"Sorry," I say meekly. I'm secretly a little pleased, though. Straik always bends backwards to make sure that I'm safe. He's going to be on an utter rampage for the next while now that I've been poisoned, and I almost feel bad for the crew. Almost. I kinda love that I'm so important to him that he's freaking out. It makes me feel good in a fucked-up sort of way. I lie back in bed again, yawning. "Were the tree nuts expensive?"
"Very." Sakkar sounds so grumpy.
"I'll make him buy you more at the next station," I promise him, as if I have that sort of say over anything. "I didn't ask him to get rid of everything."
"I know." Sakkar presses some metal thing to my arm, checking my readings, and watches a screen. "But this is what happens when a mesakkah male…" He trails off, frowning at me, and then turns away. "Your vitals look better today."
"When a mesakkah male what?" I prompt. "You didn't finish your statement."
"It's not important," he replies breezily. "Let me go get you some fresh blankets. Those need to be changed."
I frown after him, waiting for his return. When a mesakkah male what, I wonder. I repeat it in my head so I don't forget—damaged memory and all—and try not to worry. I think about Straik instead. I'm feeling better, but not optimal. I want to talk to him again. I want to see how he feels about me going down on him. If it's changed anything between us. If we can get back to that fun, exciting level of flirting before I became this exhausted, poisoned puke-monster.
I hope he still finds me attractive. I liked putting my mouth on him. I liked blowing his mind. I smile at the mental image of Straik's frantic, hungry expression, letting it drift through my mind. When Sakkar doesn't come back right away, sleepiness takes over and I nap once more, dreaming about dressing rooms and naughty things. When I wake up, sneaky Sakkar has returned, his back to my bed, and there's the smell of singed fabric and char in the room. "Is something burning?" I ask sleepily. "Smells weird in here."
Sakkar stiffens. "Uh…"
"It's fine," says a familiar voice. Straik. "It's not as if I can hide it from her anyhow."
Sakkar moves away from my bed, and in the next moment, I see what he's been hiding. It's Straik, who has a nasty red gash streaking horizontally across one cheek. I gasp, sitting up. "What the fuck? What happened?"
"It's all right, love," Straik says, moving to sit on my side of the bed. "Some fool with a blaster got a little excited, that's all."
"Is that fool you?" I snap, my fingers itching to touch the wound on his face. I lift one hand and then drop it again. It looks nasty. "Does it hurt? How bad does it hurt? Does it need stitches?"
Straik manages a half-smile. "It does not hurt, and it does not need stitches."
"It does need a burn cream," Sakkar adds. "But someone won't stay still for it."
I point a finger at Straik accusingly.
"Fine, fine." Straik sighs heavily but makes no move to get off the side of the bed from where he's perched. "Come and fuss over me, then." He is still as Sakkar draws a line of ointment across Straik's cheek and then puts a narrow, clear strip of bandage across the wound. I can't help but notice that Straik watches me the entire time, as if the medic isn't there and it's just me and him alone in the room. It makes my belly curl with heat.
When Sakkar is finally done, he leaves the room without a word, and then we truly are by ourselves.
"Are you okay?" I ask, reaching out to touch Straik's fingers. "You didn't get hurt? I didn't mean what I said earlier about you being a fool. I was just worried."
His eyes grow warmer. "I'm fine. We have the bounty hunter in our hold. He actually turned himself over once he'd heard that you were the victim. Apparently he's not a fan of injuring females of any kind."
Should I be glad? Or should I want him dead? I have no idea. I twine my fingers with Straik's. "So what happens now?"
"We're going to sell his ship for credits," he says abruptly. "And our friend down in the hold is going to mark the bounty on my head as unable to be fulfilled."
"Is that…a good thing?"
"It's not a bad thing." His thumb brushes over my knuckles, and he doesn't lift his hand from mine. "But it doesn't mean we can go back to the Star yet. We need to sabotage the bounty first, or we'll continue to be tailed wherever we go."
"Okay, then what's the plan? What's our next move?"