Page 14 of Keeping Freya
I give her another grunt in response. “I slept.”
She huffs, and I smile. She is cute when she is angry.
“So, what is this then? Some sort of macho-guy thing? Think I can’t pilot this ship?”
I turn toward her. “No, I do not think you can pilot the ship. How long have you been a captain of a spaceship?”
She glares at me. Fuck, I have said the wrong thing, but now that I have put my foot in my mouth, I cannot seem to stop. “I will pilot the ship and take us safely to our destination. The ship is on autopilot, and scanners will alert me instantly if anything occurs. I can rest when I need it, but that is not right now.”
“So, you are just going to sit here?” Indignation seeps through her hostile tone.
“Yes.” It is not necessary for me to stay here, in this chair, with the course and the autopilot. I just do not trust her yet.
She looks at me through pinched eyes, obviously not happy with me right now. After a death-glare, she slowly rises and leaves.
Because I cannot resist myself, I look at her retreating form. Her hair is long and wavy, flowing loosely on her back. Her round, tail-less backside makes my mouth water. She is gorgeous. I chastise myself. If the way L’Ren and Marra were treated is any indication of how human females are seen across the Galaxy, she has been through enough. She does not need me ogling her backside, gorgeous as it may be.
The bond does not care, and it pulses, ordering me to follow her, but I let her go.
She is not for me, with her desire to return to Earth and to leave everything here behind. I grit my teeth, thinking about her home planet and my promise to find it and take her back to it.
I do not know where the planet is located. I have never heard of Earth, and our initial searches came up empty. I do not think she will find her life the same as when she left it.Time has passed, and being this far away from your planet really bends the concept of time.
But I always keep my promises. We Arracate have honor engraved in our bones. A promise is not taken lightly, even though this one will probably kill me.
Time passes, and my scans show a nearby meteor belt. Just when I want to make additional scans to help us with the navigation, Fr’ya comes stomping into the room. Obviously, still very angry.
“You can’t do this to me,” she snaps. “I’m a grown woman, I have taken control of this ship and got rid of the old crew. I am not some clueless, helpless damsel. So if I say I will take a shift piloting this thing, I will take a shift so you can sleep.”
I huff, her anger both amusing and irritating me. “No.”
“No?!” She is fuming right now. “No isn’t good enough, mister. Give me one good reason why you can’t rest up while I take care of the ship.”
“You do not know how to pilot it.”
She shrugs. “I know enough, besides the ship’s on autopilot. There’s nothing I have to do, but wake you when something’s wrong!”
She is right, of course, but I will not cave, yet. I can reroute the signals to my wrist com, and nothing will ever happen when I sleep, but what if something does happen to her on my watch? I will never forgive myself. Maybe tomorrow, once we are back in open space.
I could tell her that, but all I do is grunt and growl before I turn my attention to the window in front of the chairs. I cannot really deal with communicating with her right now.
Fr’ya is not having it, though; she stomps over and stands directly in front of me.
“You are the worst! You stubborn, impossible MAN. You think it’s better if you don’t sleep, than if you trust me to take care of you? Well, if something happens because you decideI’m not worthy of learning anything on this ship, or putting your trust in me. Well, that’s on YOU.”
She jabs her finger at my chest before she turns around furiously and walks away. My tail shoots out, and I grab her wrist, pulling her back to me.
I growl. “Do not walk away from me. We are here together, thanks to you. You could have been safe on Novarron, waiting for me to come and find your Earth for you. But you had to be stubborn and come along. Are you so careless about life that you want to endanger yourself like this?”
“You endanger me by not showing me how to pilot this ship,” she huffs. Her cheeks are burning red, and fire sparks in her eyes. “There is nothing for me on Novarron but women who want to play lovey-dovey with aliens. I have had my share, thank you very much.”
“There is nothing for you on Tekrov. NOTHING. I made you a promise, and I will always keep my promises. Now, if I find it hard to trust you after that stunt you pulled is hard for you to believe, too bad.”
“You are mad at me? For not trusting you?” Her eyes widen, and she shakes her head. “I have not been able to trust any fucking Alien since I woke up in this freaking Galaxy, so no. I will not trust you, because I don’t know you. And if that makes you mad, well… Suck it up, Buttercup.”
I stare at the fuming female. “Butter-Cup?” I repeat, and I cock my head in confusion. Exasperation shows on her face, but our fight is being interrupted by an alert on my wrist com. We turn around in unison, and a red light starts blinking at the control panel. Fr’Ya pales before taking a step closer to me.
“That is an incoming transmission,” she whispers.
