“Maybe they’re nice pirates,” I counter.
“There’s no such thing as nice pirates!”
I furrow my brows at him. “You’re a nice pirate.”
He smacks a hand to his forehead and then slowly drags it down his face. “Helen,” he groans. “Please, just do this for me. Just stay here so I don’t have to worry about you.”
“I don’t want to stay here,” I reply in a quavering voice. I’m trying to be brave but it’s so tricky. “I don’t like being left alone. I’ve never been left alone before and that seems scarier to me than dying. So please just let me go with you. I’ll stay out of your way. I promise.”
Mathiras stares down at me. He’s no longer glaring, but his expression is hard to read. After a moment’s silence, he sighs and then grabs me in a quick, fierce hug that surprises me as much as it pleases me. But he releases me just as quickly and nods, as if convincing himself. “Okay, fine. We’ll go together, but you stay two paces behind me, all right? I’ve got a weapon.” He pats the blaster at his hip. “Let me go in front and protect you.”
“I will stay all over your backside,” I promise him cheerfully. “Can I hold your tail? So you know it’s me?”
For some reason, his face turns a slightly darker shade of blue. “Don’t touch my tail.”
“No tail. Got it.” I clasp my hands in front of me to show that I’ll behave. And then I bounce and give a little wiggle of excitement, because we’re leaving this pod. Together.
I mean, sure, it’s just to go into a scary-looking abandoned station, but I’m going with Mathiras, and that’s all that matters right now.
“Kef me,” he mutters, and then turns, his tail lashing as he types in the sequence to unlock the pod door. “I have a feeling this is going to be a mistake.”
“It’ll be great,” I promise him. “You and me are going to be the best of buddies, just like me and Ruth and Alice and Jade. You wait and see. Everyone loves me.”
He turns to give me another hard-to-read look and then shakes his head. “Just follow me, all right? Two steps behind.” He pauses, and then adds, “And no tail.”
As if agreeing with his cranky words, his tail practically lashes back and forth, taunting me.
CHAPTER 8
MATHIRAS
MONTHS AGO
This is an unending nightmare.
Helen is the most beautiful, most appealing creature I’ve ever seen. I’ve heard stories of qura’aki and how enticing they are. How kings have paid enough for a dozen planets just to own one. How their people were so perfectly formed that the Sakh empire was struck by their beauty and enslaved them just because they needed to own them. Looking at Helen, I get that now. Not the owning part, but the whole “driving people to desperation just by gazing upon them” part.
Because I’ve been stuck for two weeks in a tiny pod with her and every day has been a challenge.
It’s not that Helen is impossible to get along with. She’s sweet and gentle, with an innocent excited tinge to her expressions. It’s that she doesn’t realize what a temptation she is. Her every movement is sensual, from the glide of her delicate limbs over her bunk as she stretches and yawns, to the way her delicately webbed fingers move over her skin. Her pointed ears twitch with her movements, and her long-lashed eyes always seem to be fixed upon me in fascination.
I tell myself it’s because she hasn’t seen many males. It’s not me she’s fascinated with. It’s that I’m new to her. But…kef me, does she have to smell so good? The only thing better than looking at Helen is her scent, which is like the richest honey mixed with a rare hothouse flower. It shouldn’t be so keffing appealing, but I can’t get it out of my senses.
I’ve done my best to be a good authority figure to Helen. I patted her shoulder when she cried as we left the Star. I’ve reassured her at every turn. I’ve answered her endless questions, because of course she has them. She’s a clone who’s spent the only three years of her existence trapped on a ship with three human women. Everything will be new to her. I’m patient. Understanding.
And I ignore the arousal I feel when she touches me, like a keffing saint.
Because Helen LOVES to touch. It’s clear she was comfortable with her human companions. She wants to cuddle with me on the bunk, or she wants to put her legs in my lap. She tries to grab my arm and hug it to her chest. She’s clingy and cheerful and sweet and so beautiful and smells so keffing good and I feel like a monster for getting hard around her. There’s no privacy in the pod, and so day in and day out, I suffer the sweetest kind of torture imaginable.