Page 40 of Auctioned to the Convicts
Her smile disappeared. He never had learned how to talk to women.
“I was just asking if the headaches and nausea are gone yet.”
She pressed the back of her hand against his forehead. He had a high fever a few days ago, but that was simply a virus. Bad timing, nothing more. Regardless, he enjoyed her touch. Except when Ky’Li was around. The man growled at anyone who touched her. The fact that she was still sleeping in the storage room where Ren slept didn’t go over well with Ky’Li either. But Hannah stood her ground and refused to switch rooms with Ky’Li. She said she was content to stay in the storage room with Ren. That had been the wrong thing to say apparently as Ky’Li stormed off in a rage yesterday.
That was a switch, Ky’Li and not Ren, losing control. Ky’Li didn’t talk much, but he was hard to rile, except where Hannah’s well-being was concerned.
Ren’s attitude toward Hanna had softened, though he remained grumpy most of the time. Had Ren slept with her yet? She didn’t seem upset about being assigned to four men. Most families he knew on Argus had only three males to a female. Perhaps the fertility rates had dropped even further since he’d left.
Who was he fooling? Just because he was in the same unit with Hannah didn’t mean she’d ever sleep with him. Sersie had blown his chance with her. And he really liked her. She was hardworking, selfless, and sweet. Very unlike Rissa.
“You okay, Sersie? You didn’t answer my question.”
“Just thinking. I feel like my old self,” Sersie answered, taking another sip of his tea.
“Hardly old. You’re the same age as me.”
God, he loved her smile. It was carefree and honest. “You sure about that? Isn’t that a streak of gray up at your temple,” he teased.
She glared, though it was a playful glare. Yup, never infer, call, or even hint that a woman was old. He’d learned that early on in life, even though he’d never done well with the ladies. He’d been Level 1 working at a dream job at the main research facility on Argus. Some botanists and chemists worked decades trying to get a position there. He’d been recruited right out of school.
It had only taken him two years to screw it up.
“I don’t have gray hair! And besides, I hear you’re a whiz in the lab. I’m sure if I ever get gray hair, you can develop a dye, maybe make me a blonde.”
“We’ll be long gone before you ever turn gray,” he said, smiling, but then her smile disappeared. What had he said? Hell, he had such a way of stealing a woman’s smile.
“Are you ready for your shift?” Hannah asked as she washed her bowl.
“Are you asking if I can handle being in the lab without cooking up more Flight, Crash, or something new? And before you ask, yes, we have new stuff. I created it myself. Crazy addictive, at least in the test rodents. Haven’t named it yet beyond the official designation NK171.”
She stood there with her mouth open. “You create the drugs that people get addicted to? Intentionally?”
Horrified. She was utterly horrified. Rissa hadn’t been horrified. She’d been intrigued by his ability to cook up new and dangerous drugs. That was the first sign that something wasn’t quite right with her, and yet he’d ignored it.
“It’s part of the research to create antidotes to drugs. We have to better understand the drugs, how they affect humans, before we can combat them. Though sometimes I wonder if The Company wants to use our research for more nefarious purposes. No one knows where Crash originated, after all. Could well have been here, or on another prison world. The lab here rivals the one I worked in on Argus.”
She appeared shaken. “I won’t use again,” he promised.
He hoped he could keep that promise. He wanted to, now that he had someone in his life who mattered, who depended on him. Correction, now he had four people depending on him.
He hadn’t been thinking straight last week. He’d been so worried he had made a mistake by saying yes to becoming a part of this unit that he’d made himself vulnerable again. That’s when he’d given in to the worry, lying to himself that a single hit wouldn’t hurt.
Tears clouded her eyes. It hurt to see her upset, to know he added more stress to her when she was still so new here. He remembered how hard those first few weeks—months—had been for him, and it had to be worse for a woman in a colony full of men.
“The Company dictates the direction of my research.”
“I know,” she said, drying her tears on the back of her hand.
He approached her, tempted to pull her in for a hug, then thought better of it and backed off.
“Why do you keep pulling away from me?” she asked.
“I was going to hug you, but then I remembered you don’t like me touching you.”
“You have that wrong,” she said in a somewhat annoyed voice. “It’s Ky who doesn’t want you, or anyone, touching me. I never said any such thing.”
“When I kissed you last week—”
