Page 24 of Courting Mayhem

“As you wish.” Shooting Derek another menacing glare, Papi Sten left.

Derek cocked an eyebrow. “You think you can manage me?”

“I’ve been dealing with warriors of all shapes and sizes for most of my life. What makes you think you’re any different?”

“I’m a Coletti war commander, not a trained monkey.”

One look at his indignant expression and I smothered a laugh. Males were so easily offended. I gave Derek a slight bow. “My apologies, I meant no offense.”

“If this mission is to be a success, I need you and your fathers to obey my commands.”

Yeah, good luck with that. “As you wish, my lord.”

“Cut the crap,” Derek growled.

I gave him my Debbi Sunshine smile. “To find the Shebu and capture Vrax we’re teammates, but once that’s accomplished, you’ll never see me again.”

“Is that a challenge, sweetheart?” Derek asked with a mocking smile.

Shit. He had dimples. I loved dimples on a guy. “No, it’s a promise, butthead. You don’t want to mate with a reckless child and, quite frankly, you give me the creeps.”

“The creeps?”

“You make my skin crawl. Is that descriptive enough for you?”

Derek threw his head back and roared with laughter. “You’ll fit right in with the rest of the Jones girls.”

If I had my laser pistol, I would have shot him. Snatching the scanner out of his hand, I ran it over the ion engines and heaved a sigh of relief. Everything checked out. I stomped out of engineering.

Derek followed me. “I want to see the armory first, sweetheart.”

“Don’t call me that.”

“Okay, sweet pea.”

I fought down the urge to kick the living shit out of him. Derek was deliberately trying to provoke me. If I ignored him, he would stop. Hopefully.

An alarm sounded on my gauntlet. I tapped the scanner and groaned. The waste incinerator was malfunctioning again.

“What’s wrong?”

“Your tour will have to wait.”

“Why?”

“I need to repair the waste incinerator.” The alert sounded again. The incinerator was about to overflow. The last time that happened, the entire ship stank like a sewer for weeks. I bolted down the corridor.

Derek jogged alongside me. “Can’t your fathers handle the repairs?”

“They’re warriors not mechanics.” I charged into the incinerator room and quickly vented the contents into space. Whew! That had been too damn close.

“Who taught you how to work on the incinerator?”

“No one. I simply uploaded the specs and followed the instructions. Now go away.” I pulled my hazmat suit out of a locker and shimmied into it.

“You’re going inside the incinerator?” There was a note of horror in Derek’s voice.

“I am. Leave now or you might get some muck on your shiny armor.” I connected the respirator to my protective helmet.

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