Page 3 of Crave
Refusing to say “oh” anymore, she just took another sip of tea, watching him over the rim. Since Roxy—as Oliver had named the strange, sentient rock—had gotten her into her current precarious predicament, she wasn’t going to confess to any interest in it whatsoever.
He continued blithely, “While we still don’t know exactly what the rock is, I think it’s something special, something that could change my life.”
Well, good for him. She’d thought she found something that could change her life too. Look where that had gotten her.
“And if you wanted to, you could help me.”
She tapped her fingernail against the mug. “I could, could I?”
He tilted his head in the other direction, as if he couldn’t quite hone in on her sarcasm. “Only if you wanted to.”
Apparently she’d have to be more blunt with this earnest, bare-chested orc and his pretty eyes. “Why would I?”
He moved his mug sidewise, paralleling hers, as if they were playing the most utterly boring form of chess imaginable. “I had the impression you were into helping people now.” He made that amused noise again. “And also that you were not wanting to return to Earth.”
She didn’t appreciate that he had analyzed her so easily, even if he was the orc’s resident nerd type. And worse, he was all but mocking her for it. She should just walk away.
Sure, and where exactly would she go? Out into space?
Also, he wasn’t wrong.
“All right,” she drawled. “I’ll bite.”
He jerked back a little bit. “Bite?”
“It’s an Earther saying.” She bared her teeth at him in a hard smile. “It means I’m suspicious and untrusting but willing to listen to you.Ifyou get to the point.”
He nodded. She’d already noticed that he made more of an attempt than some of the orcs to reflect human movements and sounds. Like he was cosplaying an Earther or something. Definitely a nerd type.
“I want you to help me talk to Roxy.”
She grimaced. “That rock is what’s getting me kicked off theDeepWander,” she reminded him. And even to her it sounded sad to blame a rock for her mistakes. “How is this helping?”
“Because I’m doing it for the right reasons.”
How often had she told herself that, at least in the beginning? “What do you think the rock is going to change for you?”
Leaving tea and synthetar behind, he pushed to his feet. “Come with me.”
She looked up at him. His four hands were clasped in a tidy knot, all two dozen fingers neatly laced. Nerdy types didn’t get in trouble, did they?
Anyway, it wasn’t like she had anything else to do except sit and stare and swear she’d never make another mistake again ever.
She got up and followed him.
Chapter 2
When they left the empty galley, Sil was careful to shorten his stride to match Kinsley’s. He might be the least orc on theDeepWander, but he was still head and upper shoulders taller than the Earther female, despite the heeled boots she favored.
He would never admit it, not even with a laser scalpel at his throat, but it was a curious feeling to not be the smallest one around.
Or the most reviled. Before Dorn had shown himself willing to betray the Omega Reclamation Crew for his own riches, Sil had been considered the biggest (smallest?) waste of space on the ship. With Dorn and the pirates locked up but still refusing to talk, Kinsley—who’d been only unwittingly involved in the attempted larceny—was the one everyone else glanced askance at, even though, as she’d pointed out, in the end she’d helped prevent the theft. The other Earther females had tried to reassure her and provide her company, but he’d noticed how she pulled away, keeping to herself.
As he knew well enough, sometimes words, no matter how well-meaning, meant nothing.
During the rest cycle, the corridors of theDeepWanderwere quiet and dimmed except for a glimmering slymusk trail marking the wall.
In the faint light, he glanced down at her. “Unless you were lying about not wanting to go back to Earth?”
