Page 3 of Taking Jenny
Jenny giggled and smiled at me. “Sorry for scaring you. Are you alright?”
“Yeah, I…” I shook my head but the vision in front of me remained. “Jenny, what are you doing here?”
I rubbed my knee and tried not to stare at my boss’s consort’s sister. But it was impossible. From the moment I laid eyes on Jenny, I knew I was in trouble. As a child, I’d heard stories of human women who could bewitch men. I used to think they were myths.
Everything about Jenny Hollinger made them real.
She was short, even for a human. Slender yet curvy in all the right places, she was dressed in her sister Sarah’s borrowed clothes: a pink tunic and beige trousers. Her hair was a pale blonde, with stripes of blue dyed throughout. She wore it loose and straight, the ends falling just below her shoulders. Her heart-shaped face framed eyes the color of warm carved wood,eyes that held too much curiosity for my sanity. And her lips…they owned me when she smiled.
My reaction to her was unlike anything I’d ever experienced before.
“Can I come in?” she asked, her voice soft despite the Ladrian dialect she now spoke.
“Of course.” I gestured to the copilot chair, and she sat down next to me.
She gave me an adorably sheepish look. “Again, I’m sorry for surprising you—”
“I’ve never enjoyed a surprise more,” I admitted truthfully, even though I knew my boss was not going to be happy that I hadthisparticular stowaway on board.
She bit her bottom lip, momentarily distracting me. “Well, I wanted to see Orhon. After seeing Halla and getting to know some of the people, I want to know about the outlying planets. And the people there.”
I didn’t want to disappoint her, but she needed to understand that this was not a trip for pleasure and sightseeing. “I’m not going to Orhon for fun, Jenny. I’ve been tasked with an important mission. I’m going to gather intelligence and find out what the palace knows about what happened on Halla with Rex. It’s critical.”
“I know. I promise I won’t get in the way.” A soft, pleading look entered her gaze, mesmerizing me. “I just want to see another planet. It sounds so beautiful and—”
Orhon, beautiful? I laughed derisively as I switched the ship into autopilot. “I guess it is, but I’m not headed to the nice parts of the planet. I’ll be meeting old contacts in some rough, seedy areas. I don’t think you want to—”
“Yes, I do,” she quickly cut me off, and placed her hand on my thigh. “If I’m with you.”
My cock stirred and my breath caught. It was all I could do not to physically react to her touch. “I would like to have you with me, Jenny, but—”
“Why is there always a but?” she interrupted, and pouted.
I sighed and pressed my fingers against the bridge of my nose. As much as I enjoyed her company, I couldn’t risk my position with my boss. Jac had already loaned me his ship. If I pissed off his consort by getting her sister into any kind of trouble, he’d kill me. What I was about to do was too dangerous, and Jenny was far too innocent when it came to our world.
“I need to call Sarah on comms to let her know you’re here with me,” I said, making the only decision I could. “She must be worried.”
A sad look passed across Jenny’s pretty features. “Please don’t.”
“Why not?”
She swallowed hard and glanced out the cockpit windows. “Sarah means well, but she and Elizabeth have always been overly protective of me,” she said, meeting my gaze once again. “I’m the youngest. They treat me like I’ll break, like I can’t handle serious things. Like I’m weak or—”
“Too naïve to know better?” I finished for her. “Sheltered?”
Her eyes lit up. “Yes, exactly!”
I huffed beneath my breath. “I know what that’s like.”
She tipped her head curiously. “What do you mean?”
“In the Orne clan, my family’s clan, I’m one of the youngest,” I explained. “There aren’t many of us left. They didn’t want me working for Jacaranda Cozz because he has a reputation for taking risks and getting himself into dangerous situations. But Kapok, my cousin, worked for him. The clan wanted Kapok to keep an eye on me. So I joined up to work for Jac, too.” I didn’t want to burden her with the details of my family life, and kept the rest simple. “Now Kapok’s gone, and I’m working for Jac onmy own. That won’t go over well. I fully expect the clan master to try and order me back home.”
A small frown furrowed Jenny’s brows. “Clan master?”
I nodded. “A family’s leader. It’s rare now, since most Ladrians don’t live in clans anymore. The royal family system replaced it a few hundred years ago. Clans fell out of style. That’s part of why there are so few Ornes left.”
“Why would that affect how big your family is?”
