“You seem to be communicating well with Rose.”
“Her mind is strong. If someone told me she’d been ‘talking’ less than twenty four hours I don’t know if I’d believe them. She’s been able to reach all twenty five of us. Vax said the only person she has trouble getting a message through to is Gval. He heard her but her message evidently wasn’t clear. He only understood that she was trying to reach him and sought her out. That head injury he suffered as child sometimes plagues him still I think. I told her not to worry too much over it since unless he’s in my line of sight my messages to him are garbled as well,” Fazon elaborated.
Dezek sometimes worried about his third being isolated. Attacked as a child by a Twariak beast, while he and his family were visiting his mother’s home planet he had nearly died from the brain injury. One of the animal’s tusks had penetrated his skull and it had taken four healers nearly a full day to repair him but it turned out to be incomplete. A quiet individual with not many friends, Gval always took the night shift so as not to deal with as many people. His inability to camouflage prevented him from leaving the ship at any time during voyages though that was not common knowledge. His difficulty in ‘talking’ made others uncomfortable around him but he was reliable and steady. Dezek knew that some were surprised by his confidence in the other man but Gval had never once disappointed and frequently saw things that others missed since his limitations had forced an increase in his observation skills. Even Fazon had come around after working with Gval on several voyages and Fazon was tough to impress. Dezek had always been able to reach him so perhaps Rose would eventually manage it too since it appeared she was growing to be a very powerful telepath in a very short span of time. The man in question exited the lift shaking his head but smiling wide.
“Something you want to share?” Dezek asked.
“Rose. She’s spent the last two hours poking me. It’s driving her crazy that her messages are garbled,” he laughed. “She’s refusing to admit she might only be able to summon me and not ‘talk’. I actually think someone else is finally more annoyed by my limitation than I am.” He smiled again. “Anything pressing for the night?”
“No. I’m hoping we have a quiet night. Watch your sensors though. My intuition is still grabbing at me about that Trusky.”
“Acknowledged. Tek and I will keep a full sensor sweep going. If your gut is still talking, I’m listening,” Gval told him as he took the chair.
Dezek headed for the lift. The door opened and produced Tek and the other two members of the night crew. Dezek nodded to them and he and Nyman entered the lift. Dezek got out on Eighteen and Nyman said goodnight and went on to the crew quarters on Sixteen. The other half of crew quarters was on Fifteen. He headed for the lounge looking for Sienna. He found Wendy, Natalie and Tabitha instead. The women had a tablet and a stylus and piles of clothing on every flat surface.
He leaned against the jamb of door, “Not prepping for another bonfire, I hope.”
“No,” they said as one laughing.
“We’re inventorying the crate and making a list of what’s here and the approximate sizes,” Wendy told him. “Sienna and the others are cooking and we were banned from the kitchen.” The last was said with a cheeky smile. “I can burn water, Natalie is all thumbs and Tabitha says she’d rather do anything than cook. We volunteered to go through the crate of clothes. We’ve got another ten minutes or so here and then we’re headed to taste test.”
“Then I’ll see you downstairs.” He nodded to the ladies and headed back to the lift. As he passed Blanca’s door he shook his head. He was hoping that he’d be able to make some progress with her after she had time to think and he had time to calm down. He had a bad feeling that she might make the next few months a trial but he wasn’t going to cut the supply run short for one spoilt girl. He’d keep her locked in that room the whole trip first. He exited the lift on Seventeen and walked to the Dining hall and pulled up short.
About half of the off duty crew appeared to be in the room and it was filled with mouth-watering smells. He nodded to crew as he headed to the kitchen but none of them spoke to him. They couldn’t, they were too busy stuffing themselves with whatever smelled so good. He entered the kitchen and smiled.
Sienna was in her element here. She was stirring a pot and giving instructions to Rose, who had a tablet in hand, that sounded like a recipe in the making. Holly and Jasmine were filling plates for crew members following their noses to the kitchen. Samantha was kneading and cutting some type of dough at a work table. Taylor was removing pans of small baked bread forms from the ovens. It was organized chaos.
“You’re going to spoil them. You know that, right?” he asked with a wide smile. She looked beautiful. She was smiling and slightly flushed with excitement. The smile was glowing out of her eyes. He could feel her energy filling the kitchen.
“That’s okay. We just wanted to use the equipment and test some of the herbs Moz and Taylor provided. The smells brought in volunteers from the rec rooms for taste testing,” she laughed. “We’re taking over dinner tomorrow from Tek and his crew so we wanted a little hands-on. We’ve already been offered bribes if we keep him out the kitchen permanently.”
“You know you didn’t have to jump in so soon,” he said in a soft tone.
“We know but we’re all used to being useful and working. Sitting around just isn’t for us,” she replied to him. “We had nearly a month of doing nothing, but thank you for thinking of us. Now, would you like to eat?”
“Definitely. If it tastes anywhere close to how it smells, I’ll tie Tek up and dump him in Cargo myself.”
“Go find a seat. I’ll bring you something.”
Following her instructions he turned back to the hall and saw Wendy and her group entering followed by Rev and Ashaa. He sat and Rev took a seat next to him while the ladies headed for the kitchen.
“How is Ashaa?” he looked at Rev.
“She seems to have completely recovered. Vax gave her the all clear a few minutes ago.”
“That’s good. I was really worried for a while.”
“So was I.”
“Have you talked with her about her other potential capabilities yet?”
“No,” Rev shook his head. “I wanted an all clear from Vax first and he wants her well rested before she attempts a shift. She’s ‘talking’ though.”
The women reappeared and put a stop to the conversation. Sienna placed a plate in front of Dezek and sat next to him with her own. Ashaa placed one in front of Rev and sat with them. He saw Wendy and several of the others reappear with plates and find seats among his crew. Wendy he noticed had made straight for Fazon who’d come in while he was in the kitchen. He looked down at the plate and breathed in the delicious scent. The first mouthful didn’t disappoint. He groaned, “Damn, that’s good.”
“I’ll second that,” Rev added. “I’ll volunteer to wash if you cook,” he told Sienna.
“I’m glad you like it. Did Blanca need anything else?” she answered.
“No,” Ashaa shook her head, “she refused to speak to either of us. I thought for a minute she would throw it at us but Rev warned her we wouldn’t bring her anything else until morning and she would either starve or eat off the floor.”
“The two of you fed her,” Dezek questioned.
“Yes. Everyone else was busy so I volunteered. I don’t know how to cook or size clothing and there were no dishes to wash yet. Rev didn’t want me to go alone so he came along while I delivered her meal.”
“That’s for the best. Ashaa, I know she probably can’t seriously injure you but it still wouldn’t surprise me if she tried. So the ‘pairs’ thing goes for everyone,” he told her.
“Got it.” Ashaa nodded. Dezek watched as several more off duty crew followed their noses in and Sienna waved them to the kitchen where Samantha had taken over so she could eat.
“They are definitely going to be spoiled,” he said shaking his head and returned to his own meal. The
y finished the meal with Rev and Dezek asking questions about how it was cooked and which protein she had pulled from the freeze unit. Once they had finished their meal, he and Rev gathered the dishes from the four and headed to the kitchen with the dishes, ready to clean. He was pleased to discover several crew members already at work washing dishes and cleaning. “Thank you for cleaning up, guys.”
“Are you kidding, for a meal like that I’d wash dishes every day,” Nyman told him from in front of the cleaning unit he was loading.
“Sign us up for duty,” several others joined Nyman in agreement. They were putting the kitchen to rights under direction from Samantha and Jasmine. He shook his head and turned over his stack to Nyman.
“You seemed to have it covered in here so I’ll go help wipe down tables,” he told the pilot. “Tomorrow I’ll wash.” With that Dezek left the kitchen and he and Rev helped Axon and Ashaa finish wiping down the tables. He sat next to Sienna who was stilling smiling as she and Rose finalized tomorrow’s dinner menu. Vax entered the door and headed their way. He sat next to Rose and took her hand.
“We’ll go with that, Rose,” Sienna smiled at the young couple, “enjoy your evening.” Rose waved and she left with Vax. It was hard to believe that a little more than twenty four hours ago it had necessary to rescue the women. They fit in with his crew with ease and most of them had an outstanding work ethic. He looked at Sienna and knew she was going to try pull back from him. He could feel her hesitation again. She smiled as she turned to him, “Did you need something?”
“Just you for a little while.”
“Well, I still have to go to the lounge and pick out some more clothing,” she told him.
“So I’ll tag along,” he smiled at her, her skin prickled, and she shook her head slightly to clear it. The man was way too dangerous with that smile. And worse yet he knew it too! Something about him just spoke to her. She known him little more than a full day and yet whenever he was close she knew. She couldn’t explain it or how comfortable he felt to her. As they entered the lift he took her hand in his. They found most of the other women still in the lounge going through their options. Wendy, Samantha and Holly seemed to be in a discussion over several tops.
“I’ll wait here for you,” Dezek told her as he leaned against the jamb. Rev clapped him on the shoulder as Ashaa passed him into the room. She too stopped at where the other women were discussing the tops.
“Decided you were safer on this side?” Rev joked with him.
“Undoubtedly.”
***
“So I can easily alter this style and the other without too much trouble when you start to show,” Wendy was telling Holly and Samantha. “Axon also said he had a crate of fabric and sewing supplies he could let me dig through.”
“You sew?” Sienna asked Wendy.
“Like a champ. I can’t cook at all but I can sew just about anything.”
“Great, that will help with the maternity wear while we’re out here,” Holly said.
“We’ll be out here that long?” Natalie asked.
“Yes, according to Ax this trip is scheduled to be several months long. Even though they weren’t planning to acquire us, they have the resources available to continue on so Dezek has elected to do that,” Holly told them.
“The two you seemed to hit off well at dinner. And I like the nickname,” Wendy observed as Holly blushed. Her blonde hair and light complexion making her almost as easy to read as Rose.
“He’s nice. I wasn’t sure I wanted to talk to him at first because he kept giving me these odd looks. I thought he might be mad that I teased him about Blanca and her valet demand,” Holly smiled. “But when he wound up sitting next to me at dinner, he admitted that he keeps hearing the babies. It was startling for him. We had a laugh over it when I told him I feel the same way when they move.” She said with the infectious laugh that Sienna found she liked.
“You can feel the babies already? Isn’t it too early?” Natalie questioned.
“It is a little early but Vax said it is possible and probably due to the fact that it’s twins. He said Samantha and I will also show sooner and larger because of the twins thing,” Holly explained. “I’ll take five of this one since there are so many colors to choose from and one each of the other styles. That’ll give me a week’s worth plus one.”
“I already asked Axon for the fabric and sewing supply crate. He said they’d pull it out and put in here. He left it where they could reach it easily just in case. I’ll make you couple of simple dresses for comfort also.” Wendy told her and then turned, “Samantha?”
“I’ll do like Holly and go with this one since it’s easiest to alter and there are so many colors and one each of the others. Do you think you could make me a dress or two also? At sixteen weeks, I already feel like my pants are too tight.”
“Once I have the sewing crate, I might be able to alter a couple pairs of pants into maternity wear if I have the right supplies or even just flat out make them.” Wendy told them. “I’ll go through the crate tomorrow with Natalie and Tabitha. Then we’ll make a list of what we still need and ask if we can try for it on the next stop.”
“Wow, you’re going to be busy,” Sienna laughed at Wendy.
“I don’t mind and Natalie volunteered to help with sewing,” Wendy told her.
“I’m all thumbs in the kitchen which is why I worked the counter in the deli, but fabric and a needle, I got that,” Natalie admitted.
“All right, then two of you have two jobs each. I’ll let Dezek know you’ll be doing that and helping Moz and Taylor in the gardens.” Sienna told the group. “I also think that we’ll select that type of top for Blanca but Dezek only wants her to have two changes of clothing. He doesn’t want to risk that she’ll be able to use clothing for kindling again.”
“Let’s use those drawers over in the wall for the extras,” Taylor said, pointing. “I checked them and they’re empty right now, that way everyone will have access to the spares. Then I’m headed for bed. It’s been a long day. A good day but long.”
All of the women agreed. They stored the extra clothing items and then picked up their piles and headed off to their quarters. Sienna and Dezek went into her quarters and she set her pile on the bed. She turned to Dezek.
“I need to take Blanca her two outfits. Want to go with me?”
“Not really but I will,” he said with a smile. They exited her quarters and proceeded down the hall to Blanca’s room. When the door opened Sienna discovered Blanca had not cleaned the room at all, the floor was still littered with debris. The teen sat on the bed with her back to them.
“Blanca, I brought you two changes of clothing so you could shower and have clean clothes,” Sienna told her. She didn’t respond at all to them. “I’ll leave them here on the shelf. I’ll also take the dishes with me. Did you have enough to eat?”
The teen continued to ignore them. Sienna sighed and turned to Dezek who had gathered up the dirty dishes from small bar area where Blanca left them. They exited the room. Inside Sienna’s own quarters Dezek went to the cleaning unit and place the dishes inside and cycled it. He then stacked the clean items on the counter and turned to face Sienna. She was putting the clothing away in drawers in the wall storage unit.
“Do you want to talk about it?”
She shook her head. “I’m just going to shower. Goodnight.” She took the remaining items she hadn’t put away and went into the lavatory. He sat down on the small sofa to wait for her. Fifteen minutes later she came out and froze. She hadn’t been expecting him to stay he knew.
“I thought we said goodnight.”
“You said goodnight.” He closed the distance between them and with a gentle hand stroked her face. He slid his hand into her hair and lowered his lips to hers. His lips were warm, gentle and coaxing. She had meant to resist him, she really had but once the kiss started she forgot about resisting. Her lips opened for him and she was surprised when he just teased her with his tongue and kept
the kiss soft at first. He slowly deepened the kiss and slid one of his arms around her pulling her tight against him. Heat seared through her. She took hold of his tunic to maintain her balance but she didn’t want the kiss to end. He tasted spicy, intoxicating her. The electric tingle that his touch created was now all over her. He nibbled on her bottom lip and then across her jaw. He buried his hand in her dark red curls and claimed her mouth again. She felt like her whole body was in flames when he finally drew back from her slightly. He stood watching her for a moment, his eyes now a deep bronze color with want. He rubbed his thumb gently over her lower lip.
“Now, we’ve said goodnight,” and with that he walked out the door, smiling. Damn the man anyway was all she could think.
***
Wendy went in search of Fazon after the fashion brain storm in the lounge. She found him by himself lifting weights in one of the gyms on Seventeen. She leaned against the wall just inside of the doorway and watched as muscle rippled beneath his skin. His back was to her and she could see the pattern of spots that started at the nape of his neck where his inky black hair stopped and flowed down his spine to disappear in the waist band of his shorts. The spots obviously didn’t stop where her vision did. They came out from underneath the hem of his shorts, ran down the back of each leg and stopped at the bottom of his heel. She felt a tingling heat at the apex of her thighs as she speculated what his spectacular ass looked like without the shorts and just where all those spots touched.
“Enjoying the view?” he asked in amused voice.
“As matter of fact I am,” she smirked. “I am definitely enjoying it. Although I must admit I’m thinking about what the rest of it looks like.”
He placed the weight he was using on the floor and turned toward at her. His chest looked as though it had been sculpted from granite. He was the largest most magnificent male she’d ever seen. Moisture started to pool at the apex of her thighs. Blanca was a fool she decided, Green was a fantastic color. The spots that started at his temple flowed in an uninterrupted line down his neck, across his shoulder and down the back of his arms to stop just above the knuckles on his massive hands. Her gaze followed the chest to an abdomen that would put every one of those cocky male gym whores on the base she knew to shame. But what intrigued her most was that above where his workout shorts rode low on his hips was a naval similar to her own with a line of spots starting just below. Beneath the legs of his shorts a line of spots appeared on each thigh and ran down the leg stopping just below where his toes started. She couldn’t wait to find out where that line split. The thought of it had all of her lady parts dancing. Her eyes finally came back up to his gaze. He wore an arrogant look that said he knew exactly what was going on in her head.
TAKEN: Journey to a New Home Page 12