Dangerously Hers (13 page)

She pouted. “I didn’t run away.”

He smacked on his sandwich, chewing with his mouth open, apparently forgetting any manners he used to have. “So what happened?”

She groaned, remembering Rasha standing naked in the middle of her bedroom, holding his clothes in his hand. “He basically said I was a good and easy lay. Then I made him leave.”

“Um hm. Somehow I don’t see Rasha as the sort to say that to you. Are you sure you didn’t take what he
really
said out of context?”

Jess stared at the ceiling. She
may
have overreacted. Just a little bit.

JB took another bite of his sandwich. “And kicking him out, did it make you feel better?”

“If I was feeling good about it, I suspect I wouldn’t have shown up here, now would I?”

Sheesh.

He pointed his sandwich at her. “My point exactly. You should have talked to him about his choice of words. Let him stay the night and kept your ass in your
own
bed.”

She rolled to her side. “What’s done is done. I fucked up in more ways than one.”

“You didn’t fuck up. Stop being so hard on yourself.”

She buried her head in the pillow. “You of all people should understand what I’m going through.”

She had spent just as many nights crying in JB’s arms as she had in Kane’s. Kane had woken up on plenty occasions to find her balled up and hiding in a corner. Those times when she had been alone, she had done exactly what she did tonight. Go to JB for comfort and reassurance.

JB would open the door and not ask any questions. She guessed the look on her face during those times of emotional distress spoke louder than any words she could have spoken. She hadn’t felt the need to tell JB or Kane what she had gone through in the brothel and neither had pressured her for details.

“All I’m saying is that maybe this is a step toward some kind of closure. I mean hell, you can’t avoid alien males for the rest of your life, now can you?”

“I’m not trying to avoid alien males for the rest of my life. I’m just trying to avoid
fucking
any of them.”

“Jess, that doesn’t make any sense. All alien males haven’t taken advantage of you. You were taken advantage of by bastards who probably don’t deserve to live. We’ve come across some respectable aliens.”

Despite herself, she snorted. “What are you doing? Auditioning for some kind of public relations job?”

JB sat back and crossed his arms. “Taio’s a good guy. He rescued Eva. Councilor Sallad of the Galactic Council fought tooth and nail to absolve us of all our crimes
and
he petitioned for Kane to join their ranks. And honestly I think Rasha’s pretty trustworthy. He’s done nothing but make sure you’re comfortable and well taken care of since you got here.”

He was right about Taio. He had rescued Eva from the slave auction block and brought her to his home. She couldn’t imagine him raping anyone. Councilor Sallad wasn’t that bad either if you got over the creepy brown cloak he constantly wore that obscured his features. And Rasha… He wasn’t bad. He was actually…nice.

“I don’t know.”

“Your problem is that you’re overthinking this. ‘Should I fuck an alien? Aliens are mean and nasty! Woe is me, I’m attracted to an alien’,” JB said, mocking her again, this time adding hand gestures.

The pillow she threw at him hit him on the face and bounced to the floor.

“Ouch. You could have broken my nose.” He rubbed his face. “I have to keep my good looks intact for the ladies. The ladies love a fine man.”

“Give me a break.”

He sobered and pushed his plate to the side. “What are you going to do when I leave?”

She didn’t want to think about being alone on Sonis. Who would she go to when she needed a shoulder to cry on?

She closed her eyes tightly. Before long, she felt JB throw a blanket over her.

“You also have to think about what you’re going to do about Rasha,” he said.

What
am
I going to do?

Jess groaned and pulled the blanket over her face.
Too many things to worry about.

Chapter Thirteen

She woke to Eva’s crystal-blue eyes staring at her. Startled, Jess jumped back and pulled the blanket with her.

“Sorry, I didn’t mean to scare you,” Eva said.

“Why does everyone think they’re scaring me?” Jess grumbled. “I’m not some fragile bird.”

“That you aren’t,” Eva agreed.

Jess eyed her warily. “So why are you here?”

Eva snorted. “I heard you were freaking out.”

Jess bolted upright. “JB told you?”

Eva shook her head. “No, I got a visit from a very concerned Sonis Royal Guard at the crack of daybreak.”

Jess frowned and beat a fist into the pillow. “Rasha shouldn’t have told you anything.”

Fuck. How many other people did he tell?

Eva leaned back. “Yeah, and I suppose you didn’t tell JB anything?”

If she could have melted into the cushions, she would have. “So did he send you here to fire me?”

Eva tsked. “You aren’t fired. If having sex with the boss was a reason for termination, half the females here would be fired.”

“Maybe I should quit,” Jess wondered out loud. It was just a matter of time before word spread.

“And then what? Move back to Laconia with Kane and Sa’Mya or better yet, stay on board
The Vengeance II
?”

“What choice do I have?” None. “I don’t know why I let it happen. I should have stopped it.” She could have. He had even asked her if she wanted to stop. But of course she hadn’t taken the out he’d given her.

“Stopped what? Hell, Jess, you’re human. You have human emotions, wants and needs. It’s okay.”

Jess shook her head.
No, it is not okay, not with an alien.
“But he’s…”

“Different.”

“He could have hurt me during sex. He could have made me do things to him. He could have…”

“But he didn’t and neither would any other male here. Listen, you have to trust that Sonis is safe. I wouldn’t have brought you or anyone else here, for that matter, if this wasn’t a safe zone.”

“I know.” And she did. All the other women seemed to walk around in perpetual bliss. The Sonis males followed them, vying for their attention.

“He’s taken by you. Give it a try.”

“He wanted to have sex with me. He got that. Now that it’s over he probably won’t be interested anymore.”

“Rasha wouldn’t do anything as crass as that. He’s a good guy.” Eva tilted her head to the side. “And you deserve a good guy after everything you’ve been through, don’t you think?”

“Stop trying to play matchmaker. I’m fucked up. If he’s as good a guy as you say then he deserves someone better or at least someone with all her woman parts.”

“You know, Taio never thought he would have children and he wanted me without knowing that I was pregnant. It might not even matter to Rasha. He hasn’t claimed a woman yet so it may not be high on his list.”

“But how could he not want children? I thought that was the whole purpose for bringing women here.”

“It was and is, but almost every male here had accepted they probably wouldn’t have children.” Eva shrugged. “You might want to have this conversation with Rasha instead of guessing about it.”

“We fucked, Eva. We didn’t exchange promise rings,
sheesh
.”

Eva threw her head back and laughed. “You’ll survive last night’s fiasco.”

“I’m not so sure. I still have to face Rasha.”

“Don’t worry about him. He’ll get over it.”

Jess ran a hand down her face. “I actually hope he does. I came here to work. I didn’t come here to be his plaything.” When Eva opened her mouth to respond, Jess put up a hand to silence her. “I’m old school, Eva. I worked my butt off to climb the ladder in my dad’s company—screwing the boss is a big no-no. I want to stay but only if Rasha and I can move past this.”

“Jess, you are too damn serious. Loosen up. Have some fun.”

“I can’t, it’s too hard to relax. I keep thinking everyone is looking at me…judging me and now…”

“Do you think all these women came from a palace? Everyone here was plucked from somewhere they didn’t want to be and didn’t ask to go.
Every single woman
here was a slave and from some of the stories I was told, a brothel is not the worse place to have been sold.” Eva glanced past her. “This is a dangerous universe.”

Everyone knew Eva had searched for her friend Allysan since being separated from her at the slave auction on Xenaris. Eva had even left Taio while she was pregnant with Josanis and had gone to three different brothels, trying to find Allysan with no one but Ship.

“Are there any updates on Allysan?” Jess asked.

Eva rubbed the back of her neck and shook her head. “Not a word. But I’m still hopeful. I have to be.”

Jess gave her hand a reassuring squeeze but didn’t know if she should or not. “If Ship can find Kane in the middle of nowhere, I’m sure he’ll find your friend.”

Eva smiled slightly. “Thank you, but enough of the self-pity.” Eva blew out a breath and stood. “Come on.”

“Where are we going?” Jess asked, afraid of facing Rasha right now.

“We’re going to the training field. I’m teaching you how to fight.”

“Really? I get to learn how to fight?” She paused. “But what about work?”

Eva winked. “I’ll see if I can get Rasha to back off for a little while. He did interrupt the time I set aside for you to get acclimated to Sonis.”

* * * * *

Jess stood under the canopied covering that had been erected over part of the training field. Her arms were crossed over her chest. Her right hip jutted to one side and she tapped her foot on the dirt and sand. Impatiently she watched, waiting for her turn with the training simulator.

“Eva, you said you were going to teach me how to fight!” Jess yelled as Eva somersaulted over the head of a nasty-looking alien, landing behind it.

Before answering her, Eva punched the thing three times in its back. “I am. I told you to have Lo take you through the form drills.”

Eva dropped and extended both legs, grasping the simulator’s ankles with them. Eva pulled its legs toward her body. The simulator fell flat on its face.

“Ha!” she yelled before raising a foot and slamming it hard on the simulator’s face.

Jess glared at Lo’Ren, who looked to be doing “wax on, wax off”
Karate Kid
moves. It wasn’t that Jess couldn’t do the moves. They were just so…remedial. She wanted to do more of what Eva was doing. “I thought I was going to learn from you.”

Eva jumped to her feet as the simulator rolled to a crouching position. After she reached behind it to fiddle with a compartment on its back, it froze in place.

Eva slapped her pants, making them erupt in a small cloud of dust around her. “You need to learn the basics first, Jess. What’s the issue?”

Jess closed the short distance and stood in front of Eva. Jess nodded in Lo’Ren’s direction. “She’s not doing too much of anything.”

Eva grabbed a towel and wiped the sweat from her face. “You have to start off slow.” Jess scrunched her face. “What? You thought you could start off by kicking alien ass?”

Jess looked over at the simulator frozen in a crouched position. Although it appeared to resemble something out of a bad sci-fi Martian movie, she still thought she could’ve at least tried. She squared her shoulders. “I can fight.”

Eva shook her head and chuckled. Her eyes twinkled in amusement. “If you knew anything about fighting, Sa’Mya wouldn’t have kicked your ass.”

Jess coughed. “Sa’Mya didn’t beat me up. She got off a cheap shot.”

Eva used a hand to stifle a giggle. “From what I heard, she broke your nose.” Eva’s laugh broke through and she put a hand over her chest. “But in your defense, she did have formal training.”

Jess didn’t see the point in arguing her position. Of course Sa’Mya had formal training. She was fucking royalty.

Eva put up her other hand. “I’m sorry. I just can’t get that visual out of my head. I can’t even picture Sa’Mya doing anything remotely physical.”

“Well, I did learn how to take care of myself.”

“I know you can take care of yourself. I’m not disputing that. What you need to work on is form and technique. Go join Lo and when she thinks you’re ready to start officially, she’ll let me know.”

Jess pouted.

“I’ll already have to hear an earful from Taio when he gets back. But if you put in the work, I’ll gladly battle for you,” Eva added.

I don’t want to join Lo’Ren.

Jess frowned. Lo’Ren probably hadn’t had to fight alien scum off her.
Ever.

“Listen, right now if you went up against one of the simulators or anyone else for that matter, you’d get the shit kicked out of you. You’re all anger and spit.”

Jess opened her mouth to argue her point but snapped it shut.

“Yeah, that’s what I thought.” Eva chuckled and slapped Jess on the back. “Go see Lo. She’ll take care of you.”

“Fine.” Jess turned and made her way toward Lo’Ren. “I will but this doesn’t mean I agree,” she said over her shoulder.

“I wouldn’t have expected you to,” Eva hollered back.

Chapter Fourteen

Two days.

That was all Rasha had allowed her to have off. And she spent them avoiding Rasha. It was a lot easier said than done, considering all he had to do was ask the palace’s heat-signature system to locate her.

But he never sought her out.

And she would eventually have to come face-to-face with him again.

What would she say to him?
Sorry I freaked out on you?

Argh.

How was she going to work for him now? Just the thought of his body pressed against hers made her tingle. And the thought of doing it again made other things happen…

She had convinced herself she would take these few days to forget about what happened and to think things through, something she couldn’t do when he was around.

Being around him seemed to cloud her judgment, made her feel claustrophobic and unable to breathe.