Page 8 of Caged By the Ruthless Thief

“You must be cold.” I race to the bedroom and grab the smallest tunic I have. And in doing so, I realize I haven’t cleaned back here in ages. I resist the urge to. “Here. I’m sure you want to take a shower.”

“Yes, it’s what separates us from the fishes.”

“No, Sunshine. It’s what keeps us from getting a disease called Magna-Oödinium. It’s a micro bacterium that attacks us under our scales.” Her hair catches the dim light in my living room, and it reminds me of her sitting at the café in Athens. She is my Sunshine. Her warmth fills me. My fathers all have special names for my mom. I always thought it was silly, but I get it now.

“Really?” Her blue eyes light up like I’ve unleashed her heart.

“Yes, my uncle, the rogue that he was, was also a lead medical entomologist.” I slide the small hidden panel on the wall to the side and push the button for his library. The door opens. The books are something I’ve been meaning to donate so I can use the room for something more practical, like as a place to store weapons or a gym.

She hasn’t moved.

“Here, come look.”

She walks slowly over. Her eyes are wide, and she reaches out to touch one of the many shelves. The room is covered in shelves, and in the center of the room stands his sturdy table with several pieces of research tech on it. “These are all scientific journals?”

“Yes, he wrote a bunch of them. If you put them under that device there, it will translate the texts to whatever language you like. He liked books. He even turned the second bedroom in the side dome into this room with no windows. It’s especially humidity-controlled. He also didn’t like the artificial lights coming off the main dome on them. That’s why it’s kind of dark.”

“I was going to say cozy.”

“We can go with cozy.” I’d have said claustrophobic. But if she wants to call it cozy, I’m all for it. “Do you want to shower before you get sucked into these?”

She raises her chin at me from where she is reading the titles of the books in Dorian.

“Do you want me to show you how to use the translator?” It’s the smallest machine on the table.

“Please.”

After a few minutes, she’s got the hang of it with ease.

“I’m going to grab a quick shower.” When I head off to the chasm, I’m going to be sitting for who knows how long. I’m going to get a message any time now, and I resist the urge to clean up the mess of clothes in my bedroom and head straight for the bathroom.

I’m confident this is going to work out. I’ll do what I can to help Nico. Or I won’t. That’s what my mission is: make sure he doesn’t get the trident at the bottom of the chasm. If he does, I’m going to have a whole other problem on my hands.

I stare at the shared wall between the bathroom and the library like I’ve got some kind of X-ray powers. Letting Nico die would be a hell of a lot easier. But lying to a mate isn’t a great way to start our future together.

I’ve been dying to touch her. More than placing my hand over hers. To run my hands down her sides. The hours with the propulsion unit were torture. I could feel how tired she was, and when we got into thesolo, I wanted to run my hand up her leg. I’ve never been that hard in my life. And I will continue to be this hard because I’m not rubbing one out now.

I put on my deep-water shirt. It’s thermal protection; my regular gear goes on top. I’m hoping I don’t have to go for a swim. But the likelihood of that happening is minimal. I head back into the bedroom, half expecting her to be collapsed on the bed, and then out into the main room where I’m also surprised she’s not looking for food that looks like anything she might recognize.

She’s still in the library. And when I peer around the corner, I catch her covering a yawn. Her foot is on the seat of the chair, her knee between her chest and my uncle’s old table. She’s turning the pages of one of his books like it’s a precious ancient text. Which I suppose some of these are; that’s why I kept meaning to donate the lot. But now I’m thrilled I didn’t. Still, I keep the room a secret. With my line of work, a secret room comes in handy. When you’re unofficially off the books of the security council, doing the dirty work they can’t do, secrecy is a must.

She looks up at me. “Do you know what you have here?”

Flippant me wants to say, “not a gym.” But instead, I nod. “Yeah. He was well-respected in that regard. It’s the only reason why the string of Zaffiro governors tolerated him.”

“I’m only understanding a bit of what is in here, but it’s fascinating. You don’t mind if I read them, do you?”

“When we’re mated, they’ll all be yours, Sunshine. I think that’s one reason why my uncle Titus never mated. He loved these books so much he couldn’t imagine sharing them with someone. But I’ll give them willingly to you.”

She yawns again.

“Perhaps you should get some rest before you read them all.”

She nods at me.

My block is vibrating in my pocket. “I need to get this.” She doesn’t answer. The top of her head is dipped into a book again. I pace back to the living room dome to answer it. “Yes.”

It’s a synthetic voice. “They will take him tomorrow. Get in position.” The line goes dead.

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