by Mina Carter
“Why don’t you try a bite, they’re really good.”
There were grimaces of disgust, but most of them kept their attention on the plates. Hell, anyone would think they’d never seen anyone cook before.
“Here,” she held out a fork loaded with egg to the dark-haired warrior, “you try them…”
She trailed off curiously, an eyebrow quirked, to prompt him to supply his name.
“Jei.” He took the fork and sniffed at the fluffy egg suspiciously.
“Smells good,” he informed the men crowded around him before he popped it in his mouth. Then moaned in pure bliss.
“Oh wow.” He opened his eyes and looked at the plate possessively. “Are there more women like you where you come from?”
Tilting her head, she smirked playfully. “Nope. I’m the only one. One of a kind.” His face fell with disappointment and she felt silly for saying something so ridiculous. “I’m kidding.” Leaning across the counter, she shoved Jei lightly. “Yes, there are lots of women like me where I come from. Well, at least ones that can cook just as good as I do.”
She felt bad for having cooked just enough for only herself and Roz. Especially with the way the men stared at the plates of steaming food. There were only five. She could whip up more food for them in no time and two fresh plates for herself and her lover before he woke. At least she hoped so.
“I can make more if you’d like some breakfast too?”
The noise level in the small room reached ear-splitting proportions. The silent men around her became a group of kids as they squabbled and fought over the two stools. Eventually, the din died down. She turned back from the hob to find Jei and another slightly smaller warrior sitting there, grinning at her. Jei had a split lip and his companion sported the beginnings of a black eye.
Frowning at not just the two men directly across from her, but at all of them, she lifted her chin. What had started out as five men had multiplied to over twenty. She couldn’t have them starting fights while she cooked, so she crossed her arms and waited for them to be quiet.
Jei caught on quick.
“Shut it, you lot!” Turning back to her, it was his turn to raise an eyebrow in question.
“Summer.”
“Right. Summer has something she wants to say and you lot’ll keep it shut until she’s finished.”
She almost broke into a smile when he crossed his tattooed arms in the same manner hers were. Though he looked much more imposing doing it than she did.
Inclining her head in thanks, she turned her attention to the now very crowded galley. It would have been easy for her to be intimidated by all those large, very well-muscled men, but she’d grown up with four older brothers who could have easily fit in here. Minus the tattoos, of course. They had raised her, so she didn’t intimidate easily.
“Thank you, Jei. All right, boys, I’ll make breakfast for all of you, under one condition.” She paused to let her words sink in. All eyes in the room were focused on her, so she knew they were all listening.
“My condition is that all of you behave yourselves while I’m making your breakfast. Roz is still sleeping, and I’d like it if you could keep the noise down so I can surprise him with breakfast in bed.”
The warrior next to Jei raised his eyebrows. “Um…what do you mean, ‘breakfast in bed?’”
There were several snickers and laughs from others, making Summer narrow her eyes at them. Her cheeks burned at the thought of what they’d been hearing all night. She wasn’t embarrassed, though. All she felt was happiness and a slow, simmering heat that made her want to hurry back to Roz.
“It isn’t what you think. It’s simply eating breakfast, as in food, in bed together. It’s romantic.”
Blinking her eyes, she looked back at the man next to Jei. She winced at the black eye, which darkened by the minute. Taking pity, she looked around for a medical kit. They watched her with puzzled glances as she washed her hands and came around the counter to stand next to them. She held a dermal healer so she could fix their wounds. Tilting her head, she smiled at the smaller man with the black eye.
“Okay, you’re first.” Reaching out to steady his face with one hand, she paused as Jei spoke up.
“Um…what’re you doing?”
Looking at him distractedly, she replied, “I’m going to heal his black eye, then I’m going to fix your split lip.”
She shook her head as she turned back to what she was doing. “What’s your name, soldier?” she asked kindly as she ran the wand over the discolored flesh surrounding his eye.
Before he could answer, Jei cut in. “You don’t need to do that we—”
The man in front of her whipped out his arm with a quick snap, hitting the taller man in the stomach. She heard the air whoosh out of his lungs on contact.
“Don’t. She can patch me up if she wants to.” He smiled. “I’m Mikko, pretty lady. Don’t pay no attention to him.”
Summer frowned at him for the hit, but finished up on his eye before turning to the take care of Jei. He glared at Mikko, but replaced the look with a pout when he saw her looking at him.
“No one pays attention to me.” He worked the pout for everything it was worth.
Her fingers gentle on his chin, she ran the wand over his split lip. He held perfectly still. In fact, it seemed all of the men were watching her again. She ignored them to concentrate on her task.
“Somehow, Jei, I don’t believe you. I think you get plenty of attention, especially from the ladies.” She smirked and stepped back once his lip was healed. “All done.”
She didn’t miss how he puffed his chest up and looked smug at her comment, but she just shook her head. Putting away the medical kit, she washed her hands and got back to cooking.
“You,” she pointed, “bring me eggs until I tell you to stop, starting with five dozen or so. I have a feeling you boys eat a lot.”
The comedy ensued as not only he but several other warriors crammed into the kitchen to carry out her wishes. She put them all to work, cracking and whisking the eggs while she got every pan in the place on all of the available burners. Fifteen minutes later, she still had only about two-thirds of the men sitting with plates full of scrambled eggs and bacon. There was a line of fidgeting, hungry men waiting on the other side of the counter from her, and she did her best to remember all of their names. She poured another pan-full of steaming, fluffy eggs onto a plate when a noisy scuffle broke out. Scuffle? No, it was way past a scuffle and somewhere between boisterous rough housing and a fight.
She’d had enough. Hungry and cranky, all she wanted to do was finish so she could take two plates piled high with food back to Roz before he woke up.
Spinning, she vaulted over the counter, surprising Jei and Mikko to the point they made noises that sounded suspiciously like squeaks as she flew past. Pushing several men out of the way as they cheered the combatants on, she dove on top of them without hesitation. They didn’t pay attention to her, their focus on each other so intent until she grabbed both by their ears and twisted.
They cried out in perfect timing. “Oowwww!”
The room erupted in hoots and howling laughter as the rest of the warriors reacted to the sight of her taking them in hand.
“What did I say about behaving? Fighting is not behaving,” she growled and tugged again on their ears to make sure she had their attention.
* * *
Roz woke slowly, swimming up through the layers of consciousness from deep sleep to that comfortable level between being asleep and awake. As he rose, he moved out of the heaviness of true sleep and upward until he became aware of the silken rasp of sheets against his skin, the slight hum of the environmental unit and the scent of a woman’s perfume.
Not just any woman’s perfume, but her perfume.
Even in sleep, his lips had managed to curve as knowledge of her had filtered through, filling him. She was…everything. Fire and ice, day and night. The perfect woman. The other half of his soul.
&n
bsp; He wallowed in the feeling like a wild Hasang in its favorite mud pool when the noise infiltrated his light doze, then dragged him nearly awake. He frowned and grabbed a pillow to cover his head, and groaned in pleasure as her scent assaulted him again. A smile easing the frown, he cuddled the pillow to his broad chest, almost lulled back into sleep by thoughts of her.
Something hard and heavy hit the door. From the “oomph” that accompanied it, he guessed it was a body.
Which meant there was a fight going on out there, and pretty much standard operating procedure for a Wildcat vessel. His species weren’t known for their anger management capabilities, other than they didn’t have any, and were very well known for their aggressiveness and willingness to fight. Probably why they were the most, well-respected of any hired mercenary units in the galaxy.
Irritation rumbled within him like a chained dog with a grudge. If they’d woken her, there would be hell to pay.
“Keep it down out there,” he yelled and rolled over, an arm outstretched to find her. His arm met an empty bed. Rumpled sheets said she’d slept beside him, but their fading warmth proclaimed she’d left a while ago.
Instantly, he snapped awake, his eyes open as he surveyed the room. It, like the bed, was empty. Where had she gone? His heart pounded in his chest as he rolled out of bed stark-bollock naked and strode to the bathroom door. Yanking it open confirmed what his senses had already informed him. Nope, not in there.
“Summer?” he called out, walking himself into a pair of pants as he headed for the room’s only other door—the one out into the barracks.
He opened it onto a scene out of either a comedy or a nightmare. His delicate little human stood in the middle of his warriors. His muscle-bound, womanizing, no-good warriors. It was enough to make any red-blooded man see red—if it weren’t for the fact she had two of them by the ears, giving them a firm dressing down about fighting.
His big body relaxing, Roz leaned one bare shoulder against a bulkhead and smiled. “You can yell at them all you like, but we were all born and bred for war.”
She froze and turned toward him, not noticing she still held a pair of ears. He grinned as they scurried to follow her hands or lose them. Her hair looked as if she had just rolled out of bed, all softly tousled and sexy around her face and shoulders.
When her gaze locked with his and she smiled, he felt it like a physical touch. She let go of Kes and Linc’s ears and came walking toward him. The oddest thing happened as she did. His men parted to make a path for her as if she had some power over them as well as him.
Narrowing his eyes at his men, he was unprepared as she launched herself into his arms to press kisses all over his face. She pulled back and smiled at him.
“They’ll listen to me if they want me to finish making breakfast.”
She turned in his arms to glare at his warriors, who looked oddly guilty at her words. “Damn it. You guys ruined my surprise.”
Raising his eyebrow at not only her actions, but also how she spoke to everyone, he looked at her as she turned back toward him. She wrapped her arms tightly around him again and nuzzled her face into his chest.
Automatically, he tightened his arms around her and trapped a groan in his throat at the feel of her lips on his bare chest. The need and desire simmering in his blood surged up to near boiling point, all his animal instincts demanded he push her against the wall and take her here and now. He didn’t care they were right in front of his men, as his inner animal approved of such a public claiming.
Ignoring the erotic thoughts swirling through his head, he spread a large hand over the back of her hips to hold her in place and smiled at her. “What surprise?”
“I had planned on bringing you breakfast in bed, but I got ambushed,” she told him cheerfully.
Raising an eyebrow at her, his brain focused only on her mention of “bed.”
“Hmm, breakfast in bed?” Leaning down, he captured her mouth in a long, slow kiss until she pulled back and thumped him on his shoulder lightly.
“Not that type of breakfast.”
She laughed and pushed him back toward the kitchen until he turned her so she could walk easier. Of course he loved the fact he was glued against her delectable, tight ass. His cock ached, hard and throbbing within his pants. All he could think about was getting inside her. She pushed her hips back toward him and rubbed against his hardened cock. Minx. Leaning down, Roz growled along the side of her neck and dropped his hands to her hips.
“Do you expect me to be able to cook with you plastered against me like that?” Despite her words, she leaned into him. It would be so easy to convince her what he had in mind was better than food.
“Yup.”
No way was he letting her slip out of his grasp now. Hundreds of erotic options threaded through his mind as she led him into the kitchen. He glared about, wishing all his men to hell.
“You’re all on leave,” he groused. “What the hell are you all doing here? Get off-ship and find some entertainment.”
Only Jei looked up from the plate of food in front of him. “With respect, Lead, go forth and multiply. There’s nowhere on the base that makes grub like this.”
Roz blinked, not at the disrespect—he knew better than to expect that where either women or food were concerned—but at the blissful expression on the warrior’s face as he shoved another forkful of something yellow into his mouth and chewed happily.
Perplexed, he peeked over Summer’s shoulder. Nothing resembling what was on Jei’s plate. She broke small, white objects against the side of a glass bowl. Whatever they were, they looked slimy and extremely unappetizing.
“Um, baby? What are you making?”
He was glad she couldn’t see the less than excited look on his face at the moment, but quickly smiled when she twisted around to look at him.
“Scrambled eggs and bacon,” she replied, stealing a kiss from him before turning back to mix the slimy clear and yellow liquid together with a fork. Shrugging as if he knew what she talked about, he made a face at Jei and lowered his voice so Summer couldn’t hear him. “What are they?”
“They come from birds’ butts!” Jei whispered with amusement as he shoveled another forkful into his mouth.
Birds’ butts? Roz couldn’t help the look of disgust that distorted his features. Eyebrow raised, he looked back at Jei.
“She’s cooking bird shit?”
Mikko smirked, his voice as low as theirs. “Yup. Bird shit. It’s terrible.”
Not only could he tell Mikko was full of crap and lying, but the smaller man got a vicious elbow to his ribs from the man next to him. The lie was obviously meant to trick him into not eating what Summer had cooked for them.
Looking around, he noticed for the first time it had gotten rather quiet on the ship. All he heard were forks scraping against plates and the sound of the slime hitting the hot pan.
“Mikko?”
“Yes, ma’am?” Roz almost laughed at the look on the Gesan class soldier’s face as he answered.
Her body continued to shift as she cooked, though she never broke contact with him. “I can read lips, buddy. Did someone say my cooking tasted like bird shit, or is that just your opinion?”
Oh shit. While he found it funny as hell that the man looked terrified, it would only take a word from him to rat Roz out. Pressing her forward, he glared daggers at Mikko. “One word and you’re dead!”
“Umm…no, ma’am. I—”
“Save it. You can’t dig your way out of that lie. Don’t make it any worse.” She cut him off as she added bacon to a different pan.
Bird shit or not, it smelt fantastic. Wrapping his arms around her slim waist, he slid one of his hands up under her shirt to tease along her ribs. She shivered as he moved his hand up higher to trace the side of her breast with his fingertips.
Resting his chin on her shoulder, he saw her expression as she tried in vain to pretend his touch didn’t affect her, but he knew her now. Knew the slight lowering of her
lashes as she tried to keep her eyes open. Knew the way she rolled her lower lip in to bite it, and of course, the change in her breathing. He loved how responsive she was to his every touch. Even a look made her squirm.
“Are you nearly done?”
His stomach grumbled at the same time his engorged cock pulsed, the two base needs making themselves known simultaneously.
“I’m hungry for more than just food,” he whispered against her neck before burying his nose against the satiny skin. With a sigh of contentment, he breathed in her scent. He could stay here forever with her wrapped in his arms.
“Mmm,” she murmured as she poured a large amount of fluffy, yellow eggs onto a plate next to six strips of crispy bacon. She shoved back harder with her hips, rubbing along the hard length of him and glancing over her shoulder at him with shining green eyes.
Reluctantly, he moved to stand at her side so he could eat while she continued to cook. Eyeing the yellow mass on his plate, he hesitated. Stalling, he grabbed a piece of bacon and ate that first.
Jei just slowly shook his head at him and nodded to Roz’s right. Sliding his gaze in that direction, he had the decency to look sheepish when he found Summer looking at him.
She took his fork and scooped up some of the eggs, holding them in front of him, clearly expecting him to open his mouth. Compressing his lips into a tight line, he stared at her. She waited patiently. She’d be waiting a long time before he’d ever eat something that came out of a bird’s ass.
What he hadn’t counted on was how stubborn and determined she was. Her free hand shot out and pinched him on his side.
“Heyooowww.”
She took advantage and popped the fork into his open mouth with a triumphant grin. Not wanting to spit in her face, he kept his mouth shut, not chewing or swallowing.
Then his traitorous taste buds rejoiced at the flavor of the foreign food in his mouth. Looking at her, he shook his head. She didn’t have to appear so smug as she turned back to her cooking.
Narrowing his eyes, he let his gaze drop to her heart-shaped ass for a split second before his hand flashed out and smacked it. Damn, she made his pants look good. He’d never be able to wear that particular pair again without thinking about her having the fabric snug against some of his favorite parts of her.