Embrace the Romance

by S. E. Smith

  “And the animal somehow ended up in their hands?”

  “It wasn’t random. Adini was the bio-engineer’s daughter,” Ketsia said, glancing his way. “She smuggled Luna off Carduwa on a ship that Taro crewed as navigator at the time. It was just after they met. In fact, another StarDog was the reason they met at all. Adini ended up having to barter the other StarDog to Taro’s captain to pay for transport. Luna is the last of her genetic copies. She meant a lot to them.”

  “And yet they gave her to you?”

  “It’s more like a permanent loan.” Ketsia lifted the StarDog off her shoulder and into her lap, sliding her fingers through the animal’s silky black and white coat. “While I was aboard Acumen, Luna and I formed a special bond. We can...understand each other. When it came time for me to leave the ship, Adini said she didn’t see how they could separate us, so she told me to keep Luna with me. It was really hard for Adini and Taro to say goodbye to her.”

  “That seems extraordinarily kind of them.”

  “They’re extraordinarily kind people. Taro is Tectolian, like me. He reminds me so much of my brother. A brother I haven’t seen…since I was a child.”

  “Why is that?”

  Ketsia drew a deep breath. It still hurt to remember this part of her life. “Because I was taken from my family on Tectol as part of a tribute.” She paused, trying to gain control of her emotions before finishing. “I was sent to Ithis as slave stock…until Captain Drea Mennelsohn saved us, just before Operation Reset.”

  Jagger’s body stiffened, and he faced forward in his seat. “You were one of the escapees Drea brought to Spirit?”

  “Yes.” Ketsia’s gaze cut to Jagger’s visor. “One of two hundred.”

  She was one of Sair’s!

  Jagger fought to quell his reaction. Sair—Drea’s Sair and now Congressman Sair—a former breeding slave on Ithis. A man with a harem of two hundred females….which had apparently included Ketsia. He clamped his jaw so tight that his molars ached.

  He’d been on Spirit when Drea brought the women to refuge, still stinging from Drea’s rejection. Still reeling from the choice she’d made.

  Sair.

  And now to discover this woman had been one of the man’s females on Ithis? Gigadam!

  Jagger bolted to his feet and turned for the lift.

  Her puzzled voice chased after him. “Jagger? Is something wrong?”

  “Just getting some lunch.” He doubted his terse reply would fool her, but he needed to sort out his head without her present to see how much this new wrinkle had thrown him.

  She was one of Sair’s. Haley’s Crest!

  He stepped on to the lift and escaped to the main deck then stormed into the galley. Rifling through the refrigeration unit, he chose two meals from the well-stocked provisions. He ripped open the packages and thrust the containers into the fren-oven to heat while he stood glaring at the galley wall.

  Sair had done what Jagger couldn’t. He’d made Drea happy. Together, the two of them had saved the universe. Operation Reset would most likely have failed catastrophically if it hadn’t been for the sacrifices they’d both made.

  And now they were bondmates.

  Happily bonded…with a young daughter.

  He still cursed himself for the impetuous, ego-fueled deeds that had cost him the love of his life. He’d often questioned why Drea would choose a man like Sair—a breeding stud with two hundred women—when his own transgressions amounted to no more than a handful of hurried, no-strings-attached encounters during flight academy.

  Was it to teach him a lesson? To repay him with the same pain he’d caused her?

  Jagger leaned against the galley wall and rocked his head back, thumping his helmet against the bulkhead.

  No. Drea’s actions hadn’t been vindictive, as much as he’d wanted to believe it was all about him. She loved Sair. With every atom of her being. And Sair loved her back, with a fierce loyalty no one could deny. Not after what had happened to her in the battle over Ithis. Not after Sair had stood by her side when the rest of the universe—including Drea’s own brother—had written her off.

  “I remember you.”

  Jagger raised his head from the wall. Ketsia stood before him, her hands clasped, the visor in place over her eyes. “You should be at your console,” he growled.

  “I used to watch you walking the Spirit corridors. You always looked…so lost. Haunted. And that’s what I was feeling, too.”

  Jagger straightened. “I wasn’t lost. I was a Network officer with a job to do. And we were facing impossible odds.”

  “But you seemed so…broken. I always wondered—”

  Jagger ignored the flare of pain in his gut, and cut her off with the snap of his upraised palm—the universal hand signal for ‘halt.’ “Sheeban. Pilot, assuming command.” An audible beep and acknowledgment flashed inside his visor.

  Ketsia’s hands lowered to her sides, weighted by her clenched fists. “Why did you do that?”

  Jagger pushed off the wall with his shoulders and loomed over her. “You’re distracted by inconsequential nonsense, and your attention isn’t on the controls, where it should be.”

  Ketsia’s mouth dropped open. Her little StarDog wrapped itself protectively around her shoulders, chittering at him angrily.

  “That thing had better not bite.”

  Luna stopped scolding, and her beady black eyes locked on him. It was almost like she could—

  “This thing can understand every word you say,” Ketsia said quietly. Her lower lip trembled, but whether from hurt or rage, he couldn’t tell with her eyes hidden. “If you’ll excuse us, we’ll return to our cabin.” She stalked out of the galley without her lunch, but with Luna facing backward on her shoulder, glaring at him.

  Jagger turned to brace a shoulder against the wall, teeth set on edge. He hadn’t handled this well at all, but he damned sure didn’t need her rubbing his nose in the past, whether she’d meant to or not.

  When he’d accepted this mission, he’d had no idea who Ketsia was or that she’d been present onboard Spirit during the darkest chapter of his life.

  Did she know? Had Drea told her the story? Or Sair? Or Jaeo?

  Yes. He’d made thoughtless, unprincipled mistakes as a young cadet—and he’d paid for those follies with his future. But he wasn’t that man anymore. Losing everything that truly mattered to him had turned him to stone inside. He couldn’t even remember when he’d last been with a woman.

  Yet somehow Fate had seen fit to throw him together with this Tectolian beauty—of all people, one of Sair’s harem.

  Get your head back in the game!

  Yes, dammit, he had a mission to perform. Get Ketsia Tayah home safely to Ambassador Gant, by way of a treacherous dark nebula where bloodthirsty criminals lurked. Fighting this reckless attraction for a black-eyed seraph who seemed set on opening old wounds was definitely not in his game plan.

  Four

  Admiral Kareek’s voice echoed in Jagger’s head. “You have an ego the size of the Bradley Rift, my boy. And sooner or later, it’s going to trip you up.”

  It had tripped him up.

  His pride had been calling the shots since he’d walked out of the admiral’s office—first with his frustration at not being granted command of Meritorious, and then his disgust at being saddled with an aging ship he’d believed below his station.

  And finally…with the way he’d treated Ketsia. She’d done nothing to deserve his admonishment. Maybe he really was the prideful bastard his superiors believed him to be.

  Ketsia had avoided him by staying in her cabin for the last two days, apparently only venturing into the galley for a meal when she knew he was busy in other parts of the ship. At least he could hear her talking to her StarDog from time to time, so he knew she was still alive and breathing.

  His fault, he admitted to himself. Totally his doing.

  It didn’t matter that she seemed to trip all his toggles on so many emotional levels—especia
lly when he refused to acknowledge he still had emotions. It wasn’t her fault that their shared history was anchored in territory he never wanted to navigate again. He was a Carduwan officer, for Crest’s sake, and she was his responsibility. He owed her adopted father—and by extension, her—every courtesy. He’d been entirely unprofessional.

  And it stopped now. Starting with a very humble apology.

  Yes, he could do humble. It was within his range.

  He clicked on the ship’s intercom, summoning a semblance of calm he wasn’t feeling. “Could you come to the Flight Deck? There’s something I’d like to show you.”

  He winced. That sounded like some unimaginative pickup line. And he should know. He’d used it more than once in the long ago and best forgotten.

  Worse yet, he hadn’t even said ‘please.’ Lords, when was the last time that word had been part of his vocabulary?

  A long pause preceded her equally composed response. “I’m on my way.”

  He kept his eyes on the display monitor when she walked onto the Flight Deck a few moments later.

  Ketsia took in the trim lines of the man’s uniform. Captain Navene Jagger cut quite the dashing figure in those threadbare coveralls. He looked every inch the outstanding officer she believed him to be. But she didn’t understand how she’d triggered such a negative reaction in the man that he’d stalked off the Flight Deck to escape her company.

  Was it somehow connected to her assuming the controls of Banshee? He’d certainly been quick to wrest control back into his no doubt capable hands.

  Or was it the fact she’d followed him? Or her childish admission that she remembered him from Spirit?

  Hades, she’d obsessed over him. Watched him, and watched for him. Like some sad little orphan puppy pining for a glimpse of her hero.

  Now the man seemed to resent who and what she was—or who she’d been—on some very deep level…but why?

  And why summon her to the Flight Deck now? Unless he was looking for another fight.

  “Have you ever seen the Rift?” he asked, without turning her way.

  She pulled up short. “The Bradley Rift? You can see it?”

  “At this distance, yes. It’s quite impressive. You might want to take a look.” He gestured to the monitor in front of the co-pilot console. “You won’t have this view once we’ve entered the region.”

  She approached him with care in her step and in her tone. “Why is that?”

  “The dust and gas clouds are only visible from a distance through Banshee’s filters. Once we’re inside the nebula, the particles will be too thinly disbursed to detect on the monitor even though they’ll obscure our scanners.”

  Ketsia lifted off her helmet and peered at the screen before her, mesmerized by the images emerging from the swirling blue-green-red-violet chaos. “I see monsters.”

  He managed an off-kilter smile. “Most people do.”

  The man should smile more often. It was a nice look for him. Much nicer than the hard frown and harsh words she’d spent two days avoiding.

  Ketsia traced a circle around one section of the screen. “Here there be dragons,” she said quietly. “Two of them. Intertwined. Both breathing fire.”

  “That’s called pareidolia. Your brain trying to recognize familiar patterns where none exist, trying to make sense out of nonsense in the chaos.”

  Yeah, her brain had been attempting to do just that ever since the baffling nonsense in the galley.

  “Look.” Ketsia reached out to hit the magnification on one section of the image. “There’s Luna.”

  Jagger studied the area she pointed to. “It does indeed look like your little StarDog.”

  Oh Hades. That smile! Ketsia forced her attention back to the monitor. “What formed the Rift?”

  He gestured to the center of the monitor. “Long ago, a star went supernova in this sector and blasted everything around it to oblivion with hot gases. When the supernova eventually burned out billions of calendars later, the Bradley Rift was left behind. An atypical dark nebula filled with charged particles that make navigation difficult and scanning impossible except at close range. That’s why outlaws have used it as a hideout for centuries.”

  “What do you mean by ‘atypical’?”

  “Something prevented new stars from forming in the region after the event. It’s left scientists quite baffled.”

  “So she’s a mystery girl.”

  Jagger gave a soft laugh. “I guess you could say that.”

  She liked this Captain Jagger—the more soft-spoken, genteel version of the Asshole Space Jock she’d recently sparred with. Even if she might be partly to blame for bringing out the ASJ side of him.

  “I want to apologize to you,” he offered, stopping her thoughts cold, “for my behavior the other day. You’re under my protection, and I didn’t treat you with the courtesy you deserve. It won’t happen again.”

  Ketsia traced a random image on the monitor with the tip of her finger. “Was it something I said?”

  Jagger adjusted the controls. “Yes. And no. You mentioned the Spirit. I have some bad memories connected to that.”

  She tilted her head quizzically. “To Spirit?”

  “To that time on Spirit.”

  She gave a slow bob of her head. “It wasn’t exactly a happy time for me either.”

  Still perched on her shoulder, the StarDog raised up on its little feet and extended its nose with pointed ears pricked. Chittering quietly, it fixed its soft brown eyes intently on his visor. Then, without warning, the beast leaped, landing on his shoulder. Jagger stiffened, fighting the impulse to throw the animal to the deck. “What’s it doing?”

  “Trying to make friends,” Ketsia answered.

  “Seems more like an aggressive takeover.”

  She laughed. “She’s not aggressive. In fact, I think she’s starting to like you.”

  “I’m not sure the feeling is mutual.”

  Ketsia gave him a pensive grin. “Just give her a chance. She’ll be your best friend once you get to know her.”

  Jagger reached up slowly to run his palm over the little beastie, bracing for a nip or a sharp bite. Instead, the little StarDog…purred? It actually purred like a domestic feline as Jagger stroked its soft, thick fur. And like a feline, it arched its back and rubbed against the side of his helmet then licked his hand like a canine.

  “What are StarDogs made of again?” Jagger asked.

  “Recombinant weasel, mongoose, canine, and feline DNA. All the best properties of each to create a lethal vermin hunter and loyal companion perfectly suited to a starship environment.”

  “Luna?” Jagger asked, rubbing his thumb over the animal’s tilted head. “Is that your name? Maybe short for Lunatic?”

  “No.” Ketsia snickered. “Taro and Adini’s other StarDog was named Katrina, after a legendary queen. So Taro named this copy ‘Luna,’ in honor of that same high queen’s shieldcrest—the moons of LaGuardia.”

  “I’ve never heard that legend.”

  “You’re not LaGuardian.”

  “Neither are you.”

  “No. But Adini is. Half LaGuardian and half Purmian.”

  “Now there’s a lethal combination.” Jagger grinned, remembering Drea’s petite and fiery Purmian first mate and close friend, Commander Zjel Shenna. At least, that was what everyone had called Zjel back in the Network days. Except for him. He’d always called her Spitfire.

  Of course, now everyone called her Duchess.

  Luna nuzzled Jagger’s ear, making a quiet gurgling sound followed by a few soft barks.

  “What’s she doing now?”

  “Communicating.” Ketsia laughed. “She’s saying, ‘Pay more attention to me. You’re getting distracted.’”

  “Sorry, girl.” Jagger rubbed the StarDog’s ears.

  “It’s good to see you make friends.”

  Jagger gave a sly smile. “I wouldn’t go that far.”

  “How far would you go?” Ketsia blushed, an app
ealing shade of pink over her lovely bronze skin. “Wait. I didn’t mean…”

  Jagger just languished behind his faceshield and watched Ketsia squirm. He couldn’t help himself. She was an adorable squirmer. A stunning, tongue-tied, ebony-haired, pink-lipped seductress who had no clue what she could do to a man just by saying the wrong thing at the right time.

  But she was also ten calendars his junior…and his duty and responsibility.

  He needed to keep his head in the game and his cock out of it.

  “It’s all right,” Jagger reassured her. “I didn’t take that in the usual context.”

  Now it was Ket who stared. Sans faceshield. Until she dropped her eyes in utter discomposure.

  Right. So there seemed to be a spark on both sides of this fuse.

  And here they were, alone together on a vessel navigating a dark nebula.

  This might turn out to be more dangerous for the two of them than all the bad guys roaming the Rift combined.

  Five

  They were four days into the Rift, and so far, no danger had materialized—in either sense of the word.

  While Jagger was awake, it was easier. He could shift his thoughts from forbidden territory to an underperforming circuit or a scheduled course adjustment to keep his mind on the straight and true.

  But after he turned the controls over to auto-pilot—or Ketsia—and went to tumble into his rack for a few haras rest, his imagination took over and ran amok. No way to whip his growing preoccupation back into submission when his subconscious was the officer on deck. Somehow, he had to find a way—honorably—to get through seven more days with his sanity and lust both thoroughly in check.

  Gigadam. This wasn’t a scenario he’d even remotely imagined he’d be facing.

  He’d tried reverse psychology. At first, the mere thought of Ketsia with Sair was enough to snuff out any rising flames. But lately, even those tormenting images had flip-flopped into edgy yearning.

  It didn’t help that her cabin was right next to his, just one wall separating them. And it was certainly no easy thing to catch her subtle side-eye or the tiny hitch in her stride whenever he was near, and know she was waging some inner battle with herself, as well.