He laughs harder.
It feels good to hear someone laughing. I realize in that moment just how isolated and afraid I’ve been for the last few weeks. No, months, really, because Melissa was always super busy with her farm, and she was my closest neighbor. Since she’s been gone, I’ve had almost no one to truly count on. There’s Chloe and her mate, but they’re busy and Chloe has a baby to take care of. She can’t drop everything to come visit when I’m bored or lonely…and I’m bored or lonely far more often than I’d like to admit.
I don’t know this Vordigar guy. But he laughs easily and he pried my hand off his knee when I came on to him, so he might just be the best guy I’ve met in a really, really long time.
“Please help me,” I whisper, my desperation coming out despite my best efforts to play it cool. The scars on my face itch, and it takes everything I have not to touch them. “I know it’s not ideal, but we can make it work. Please.”
Vordigar studies me for a long moment. Then, he looks out the window, his laughter dying. “I need to think about it for a while.”
“Of course.”
We ride the air-sled in silence all the way back to my farm.
3
VORDIGAR
I don’t know what to do.
She’s laid all her sticks out in a row, as the game players like to say. She’s confessed her plan and what she needs. She’s offered me sex and a home. It’s dark when we pull up to the farm, but I can see neat rows of crops and a herd of meat-stock in a nearby field. There’s a small, domed homestead and a barn, and it looks like a nice spread. I know a dozen soldiers that would have keffing killed for this opportunity.
I’m not sure I’m ready to be a father, though. Or a farmer.
My plans for the future were simple—leave Risda III behind and get back into piracy. I dabbled in it before the war, and kept ties with friends in the business while I was in prison. I ran goods for a few buddies while on Haven, and I know people. I look intimidating as hell. I’m a competent navigator and a very competent mech. I can make some decent credits provided I get on the right ship, and I know just the people. The va Sithai brothers are looking for another to join them on a job, and I’ve promised that I’d go. It’s bound to be incredibly lucrative.
But this female with big, sad eyes has asked me to stay.
To get her pregnant.
To farm with her.
Keffing hell. I’m not a farmer. Being a lowlife thief and a grunt is all I’m good at. I’m the wrong male for this job. If she knew my history, she’d know that, too. I need to tell her no. The timing’s all wrong. Maybe if she’d have approached me a month ago, when I was desperate and low on credits, I’d have jumped at the chance.
A farm AND all the kinky human sex I want? That’s the dream of half the galaxy. I have to admit it’s been so keffing long since I’ve had sex that my seed’s probably nothing but dust. Even now, sex sounds good. Sex sounds real, real good. And I’ve never had a human before. I’m curious. Any male would be.
Except…I can’t say yes to her. I have job offers. Much better job offers than what she’s throwing in my direction. I can’t possibly say yes. Not when I have the opportunity to turn my life around and make a quick fortune.
I just don’t have the guts to tell her ‘no’ just yet. Not when she watches me with those hopeful dark eyes. I can’t tell her no to her face. Maybe I’ll steal away in the middle of the night, when she’s not looking at me with such hope and grim determination. Slink away like the lowlife scum I am and forget I ever met that little bit of a human.
We park the air-sled and she gives me a quick tour around the place, watching me with those hopeful eyes. I try to be judgmental, to pick apart the place and find things wrong with it but…it’s a good farm. She’s got a nice plot of land bordered by a flowing stream, and the fields are even and stretch as far as the eye can see. Her meat-stock are penned in a nearby pasture and the animals are fat and healthy. She’s got a few mechs and drones gifted to her that do the majority of the farm work and all she has to do is keep them programmed and monitored. I’m a little surprised to see that her mechs are well-cared for, as much as everything else. A lot of people let their mechs go to shit because they’re just a tool. Not this little bit of a human, though. She’s meticulous in everything.