Chapter 2
Heat rolled off the slabcrete, cooking through the thick soles of Cait’s boots.
If she wasn’t careful, they’d be Swiss cheese before dinner.
Crouching down, she ducked under the edge of the hull and then froze as a shadow stretched out across the slabcrete in front of her.
It was long and lean. Definitely not a cargo drone.
It was human-shaped or humanoid at the very least.
She didn’t flinch. Long experience taught her not to show all her emotions on her face. Instead, she just rocked back on her heels, adjusted her grip on her comp, and looked up.
And then kept on looking up.
The guy in front of her was tall, way too tall to be human.
He had to be at least seven feet of lean, hard muscle blocking the sun from reaching her.
Holy sh-he was right on top of her and she hadn’t even heard him approach.
That was bad. Real bad. She knew from long experience that she had to keep her wits about her in places like this, but nobody had warned her about aliens who could creep up on you without making a fuc-fudging sound.
She narrowed her eyes against the glare, trying to get a glimpse of his face. He was silhouetted by the sun, so all she could see was dark hair pulled back, but then he moved and her breath caught in her throat as her thoughts scattered.
She’d been around attractive men in the past. Half her brother’s friends were wannabe holovid cover model types, obsessed about their appearances.
She’d never given any of them even half a glance.
But this guy… Shit, it was like any deity listening had taken a look straight into every wet dream she’d ever had, taken notes and built a guy custom-made for her own personal fantasies.
Tall and broad-shouldered, he was utterly ripped, but not deadweight muscle kind of way. The kind of muscle that was built in a gym like her brother’s friends. No, this looked fast and lean, the dangerous, efficient kind of muscle that was built for a purpose rather than for show.
A rumble of amusement sounded in the center of his chest, and a deep voice said, “My eyes are up here, kelarris.”
Annoyed to be caught staring, she snapped her gaze up and her eyes collided with his. What was left of her train of thought derailed completely. If she thought his body was amazing, then the face that met her gaze was…
He had the face of a dark angel, which was a cliched phrase she’d heard in numerous holo-romance novels and always scoffed at, but it utterly fit here.
Long, dark hair was pulled back from an almost cruelly handsome face with high cheekbones and exotically slanted eyes, a strong nose, full lips, and stubble… but the sexy kind, not the scruffy kind.
He smiled as he stared down at her and his eyes flashed red.
Shit. Make that an alien dark angel.
Silence stretched out between them. He didn’t move. He just watched her, loose and relaxed as if he was waiting for her to do something, like maybe step back or apologize. Act like every woman who just found herself nose to nose with a huge guy unexpectedly. A huge, dangerous-looking guy.
Which would really be the smart move, wouldn’t it? Especially when she was nose to nose with a huge, dangerous-looking alien guy on what was essentially an alien prison planet.
She’d never been accused of having common sense, so she stayed exactly where she was.
“Yes?” she asked, tilting her head to the side as she looked up at him. “Can I help you?”
“You look like you’re having a hell of a morning,” he said.
He had a smooth voice, deep and sounded more educated than she’d expected for a prisoner on a penal colony. Then he smiled, showing teeth that were white, straight, and a little too sharp at the corners.
Everything within her went cold. There it was, the charm offensive.
She’d long ago realised that men that looked like this did not approach women who looked like her.
Not that she was concerned about her appearance or self-conscious in any way, but she was well aware that she was more girl next door than supermodel.
Added to that was the fact that her brother had been pulling versions of this shit since puberty, and she recognised every play out of the book.
The little smile, the relaxed body language.
If he’d been near something that he could lean on, there would have been a lean, and possibly he’d have tucked his thumbs into his waistband for a little genital framing there to emphasize his virility.
But what was the absolute clincher was the confidence that his mere presence was a gift to her.
Yeah, she’d seen this before. This was charm that was weaponized… Smile, invade personal space, and wait for the poor little woman to melt at his feet.
It was insulting. Did she look that stupid… or desperate?
“My morning is just fine,” she said with a smile, making sure that her face stayed professionally blank and neutral. “Can I help you with something?”
“Help me?” He laughed, the sound low and rough. Like an auditory caress, it tingled along her skin as if he’d actually touched her. “Was about to ask you the same thing, Red. You looked about ready to kill that access panel.”
Red. Oh, hell no. No, they were not going there.
“We’ve not known each other anywhere near long enough for nicknames, handsome,” she shot back.
He’s too close, Fred commented. And he’s too big. I’m arming the cannon.
He can’t help being as big as he is. Let’s not penalize the guy for that and blow his head off, she snapped back so quick it almost gave her a headache.
Cait, Fred warned, his tone entirely unimpressed.
Which was not a surprise, he’d been unimpressed with every male who’d had the audacity to approach her since she was about fourteen.
He is a large unidentified male on an alien prison planet.
More than that, he is blocking your path to safety.
Let me tag him. The port-side cannon has a clear shot.
I said no, Fred. Making sure to keep her expression the same, she kept her hands loose at her sides. No fidgeting. No backing off. Just run a scan. We are not shooting the locals and causing a diplomatic incident.
Of course, Handsome Alien Hottie took her comment as encouragement rather than a warning to reel his neck in. With a smile, he took half a step closer to her. Just pushing in, and taking up that little bit more space, as he eased himself into her personal bubble.
“We could know each other better quite quickly, I think,” he said, gaze drifting over her face with lazy interest.
She arched an eyebrow. “Really? You think?”
His grin widened to a smile that changed his hard features from merely devastatingly handsome right through to supernova apocalypse. Yeah, obviously designed to melt a poor little woman’s brain until she did everything that he suggested.
“This heat… Awful, isn’t it?” he commented, not breaking eye contact. “Tends to make most people homicidal. Usually not the pretty ones, though.”
Her eye roll was so impressive, they nearly rolled out of her skull. The pretty ones… Really? He was really going for it like that?
Scan complete. No weapons detected. Fred informed her. No threat markers. He doesn’t even have a knife on him. Who walks around a penal colony without a knife?
An idiot or someone who didn’t need one. Neither option made her feel better.
Threat assessment. Physically, significant. Motivationally, unclear. I still recommend the cannon. Small warning shot. Take a toe off.
We are not shooting him, Fred.
He is very annoying.
He’s annoying me, too. But we can’t shoot people just for being annoying.
Submitting a request to review this policy.
She gave Handsome Alien Hottie the smile she reserved for customs officials. “I’m busy,” she said. “So unless you’ve got a hydraulic cylinder for a Wren-class hauler in your pocket, I’ve got places to be.”
Stepping around him, she headed for the mid-size hauler across the slabcrete. Purposely, she didn’t look back, but he followed her anyway. The footsteps behind her were unhurried, heavy, and even.
She bit the inside of her cheek. For fuc-fudge’s sake.
Assholes like him were so predictable. He’d filed her under playing hard to get and hadn’t even considered that she might just be busy.
Which was insulting, really. She had a repair list the length of her arm and not enough time to get through half of it before her departure window tomorrow.
She absolutely did not have time for whatever the hell this was.
He’s flanking, Fred commented. I could charge the hull plating. Just enough to discourage.
She almost rolled her eyes.
We’re not anywhere near the ship, Fred. So how are you going to shock him?
There was a pause. Good point. I could shoot him instead. The cannon is still charged.
She sighed. We are not shooting or shocking the locals.
Submitting a second request to review this policy.
The heat was absolutely murderous. Sweat tracked down her spine and the air tasted like hot fuel and baked metal, but beside her, the big alien moved like none of it touched him.
He wasn’t sweating, he wasn’t even breathing harder.
He just looked bored, and she hated him a little for that. Maybe more than a little.
The mid-size hauler sat ahead with her ramp down, a strip of shade under the port wing that looked like the most beautiful thing Cait had seen all morning.
The pilot, another woman, was crouched in it.
She swore as she fought a crate latch, looking entirely unimpressed with the universe.
She glanced up as Cait walked over, eyes sliding immediately to the male behind her, then back again.
“Hey there,” Cait said, stepping into the shade and immediately feeling something close to human again. “Rhenn. Off the H4-RPY.”
The woman straightened up, easing weight off one leg. Bad knee, by the look of it. “Barker. Bluebird Transport. Heard you come in earlier. Sounded like a rough one.”