Page 7 of Escape Clause

He’d never expected this. Certainly her blurry hologram hadn’t given any indication, and while the human models Vorgol had shown him had been passably attractive, they hadn’t been this pretty.

A silken veil of brown hair fell past her shoulders, gleaming under the light. Thick lashes framed wide-spaced dark eyes, and she had soft pink lips, neither too full nor too thin.

Maybe it’s not her. She doesn’t look like her hologram.

“You! I mean, Mr. Krogan?” She stood up, and the relief in her smile hinted at a vulnerability, further pricking at his conscience.

Fizzak. “Just Krogan. No mister,” he said. She was tiny. Smaller than the hologram models had led him to assume. The ill-fitting emerald dress flattered her coloring but accentuated her slenderness and hid her womanly curves. Still, with a man’s eye, he could tell she had them.

“I started to worry no one was coming. Everyone else paired up and left.”

“I was about to leave when something came up.” He realized he was still on the accelerator and stepped off. He’d chosen a board with a rack for baggage, but he didn’t see that she’d brought any, except for the lone tote. “Where’s your luggage?”

“Right here.” She toed the sack at her feet.

“Where’s the rest of it?”

“This is all I have.”

“Well then, are you ready to go?”

She nodded, and he grabbed her half-empty sack and stowed it on the accelerator board.

She eyed the conveyance with trepidation.

“I’ll get on first. You step up behind me.” He pointed out the overshoes attached to the airboard. “Slip your feet into those sleeves if you feel you need to, but don’t worry. You can’t fall off. If it makes you more comfortable, you can hold on to me.”

“I don’t think I’ll need to do that,” she said.

He stepped into the front position and twisted around, watching as she got settled. “All set?”

“I’m set.”

The board took off.

Hope squealed and grabbed him around the waist as if hanging on for dear life. Her touch kindled an unexpected reaction, causing his heart to stutter andthe gliteri along his hairline and across his chest to tingle. What could he do? He’d told her she could hang on to him. He’d never been more thankful to arrive at the vaporator.

“Let me guess,” he said as he carried the board to its docking station. “Terra Nova doesn’t have accelerators?”

* * * *

“N-no, we don’t.” Hope swayed on her feet, feeling dizzy and queasy, and not just because of the precarious high-speed ride through an alien spaceport on a souped-up surfboard. Her entire life had become topsy-turvy.

Please, don’t send me back. Not yet.Right now, that was her biggest fear—that he’d break their contract, find an earlier out than the year-end escape clause. She didn’t want to be here, but she couldn’t leave either!

She’d recognized him as the starched and stern man in the Cosmic Mates advertisement. In person, he appeared colder, more forbidding, andhuge. Far taller than she’d expected. She had to tilt her head to see his face. And then wished she’d hadn’t. His face had tightened with disappointment as clear as the stars in an unclouded night sky.

He’d been expecting better. Who wouldn’t? Nobody as handsome as him desired to be stuck with someone as mousy as her. She was used to being dismissed and overlooked—although that hadn’t helped her with the mayor. But the one time in her life when she needed to make a positive impression, she’d become invisible again. She needed Krogan to like herenoughto keep her for the duration of their term, but not to become so enamored he would try to prevent her from leaving at the end. Personal insecurities and fears for the future boiled over into a sticky mess of anxiety.

Her stomach had sunk to her toes when she’d taken in his exotic handsomeness, craggy masculine features, muscular body, smoke-blue skin, and deeper-blue long hair tied with a thong. It sank further as she watched him stow the surfboard-rocket on the rack. His shirt clung to the bulging muscles in his broad shoulders and biceps as he lifted the board with ease. She already knew he had rock-hard abs, having hung on to him as they streaked through the terminal.

I am so out of my league. Cosmic Mates made a huge mistake in matching us.

Don’t panic. Try to stay positive.

At least she needn’t worry he’d develop strong feelings for her. He’d be thrilled to be rid of her at the end of the provisional year. She had no intention of remaining on Caradonia; she just needed to hide out until Gleezer forgot about her and found himself another bride. She pitied the poor woman, whoever she was, even felt guilty, but not guilty enough to throw herself on the grenade. Prudence would keep her apprised of when it was safe to come home.

After getting fired, the situation had gone from bad to worse. Cosmic Mates had been her sole hope.

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