“If I’m a low-life space pirate, what does that make you? You fucked me and enjoyed it. Very much.”
“A pathetic fool,” she answered stiffly, willing herself to hold his gaze.
His eyes flickered and before she could protest, he slammed his mouth on hers, ravishing her lips with a possessive kiss. Even though she shouldn’t want it, should fight it, even, she opened her mouth to welcome his tongue. Their tongues clashed, wild and needy. When he finally broke the kiss, they stared at each other for a moment, panting heavily.
“I won’t be too long. In the meantime, you should eat. I’ll send some food over,” he said. Then he turned around and left his quarters.
Chapter 7
Lying in bed alone, staring at the ceiling, didn’t help to diminish Kat’s anger. Even though she was really, really mad at Dykan, she was mostly annoyed with herself. She still longed for him. She didn’t want to want a bastard like Dykan, but she did. And the worst thing was, he’d never pretended to be anything other than a good-for-nothing pirate. At least he had been honest about who and what he was right from the start. The fact that he was planning to throw her, her brother and her cousin out of an airlock was a big flashing billboard indicating his rotten character. But why then did she melt into a needy puddle of goo every time he looked at her? Looked! He didn’t even need to touch her to get her hot. She would love to put all the blame for wanting Dykan on his seduction skills and him being such a hunky bastard, but Kat knew her feelings for him went deeper, much deeper. No, this was on her too.
That bastard! Kat punched the pillow, pretending it was Dykan’s face, repeatedly slamming her fist into it with gusto.
A strange sound made her freeze with her fist hanging in the air. Confused, she scanned the room, but everything was silent now. Then she heard it again: two melodious high-pitched tones. Slowly, she looked from left to right, and then it dawned on her. The chime for the door. There was someone at the door, waiting for her to open it. Or eventually becoming too impatient and just come in. And she was sitting on the bed, buck naked.
Kat darted to Dykan’s closet and grabbed the first shirt she saw, a black one with a V-neck. She put the shirt on quickly—it almost reached her knees, which covered enough for Kat’s taste—and dashed to the door to open it. On the other side stood the young Makaen she had seen when they had snuck aboard the ship. He was the one who had been so distracted by the working girl that he had completely missed them slipping past him.
The Makaen stared at her with clear dislike in his eyes. In his hands he was holding a tray with a bowl on it that contained something that looked like stew. He pushed the tray toward her.
“Food,” the Makaen growled.
“Um…thank you?” Kat said, somewhat taken aback by the hostile attitude as he practically pushed the tray into her hands.
“Don’t thank me, human. I don’t want any gratitude from you. I’m only here because my captain ordered me. If it was up to me, I’d let you starve.”
Kat straightened her back. “Wow, is this a general Makaen-hate-humans thing or is this personal?” she asked, trying to sound more stoic than she felt.
The Makaen grunted. “Oh, I hate humans, but I especially hate you. And those Cassidi in the brig. Because of you sneaking aboard on my watch, I’m on STCD for the next thirty rotations. Thirty rotations!”
Even though a voice in her head told her it was best to just end this conversation and close the door, Kat was too irritated not to ask. First, she had to deal with Dykan’s crap and now this buffoon was apparently blaming her for his captain being upset with him. The big baby!
“What’s ST…um?”
“STCD. Sanitary tubes cleaning duty. And I hate sanitary tubes cleaning duty. It’s the worst task on the ship.”
“Right,” she replied, dragging out the word. “I don’t know what sanitary tubes cleaning duty entails exactly, but it really sounds gross. Still, I don’t think it’s fair of you to blame me for this. At least not fully. I would never have tried to sneak aboard if you hadn’t been so distracted by that working girl. If it was your job to watch and secure the cargo being loaded onto the ship, then you should have been more vigilant.”
The Makaen frowned. “Working girl? Oh, you mean the pleasure female.”
“Yeah. You’re supposed to be a pirate, for Pete’s sake. I imagine you have enemies all over the universe and that therefore you need to be watchful all the time, but instead you let yourself get distracted. Luckily, it was us who snuck aboard and not other pirates who would have slit your throat. Your behavior could have gotten your crew killed. If I was your captain, I would have given you forty days of STDs.”
During her speech the expression on the Makaen’s face had gotten more and more incredulous and confused, as if he couldn’t believe she was talking to him at all, let alone like that.
“You mean STCD. And who in the Great Goddess’s name is this Pete?”
“What?” Now Kat was confused.
“You said ‘for Pete’s sake.’ Who is this Pete and why did you bring him up? Is he your deity?”
Kat shook her head and waved her hand. “It’s just an expression from Earth. It’s not important. What’s your name?”
“Loanod,” the Makaen replied weary.
“Look, Loanod. My brother is a specialist in whining, and because of him, I became a specialist in the subtle oral art of whiners’ butt kicking. I’m sorry you have to do some nasty shit the next thirty rotations, no pun intended, but man up and stop wailing about it like a big baby. So you made a mistake—learn from it and deal with the consequences. I did. You don’t see me crying, do you? And I have to have sex with that bastard captain of yours. Right now, I would trade that for some STDs in the blink of an eye.”
The Makaen opened his mouth to say something but shut it again when Kat continued talking.
“And I don’t know how old you are, but aren’t you a bit too young to get involved with working girls? Especially ones who look old enough to be your grandmother. Unless that’s your sexual preference, of course—I’m not judging, but in that case, you should be with someone who doesn’t want payment for having sex with you. And if not, you should find a girl your own age and go on dates, like to a movie.”
The Makaen just stared at her with a blank, confused gaze.
“Also, you don’t have to like me, but that doesn’t mean you can’t at least be civil. Saying please and thank you doesn’t cost one fucking credit. So, thank you for bringing me something to eat. I really appreciate it. Have a good day.”
With that, Kat swiveled around and stepped back into the quarters, the door swooshing closed behind her.
Standing in the middle of the room, she sighed and let her chin fall to her chest. She couldn’t believe she’d just mouthed off a Makaen. Until a few days ago, she would have dropped like a possum just seeing a Makaen from afar, and now she was telling them they were low-life pirates and whining babies. If this was what anger did to her, she had to tread carefully. Some Makaen might not react with such restraint. Immediately, she felt guilty for taking all her frustration out on that poor Loanod. Well, maybe not poor Loanod. He had started it. Still, hopefully she hadn’t been too harsh with him.