Virgin (8 page)

Still, she couldn’t help but wonder how they would glow if she were to ever make love to him. Unfortunately, there was only one way to find out, and that would be extremely unlikely.

Kots brought breakfast in silver servers and set each of their plates before them, though Ava knew she had never placed an order.

“Fish for breakfast?” Waroun commented when Kots lifted the cover from her dish.

“Sure,” she replied, relieved that she hadn’t received anyone else’s meal by mistake. The Kitnocks were eating porridge, but Quinn’s plate was piled high with crackers, neither of which appealed to her in the slightest. Waroun had a bowl of berries that he was picking up one at a time by tapping them with a fingertip and popping them into his mouth. She wasn’t sure about Dax’s breakfast; it looked like ice cream, though it didn’t appear to be melting.

Her fish was just the way she liked it: hot, buttery, and very fresh, the flakes practically melting in her mouth. Her goblet was filled with water again, but this time she watched as Kots poured it from what appeared to be a wine bottle.

“Aquerei water?” she read aloud from the label. “Really?”

Kots chirped in reply.

“Wonder where he got that?” Waroun said as he savored another berry.

“Who knows?” Dax replied. “There’s quite a store of things in the hold. One of these days I’ll have to figure out how to reprogram him with less expensive tastes.”

Ava had been reaching for the glass but thought perhaps she’d better not. “Should I not drink it? I mean, if it costs that much…”

“Don’t worry about it,” Dax said. “Like I said, it’s probably been in the hold for years. I’m sure Kots is tickled to death to have an Aquerei to serve it to.”

“He’s a very smart shopper,” Waroun put in. “Nearly always gets a discount.”

“My father was from Aquerei, but I’ve never had Aquerei water before.” Ava took a sip. “I didn’t even know there was such a thing, though it’s probably out of my price range anyway.”

“It seems to agree with you,” Teke said from across the table. “You should see what it’s doing to your hair.”

“My hair?” she echoed in dismay. “Why? What’s happening to it?”

“It’s getting prettier,” Dax said. “And it sort of ripples. Your skin looks brighter too.”

Ava didn’t know Dax very well, but his voice sounded odd to her—as though his throat was tight and he was having trouble getting his words out. Glancing sideways at him—and she promised herself it would only be a glance—their eyes met. He leaned back in his chair as he stared at her, but something in his expression held her captive, refusing to allow her to turn away. It didn’t take much for her to imagine the man he’d been in her fantasy—a sexy, aroused beast who took her places she’d never been before. His gaze penetrated, his lips beckoned, and just the way he was sitting promised that he was everything she imagined he would be—and more.

***

Dax had no idea how long he’d sat there drinking in the sight of Ava’s amazing eyes until Waroun spoke up. “Well, would you look at that,” he said with a chuckle. “I think the Great Virgin is finally hooked.”

With a little more provocation, Dax would have been sorely tempted to kill the Norludian as Ava, the spell now broken, spun around to face Waroun. “What?”

“Look at him! And listen… He’s—oh my God, he’s fuckin’ purring!”

“I am not!” Dax insisted, but even he could hear the vibration in his voice.

“You are too!” Waroun shot back with a crow of laughter. “I can’t believe it!”

Dax could believe it, because whether he wanted to admit it or not, his damned cock was getting hard again. He’d just gotten a whiff of her scent before Waroun had to go and ruin everything by distracting her.

Well, maybe he hadn’t ruined
everything.
Perhaps it was for the best…

“Too bad he always wears those baggy trousers,” Waroun went on. “With tighter pants, we could tell if his dick was hard.”

Dax felt his face getting hot and noticed that Ava was blushing as well. “Shut up, Waroun,” he growled.

Waroun held up a hand in protest. “I only speak the truth: When a Zetithian purrs, it usually means something sexual.” In an aside to Ava, he added, “Just thought you should know that.” At this point Dax was ready to throttle Waroun, but short of actual murder, there was no stopping him. “Now, if you smell right to him, his sex organ will get hard. I’d love to know if it’s finally happened.” Sampling another berry, he chewed it thoughtfully before adding, “Not sure it ever has.”

Ava was stunned speechless, but Quinn came to everyone’s rescue by choking on one of his crackers.

Teke got to his feet and thumped the Drell on the back, which sent the bit of cracker flying across the table to land on the edge of Ava’s plate. “Perhaps this isn’t the best topic for our first meal together,” he said with a weak smile.

“Yes,” Diokut agreed. “We should know each other better before discussing sexual matters at breakfast.”

“Not sure we’ll ever know each other
that
well.” Ava flicked the cracker crumb from her plate. “But I suppose discussing the weather is out of the question.”

Quinn was breathing easily again, so Teke sat back down and picked up his spoon. “On our world, such things are more
private
,” he said with a remonstrative glance at Waroun.

“Not on my world,” Waroun said gaily. “We talk about sex all the time… Matter-of-fact, it’s just about the only thing we
do
talk about. The weather is always pretty much the same.”

“Always raining or always dry?” Ava asked.

Waroun considered this for a moment. “Well, I guess it does change a little. But since it rains almost every day, it’s pretty boring. The only thing to discuss is when it starts and stops, and you can tell that by looking out a window. Sex, on the other hand, is endlessly fascinating.”

Something in the way he said it must have struck Ava as being hysterically funny, for she let out a peal of laughter that almost had Dax purring again. He was beginning to consider taking all of his meals in his ready room when, thankfully, Teke attempted to take control of the conversation.

“So, Ava,” he began. “Is that your full name?”

“No.” Her flippy blond hair swayed back and forth as she shook her head. “It’s Avondia Karon.”

“Lovely name,” Teke said with a nod of approval. “Has a nice ring to it.”

“The last name is French—at least, the pronunciation is French,” she said, frowning. “Not sure about Avondia.”

“Better than
his
name.” Waroun snickered with a quick nod toward Dax. “Daxtronian Vandilorsk. Sounds like a fatal disease, doesn’t it?”

“It’s a perfectly good Zetithian name,” Ava said. “I’ve heard a few others. They all sound like that.”

“Yes, but would you be willing to tack it on to the end of
your
name?”

As suggestions went, it wasn’t very subtle. Waroun was beginning to sound like Jack—goading Dax into liaisons with women he didn’t want. Unfortunately, this was the one woman he really
did
want…

“Ava Vandilorsk,” she said, trying it out. “It wouldn’t be so bad.”

“Too many Vs,” Waroun said. “Lots of species can’t make the V sound.” With another snicker, he added, “You’d be Awa Wandilorsk half the time.”

Dax was about to say it was a moot point, since Ava would never be faced with such a dilemma, but something told him he was better off keeping his mouth shut. Her next comment proved it.

“I could live with that,” she said with a shrug. “I’ve heard a lot worse.”

With that, she went back to eating her breakfast. Dax was already finished with his—partly because he hadn’t needed to chew it, but also because the warm, creamy texture had kept him going, thinking that she would feel like that in his mouth if he ever—
oh, God.
He winced as he realized that not only was Waroun trying to fix him up with Ava, but Kots was doing his best as well: making her drink water that made her glow and giving her clothes that matched her eyes—not to mention giving him Sholerian cream for breakfast. It was a conspiracy against him. Or
for
him—he wasn’t sure which—but he disliked being manipulated above all things.

“I wouldn’t worry too much about it,” Dax said. “I mean, you should be more concerned with how your name would sound with Russ’s surname, shouldn’t you?”

“Russ?” she echoed with a puzzled look. “Oh, yeah, right… Russ. His last name is Tucker.”

“Ava Tucker,” Teke said. “Sounds quite ordinary. I prefer the Zetithian’s name.”

“What’s your full name, Teke?” Dax said, attempting to divert whatever was going on to something a little less sensitive.

“Just Teke,” he replied. “We Kitnocks only have the one name.”

“I see,” said Dax. Not much conversation to be had from that.

Quinn nodded vigorously. “Drells, too.”

“Must be hard to find each other in the phone book,” Ava commented.

“Not really,” said Quinn. “We don’t have phones.”

“Ah.” Ava nodded and went back to eating her fish.

Dax just needed a break. As captain and pilot, he had plenty of excuses not to hang out with his passengers, though if truth be told, once Waroun set the course, the ship pretty much flew itself. The scanners looked ahead and altered the heading if there happened to be any debris in their path, otherwise, flying through empty space was pretty uneventful. It was trickier inside a solar system, where Dax’s piloting skills were required.

Getting to his feet, Dax told Waroun to play the ship’s orientation video for the passengers before making a quick exit. Safe in the captain’s ready room, he plopped down on his couch and tried to make sense of it all—his reaction to Ava in particular.

Dax had always avoided Jack’s insistence that he mate and produce offspring for more reasons than he had given her. It wasn’t the first time he’d had an erection, but it was uncommon. If it hadn’t been for the others, Dax would have suspected there was something physically wrong with him. Ava had done it to him twice now. Obviously it had simply been a matter of finding the right woman—the right
available
woman.

But what did you do once you found her? Dax’s basic sexual education had concentrated on Zetithian females, and there was a definite protocol for that—all sorts of carefully designed ways to get one to allow you to mate with her. Though he knew that human women weren’t quite as particular, never having put that knowledge to use, Dax had forgotten much of what he’d been taught.

Maybe if he could get Ava alone and just talk to her, he might be able to figure it out—though after all the yapping Waroun had done at breakfast, she would probably avoid him from now on. Dax had been keeping women at arm’s length for so long, getting her
into
his arms was going to be tough, especially if she wasn’t interested—and might even be a little afraid of him. He’d seen the dismay on her face when she came into the dining hall and saw where she would have to sit.

Still, it would take a long time to get to Rutara—especially if they took on more passengers at one of the stops along the way. This would give Dax plenty of time to get to know her, perhaps even to entice her. One big problem with that: He had absolutely no idea how to do it.

Dax felt like his head was about to explode. He pulled the ball Jack had given him long ago out of one of his pockets. She’d called it a baseball and had once told him that he had an arm good enough to play for the Yankees—whatever
that
meant. He lay flat on his back, throwing the ball at the ceiling and catching it. Over and over and over again, until the monotony of it had reset his thoughts to a more manageable level.

He wasn’t the first man to be clueless when it came to getting a woman. He wouldn’t be the last. Sure, he’d probably make mistakes, but women were forgiving creatures, weren’t they? After all, Ava had stayed with a guy who beat her up—and she’d had to hit him over the head too. She must have forgiven Lars for lots of things during their time together. Dax knew he was a better man than Lars, though that wasn’t saying a whole helluva lot.

Russ was the one he had to worry about—the “good” man she was going back to—the man who claimed to love her and was willing to wait for her. The man Dax was beginning to wish was a cad, or a lying, inconsiderate sonofabitch who had only said that to make her suffer. She’d been wrong about Lars, so perhaps she was wrong about Russ. Unfortunately, the best he could hope for was that Russ had finally given up and found another woman.

If only he could be that lucky…

Chapter 6

After viewing the orientation video, Ava lingered at the breakfast table until everyone else finally drifted off to other parts of the ship—and there were certainly plenty of places to go. There was a game room, an exercise room, a full spa and beauty salon staffed by droids—she could get a makeover if she wanted—and the list of available movies and other interactive entertainments was lengthy. The
Valorcry
also boasted a small swimming pool and a live botanical garden on the lower deck, not to mention the numerous places of interest that were available for virtual tours. She and the other passengers had each been given a library module that claimed to have every book ever written imbedded in its memory, in addition to every piece of music ever recorded. Ava had never seen—or heard of—anything like it.