Page 19 of Shielded Heart

Sam rolled onto her stomach. Her hair fell around her face as she activated her holocom, bringing up the control screen. She unlocked it and went into her contacts.

Her heart quickened.

“This is dumb. He was just being polite. He doesn’t actually want to talk to me.”

* * *

Arcanthus’s fingersflew through commands as he pieced together a profile for the identification chip he was working on. Despite the distractions that had risen over the last few days, he’d managed to bury himself in his work, his state of focus enhanced by the almost total silence of his workshop. Even the tanks on the walls were quieted thanks to the sound dampening fields he’d enabled.

So, when his holocom chimed with an incoming call, its sound was more like a grenade detonating beside his ear than a gentle alert. He jumped up with enough force to hurt his tail—which caught on the top of the cutout in his chair—and came down hard on the cushion.

He grimaced. “Fuck!”

Heart pounding and jaw clenched, he released a heavy breath through his nostrils. He was both annoyed with himself and with his people—he’d told them no interruptions until he stated otherwise, save for those concerning Samantha. But Kiloq and Koroq had been sending him information via text, not through calls.

Without looking, he brushed a finger over the holocom’s activation button to connect the call.

“What is it?” he demanded.

“I-I’m sorry. I shouldn’t have called,” said a soft, feminine voice before the call went dead.

Arcanthus froze. For a moment, it was difficult to breathe, and the thumping of his heart echoed in his ears. He turned his head to look down at his holocom. Its display was inactive.

Maybe I’m overworking. Pushed myself to the point of auditory hallucinations.

It couldn’t have been Samantha calling him; she seemed much too timid for that. She’d been genuinely grateful for his help last night, but she’d also been frightened of his closeness, embarrassed by his offers of further assistance. His plan had been to allow her a couple days before arranging anotherchancemeeting.

Frowning, he pulled up the communication log from his holocom on one of his desk screens.Samantha Dawn Wilderwas listed as the most recent incoming call; he’d entered her information into his system when he’d first found her file, one of those pesky facts of which she never needed to learn.

He reached forward to initiate another call only to stop when he realized how he’d greeted her.

“Shit. That wasn’t my finest moment, was it?”

Sighing, he raked his fingers through his hair, tugging the long strands back, and initiated the call.

Soft notes played as the system sought a connection, waiting for her to accept. He’d never been so impatient for that sound to end. Seconds passed, each feeling longer than the last, and he dipped his chin, cursing himself for a fool. She’d reached out to him—a wholly unexpected move—and he’d scared her away.

The soft notes ended, and Arcanthus thought the call had disconnected until he heard her voice.

“Hi.”

Arcanthus straightened in his chair. “Samantha?”

She sounded surprised when she said, “You remembered me.”

He grinned. If he’d not had work to do, he’d likely have spent every moment thinking about her today—he nearly had, even with that workload. “I don’t see how it’d be possible to forget you, little terran.”

“I…I don’t know how to respond to that.”

“You don’t need to. I didn’t think you would call. Is everything all right?”

“Is it a bad time? I don’t want to disturb you. You sounded—”

“Irritated?” He chuckled.

“Yes.”

“I’m sorry about that. Like I said, I didn’t expect you to call, so I assumed it was one of my employees contacting me even though I asked not to be disturbed. Had I been smart enough to look before I answered, I’d have spoken in a far more pleasant tone.”

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