by Shona Husk
Mine to Hold
Dirty Sexy Space Four
Shona Husk
Contents
Dirty Sexy Space
Back Cover Copy
Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Chapter 4
Chapter 5
Chapter 6
Chapter 7
Chapter 8
Chapter 9
Chapter 10
Chapter 11
Chapter 12
Excerpt: Mine to Keep
About the Author
Other titles by Shona Husk
Copyright © 2018, 2015 by Shona Husk
Cover Art by Emmy Ellis http://www.studioenp.com/
All rights reserved.
No part of this book may be reproduced in any form or by any electronic or mechanical means, including information storage and retrieval systems, without written permission from the author, except for the use of brief quotations in a book review.
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Dirty Sexy Space
Free sampler of the Dirty Sexy Space series
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Book 3 in the series: Yours to Desire
Back Cover Copy
Getting caught between two lovers has never been more dangerous.
Captain Leo Grady is making his third trip to Solitaire. He’s spent five years in space and is ready for a change. Not wanting to go back to Earth, he’s chosen to pay off on Solitaire. All he needs is a woman willing to be his wife. Given that women are heavily outnumbered on the fleet of first settlers he knows he can’t sit around and wait. He has to act.
Vance Knox has been working with vet, Silke Rask, for the last six months. He fancies her, but refuses to do anything about it because he still has a twenty year sentence to serve. He has nothing to offer any lover and he expects nothing. He made his choices a long time ago. But it burns to see her getting closer to Grady.
Silke is torn between the sensible choice of Grady and the more dangerous attraction she has for Vance, but as secrets are revealed she realizes that she has to fight for what she wants. Not everyone on the ship is there because they earned their place, and old Earth money still has power.
When disaster strikes and threatens the lives of everyone on board she realizes that sometimes no choice has to be made. Why should love have limits?
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The Dirty Sexy Space series:
Your to Uncover
Yours to Command
Yours to Desire
Mine to Hold
Mine to Keep
Mine to Serve
Ours to Embrace
Ours to Share
Ours to Save
Chapter One
“Tasty. Male.” Silke put the little brown guinea pig in a cage and picked up the next one. “Delicious … also male.”
“They’ll be eating well this round.” Vance updated the animals’ notes on his portacomp. Vet Silke Rask kept very strict control of the guinea pig breeding. She didn’t want an inbred population by the time they reached Solitaire. They were, however, a source of fresh meat on the ship—for some people anyway. Not for the likes of Vance. And probably not for Silke either.
“I know. Oh! We have a girl. Yummy.” Silke gave the animal a little pat.
While she was quite happy holding them and being nice to them, Vance kept his distance. The animals were going to be eaten. They weren’t pets. He could have one dead and ready for cooking in about fifteen minutes flat. He’d caught and cooked a lot of things in the slums. Guinea pig would’ve been a luxury. Still was.
He looked at the little bundles of fur. They were still too small for eating, but not so small that they wouldn’t try getting it on with their siblings.
Vance glanced up as a man in Air Force blues walked in. “Grady’s back,” he murmured.
“Routine checks on the hold to make sure we don’t all get sucked into space.” Silke’s gaze flicked to the officer and lingered for a moment before returning to the animal in her hands.
Routine checks. Sure. It wasn’t the integrity of the ship Captain Grady was checking out. Vance had noticed the way he looked at Silke. He’d also seen the sparks between Silke and Grady when they talked. Not that he was in a position to be jealous. He was her assistant on a good day, a high-risk whites prisoner with another twenty years to serve—once they reached the planet—on a bad day.
If they reached the planet.
He didn’t care either way. He’d stopped living for the future a long time ago. It was much easier to focus on enjoying each day as best he could, sleep, and then repeat.
“Juicy is a boy.” Juicy also wriggled and tried to get free. They’d started giving the litters silly names after two very boring alphanumeric designated litters. They still had their alphanumeric designation, but life was more fun when the guinea pigs had more appropriate names.
“And I bet he would be juicy, too.” Vance hadn’t had real meat since leaving Earth, and even then, what they’d been given in prison was more ground up mystery meat than anything recognizable.
“In a couple of weeks.”
“I’ll go you halves. We’ll cook him over one of your burners.”
Silke smiled at him as if she were half considering the idea. Sometimes when she looked at him it was as though she was thinking of something very different to work. He didn’t let himself explore that thought. At least, not here. Alone and at night … that was a different story. He liked Silke a lot more than he should. She’d always treated him as a person, not a number, or a con.
“You’re discussing an offense within earshot of an officer … I could report you.”
Vance doubted Grady would do anything that might get Silke in trouble or anything that would damage his chances of hooking up with her. It was almost painful to watch what was happening. One of them needed to make a move or he’d do it for them.
Silke looked up, clearly surprised to see Captain Grady had moved closer. She recovered fast. “There are four legs. We’ll cut you in.”
She held the guinea pig out to him, but Grady wrinkled his nose and didn’t take it. He didn’t say no either.
Interesting.
Grady sighed and shook his head. “Above my pay grade.”
“No, this one is Juicy … but I like that as a name. Above My Pay Grade …” She turned to Vance. “Let’s use that in the next litter.”
“Above My Pay Grade, Not In This Lifetime …?” He raised one eyebrow but noted them down.
She gave him that smile again and his insides tightened and turned. Being attracted to the woman who was in charge of his work placement was not going to end well, and he really didn’t want to lose this job. He’d had to fight for it, even though he was the most qualified. He’d spent his prison years on Earth studying so he could work on the prison farms—also known as labor camps by many slum dwellers: why pay minimum wage when you can get them to work for free?—as something other than a shit shoveler.
In the end it had been Silke who’d made the decision. For the first month there’d been a guard shadowing him, just in case he went homicidal and killed her. The three people he had killed had deserved it, and he hadn’t hurt anyone since. He couldn’t bring himself to regret their deaths, and that distinct lack of remorse had counted against him in court.
Although his heart had broken for his mother, losing first a daughter and then a son.
“You’re joking?” Grady frowned, as though he wasn’t sure if Silke was kidding.
“No, we take the naming of the food very seriously,” Vance replied, keeping his voice level.
Grady shot him a look before shaking his head and smiling. “You’re cracked.”
Because of what he’d just said, or because of what he was
wearing? Not everyone had the good fortune to be born to wealthy tower-dwelling parents who could afford to buy an education and a commission. Not that Grady had ever rubbed his good fortune in. No, when he was in the barn—the hold where the animals were kept in the belly of ES Siren—Grady was friendly. Grady even talked to him as if he was a person, not a thing to be ignored. Which made it very hard to hate the man. Instead, they had become something close to friends.
At least, as friendly as an officer and a con could ever be, especially when they both fancied the same woman. Not that Grady knew that. Vance was very careful to make sure no one knew that. He knew Silke would end up with someone like Grady and he wasn’t going to get tangled up because he’d be the one who ended up getting hurt.
“And what do you do for fun, Grady?” Silke tilted her head as she gazed at the Captain with a smile on her lips.
“On Siren? Fun? I just try to pass the time.”
“That’s a bit of a waste. A year of your life spent passing the time?” Silke was making fun of him and Vance was pretty sure the Captain had no idea.
“This is my third trip to Solitaire. I’ve already done most of the required courses. I teach a couple, go to the gym and make sure this ship remains in one piece.” Grady smiled at Silke. If Vance was smart, he’d move away and let them talk. He didn’t. He was working, while Grady was loitering with intent.
“So you’ve been to Solitaire?” Silke gave Grady a little more of her attention. This was moving beyond their usual polite conversations.
Grady shook his head. “I’ve only seen it from the air. Most flight crew aren’t allowed down because then we’d have to be quarantined.”
“So there really is a base?” Vance, and many of the other prisoners on board Siren, had suspected that this was just a trick by the government to clean out the prisons and that there was nothing on the planet … maybe even no planet. While he’d heard there were civilians on board, he’d only seen a few aside from Silke. He knew from talking to Silke that she hadn’t exactly been a volunteer, but she hadn’t gone into details. If he wanted to know that, he’d have to share what he’d done, and he wasn’t sure he wanted her to know.
Hell, maybe she already did. Perhaps Chief Songworth, who was in charge of prisoner placements, had warned her. It didn’t seem to matter though, as the subject had never come up again. After working here for the best part of six months he knew the routine as well as Silke. The only thing he didn’t have was the degree in veterinary science. Not yet anyway. He was working on it. He was planning on being the most overqualified prisoner onboard.
Vance had accepted his place in life about four years into his sentence, after being involved in a brawl in the overcrowded prison. After doing some time in solitary confinement he’d realized that this was all he had, and he’d made that choice with the first throat he’d slit. From then on he’d been a model prisoner. Around the same time he’d also realized that if he ever wanted to get laid or have a relationship again he was going to have to turn over a new leaf.
That had been harder.
But then the right guy had come along. They’d had a good thing going before Vance had been told he was going to Solitaire. He cast his gaze over Grady again.
He was handsome—in an I’ve never actually done any real hard work way—and as an engineer, he was probably pretty good with his hands. Grady shot him a look that was clearly meant to make him shut up and move on. Grady was going to have to do better than that if he was trying to pull rank while still being subtle. Vance wasn’t going to make it easy for him to steal Silke away.
Vance smiled and puckered his lips, as if for a kiss. Grady ignored him.
“Base, acres of farm … plenty of native plants.” He spoke directly to Silke. “It looks alien from the sky. The continents are unfamiliar, and there are no smog clouds.”
“Give us a hundred years.” Silke shook her head. “So are the animals still safe?”
“Yes. The skin and sensors are fine. An alarm would sound if there was a breach.”
“And you come here to check so frequently because?” Vance only asked to piss Grady off. That was almost as much fun as naming the guinea pigs. It was obvious that there was something between Silke and Grady, even if neither of them was acting on it. It made him wish he was in Grady’s shoes. He wouldn’t be dancing around and playing it safe.
“The engineering crew do manual checks of the whole ship. We test the sensors and also look for signs of a weak spot to catch it before it becomes a breach. This is part of my designated area. I’ll be seeing you around, 1113, Silke.” Grady nodded at them and strode to the next panel and sensor.
Vance gritted his teeth as the use of his number—the one that was stamped on every piece of clothing he had, just in case he forgot who he was. Grady had used it deliberately because Vance had refused to leave so they could be alone. Vance wasn’t sure who’d won that round. Maybe there were no winners.
Silke was watching the man in blue finish his inspection of the barn. It was one of the largest areas on the ship. It had to be. They had a small flock of female goats, some female chickens, and a giant freezer of goat and chook jizz. Silke called it the ark. More genetic diversity for when they landed. Silke planned on having all of the goats pregnant before they landed. That was going to be more fun than he could handle.
“I think he likes you.” Vance grinned and hoped his words sounded lighthearted. Silke and the Captain. He couldn’t see it. Grady was just so … boring.
She shrugged. “I’m female and single and of breeding age. I get that all the time. He was just being friendly—maybe he does want a leg off Juicy.” She smiled at Vance and winked.
They both knew they were never going to keep a guinea pig for themselves. Stealing food was pretty much the worst thing a person could do on Siren, aside from murder and rape. Vance had no desire to get another strike next to his name, and he didn’t know if Silke could actually bring herself to eat the animals she’d bred. He knew she was from the Scandinavian Conglomerate, and that they didn’t have slums over there the way America did. She’d probably never had to struggle for anything.
As a teen he’d been bitter and angry about the unfairness of life. Now he’d just accepted it and moved on. The same way he knew that Silke would end up with Grady, eventually, if one of them actually made a move. So maybe it would never happen.
“You’re not jealous, Vance?” This time there was more to her tone than simple teasing.
He didn’t want to mess up the friendship they had by admitting that maybe he was, just a little. She’d never used his number and always took the time to explain something new, to give him the opportunity to learn. He studied the portacomp. There were still another three litters to sex and separate. Curries, chocolate bars, and fruits. The first few litters had been named after places and people they’d never see again.
Every third day some civvie rich kids who were also studying to be vets would come down for a day on the job. And while he knew that the year-long voyage was all about training people up to be useful, he still resented the intrusion. Without fail those kids either looked at him with fear or pretended he didn’t exist. Some were downright rude, as if he was their servant or something. That burned.
He’d killed three snobby bastards just like them and hadn’t shed a tear as they’d bled out.
Vance shrugged. “You deserve to be happy.”
Just as it had been on Earth, he had nothing to offer a woman, or a man, who was so far above him. Silke was free. He wasn’t. Some things didn’t change. So he tried not to think about it. Most of the time, he was successful.
* * *
Silke watched as Vance moved on to the next lot of guinea pigs. Happy? What was “happy” on ES Siren? Being alive for another day? Making it to Solitaire? She looked at the little guinea pigs, who didn’t know they only had weeks to live. Most of the time she was happy, as she liked working with animals. Working with Vance was also nice, and not just because he was
nice to look at. Light brown skin that was probably more golden when he was in the sun, cheekbones she could cut herself on, and shoulder-length black hair, which he always wore half up.
While the white shirt and pants stamped with 1113 were loose and unflattering, he moved well, and she’d like to know what was under the uniform. Did he work out when he wasn’t here? They’d spoken about almost everything except themselves since they started working together. As if acknowledging the attraction would lead somewhere neither of them was willing to go. But she’d always believed lines were there just to see who was brave enough to cross them.
She picked up the tub of male guinea pigs and followed. Some days she couldn’t figure him out. He was supposed to be dangerous—only the worst prisoners onboard wore white, as a warning to others—yet he handled the animals with care.
He claimed to be from the Cali slums, and yet he was educated.
He refused to admit he was jealous of other men paying her attention, when he obviously was … and yet he made no move himself. Which she liked. Really liked.
She was so tired of having guys ask her out, or sit next to her in the mess, ask a few get-to-know-you questions and then expect to jump straight into her bed.
She liked sex, missed having sex, but she was not going to sleep with every man who asked. If they were feeling the pinch, they could do what she did and use their hand.
At the other end of the barn, Leo Grady was working. Every time he came down he stopped to chat. At first she’d expected him to make a pass, but he hadn’t. They spoke a few words and he moved on. Now she’d decided that he was just being friendly. No doubt he had a wife on Earth waiting for him to return. Although if this was his third trip, maybe not. The trip between Solitaire and Earth was a year each way.