.”
“Thank you, Captain,” he said as she retreated from his room. “I will show you good food.” His gaze filled with heated promise. “You will eat like a queen.”
His words carried more weight than they should, laden with unspoken promises. Cyra’s entire body thrummed with tension as she rushed away from Dez to tell her crew about her likely unwise decision to go to his home planet.
Chapter16
Cyra glaredat the launch panel on the bridge ofThe Treasure. Blaize and Rhysa were with her but focused on their own displays. The minimal fuel and goods they’d purchased were loaded. Rhysa had set their course for Din’Gale in the navigation systems. The ships internals were working the best they had been since they were new, but Cyra was worried about how she would launch. They hadn’t needed to break out of atmosphere on Cassan, but to leave Morgual required a big launch boost to get up to the critical speed for the exotic matter engines could take over. Hovering over the launch pad while the ground crew squawked about howThe Treasurewas holding up traffic didn’t help.
Cyra wasn’t about to masturbate on the deck to try for an orgasm, nor was she going to ask one of them to bring her to the energy release the ship required. “How the fuck am I going to make this piece of shit work, Auvi,” she screamed out and slammed her hands on the deck.
“That’s it.” Blaize spun in her engineer’s chair to face Cyra. “Do that again. There’s almost enough energy for a push.”
“Seriously? It works on anger too?” Cyra couldn’t believe Auvi hadn’t shared that with her.
“Seems so.” Blaize went back to monitoring the systems.
“Why the fuck didn’t I know that, Auvi?” She let all the anger that she felt at losing Captain Auvi, being sabotaged by Varik, and being kept in the dark on the ship's special ‘push’ system funnel through her body and into the panel.
“Yes,” Blaize hollered.
The ship lurched from where it had been hovering into hyper-speed, tossing Cyra back in her chair. She clung to the arms as the ship bucked out of the atmosphere not nearly as smoothly as she was used to. At leastThe Treasurewas finally underway.
“Damn, I was hoping you’d have to break down and let me get you off, Captain,” Rhysa said with a teasing wink.
“I’ll keep that in mind for future emergencies.” Cyra slumped in the captains chair drained of her anger and dreading what she’d have to face next.
Veda’s voice barked over the internal ship comm. Growls and snarls filled the background. “What the hell was that, Cyra? We nearly died back here. The thuringies are not happy.”
Cyra grimaced and pressed the comm button to reply. “Sorry. Rougher than I expected.”
“Next time warn us when you’re going to splat us like bugs against the wall.”
Cyra made placating noises, promising the next one would be smoother, although how she would keep that promise, she had no idea.
Within a few cycles,The Treasureneared Dez’s planet of Din’Gale. The closer they got the more Cyra second-guessed her decision to let Dez visit his home planet. That one decision could leave her and her crew stranded on the remote planet. Cyra didn’t really have a home besidesThe Treasure, but without transport jobs to sustain a crew, food, and fuel, she would have to sell it and find something else to do. She’d never lived anywhere else in her adult life.
They landed at the Din’Gale Royal Space Port and it was clear that the land had been scraped away to be suitable for landing. Through the numerous windows of the circular building that garagedThe Treasure, a landscape spread before her unlike anything she’d ever seen. Rocky plains covered in trees and vines provided a lush, but rugged, backdrop. Waterfalls filled the air with mist. The planet was almost as wet as her home planet., but the foliage was so different. Flocks of colorful birds punctuated the deep blue sky, swooping and diving through the naturally forming rainbows. The sheer beauty of it held her captive.
