by Layla Nash
“I’ve got no reason to run.” Which wasn’t entirely true, since it looked like the Tyboli meant to call in his debt early and Faros didn’t have anything to pay them with. “Call me coward again, Tyboli, and you’ll regret the consequences.”
The merchant smiled more and displayed needle-sharp teeth. “No implication of cowardice, Xaravian. Just that your kind…enjoy a chase.”
“As much as I enjoy the banter, you’re delaying my mission. What do you want?”
“Payment.” The alien on the other ship lost some of his amusement. “You’re late.”
“The fuck I am,” Faros said. “I have three standard days to retrieve the payment and meet you at the rendezvous point. The fact that you happened across us before then doesn’t mean I have to pay early.”
The Tyboli crew in the background looked armed and ready, although everyone knew they were no match for Xaravians. The shorter, rounder Tyboli were bulkier but not as strong, and relied on swarm tactics to overwhelm their enemies, instead of brute strength and honor. Their captain didn’t blink. “Happened across you? Surely you don’t think we hadn’t heard about your little run-in with the rebels and your... vacation in their brig? Come now, Xaravian. We are not stupid. I am calling in the debt now, as you are a far riskier investment than I’d originally thought.”
“You can’t call in the debt early.” Faros folded his arms over his bare chest and thought suddenly of Violet. He’d forgotten to lock the door behind him. What if she disappeared? His spikes and scales rattled with irritation and a surge of fear for her safety, and he bared his teeth at the Tyboli. “I’ll have the money.”
“But you do not now?” Kryken tsk’d quietly, shaking his head as if disappointed, but Faros knew the twinkle in the bastard’s eye was for sensing the imminent defeat of a very clever adversary. “A shame. Even better that we are here now, so we can seize your ship as collateral. As you agreed in the contract.”
He even held up a tablet to show Faros the contract, as if the Xaravians had somehow forgotten, and the Tyboli crew rattled around behind him in excitement.
He’d be fucking dead before they boarded his ship. But Faros couldn’t think of anything but Violet, all warm and soft in his bed. They were amazing creatures, the Earthers, without any sort of protection for their fragile skin. Unbelievable.
“The contract stipulates that collecting the debt prior to the agreed-upon date can be expected during exigent circumstances,” a calm voice said from behind him. Faros barely managed not to react as Violet, looking serene and not like she’d just been fucked senseless by a barbarian, stepped forward. She carried a tablet and flicked through the contract. “Yet you failed to define ‘exigent’ and ‘circumstances’ anywhere in the document.”
Kryken rattled his long fingers together and eyed her with far too much interest. “An Earther. I did not know there was an Earther among your crew. And a female. How very intriguing.”
“Not intriguing,” Faros barked. “None of your fucking business. She’s my lawyer and has reviewed the contract.”
“Delightful,” Kryken murmured. His eyes went hooded and he gestured for one of his crew to speak. “Then the Earther lawyer and my lawyer can discuss.”
Faros hated the idea of anyone looking at Violet so recently after their little love-fest—including his crew. Especially his crew. His scales rattled when he caught one of them sniffing the air, and Faros growled in warning. The crew retreated, leaving only Wyzak there on the bridge, and Faros gripped the arms of his chair to keep from launching across the deck to pummel his second-in-command for glancing in her direction. She was his female. His alone.
He scowled at the viewing screen and only paid an iota of attention to what Violet and the Tyboli argued about. The universal translators weren’t great on the Tyboli ship, so there was a lag that forced them to wait for everything to be translated back and forth, which only made Faros more on edge. What if it was all a ploy to distract him so the Tyboli could attack? The Sraibur’s shields were at maximum capacity, which should have been more than enough to deal with the old Tyboli ship—but the Tyboli ship could have been disguised as an outdated ship in order to lull others into a false sense of security. It was a ploy he’d used himself a few times.
Faros started paying attention as Violet made an exasperated noise. “In all contracts, ambiguity favors the party who did not draft the contract. It’s standard legal precedent.”
“This is ungoverned space,” the lawyer objected. “There are unique conditions that require—”
“Except that is precedent in every legal tradition, including the rebellion’s as well as in the nonaligned quadrants,” Violet shot back. “Which you very well know, since it is a key principle in Tyboli jurisprudence, is it not? Under which you issued this contract, if I’m not mistaken?”
Faros tried not to smile as the Tyboli lawyer fumbled for an answer. Faros knew enough about Violet to know he didn’t want to confront her over something when she had that look in her eyes—she knew she was right and was just waiting for everyone else to admit it.
A long silence was the only answer to Violet’s question. She waited until it became clear the Tyboli didn’t have a response, then she flicked through the rest of the contract. “As we have no defined and agreed-upon understanding of ‘exigent’ and ‘circumstances,’ we reject your implication that the debt must be paid immediately. We will adhere to the existing terms of the contract—that is, three standard days from this time. The debt will be repaid at that time.”
She turned the tablet off with an air of finality and gazed coolly at the Tyboli.
Kryken moved closer to his viewing screen, growing larger in front of Faros. “Very clever, little Earther. How did these barbarians convince you to represent them?”
She didn’t blink at the hissing sibilants of the Tyboli’s words. “That’s neither here nor there. Shall we take your silence on the matter to be acknowledgment that the original terms of the contract stand and no such conditions claimed to be exigent exist that would require early repayment?”
Faros waited, all of his attention on Kryken, and caught only hints of the lightning-fast conversation between the Tyboli as the universal translator struggled to keep up. The Tyboli captain was not pleased with his lawyer, and the lawyer started looking for an escape hatch. Faros knew the Tyboli were not forgiving toward mistakes made by their own kind; he didn’t expect to ever see that lawyer again once the viewing screen cut off. He wished the poor bastard well but was grateful the Sraibur had the better lawyer.
Kryken finally inclined his head and addressed the Sraibur. “Very well. We will abide by your interpretation of the poorly-worded contract. Three standard days. Then you must pay the debt or forfeit your ship.”
Faros’s jaw clenched. He was perfectly aware of the timeline and the debt. He didn’t need reminding. The Tyboli did it to no doubt irritate him, so Faros did his best to remain unflappable. “You’ll hear from me in three standard days.”
Kryken smiled more and switched to passable Low Xarav, clear enough that Faros understood but with a thick accent. “I will offer a different means of repaying the debt right now, with no questions asked.”
“What is it?” Faros didn’t look away from the Tyboli, sensing a trap. Tyboli were never generous. Ever.
“Give me the Earther,” Kryken said, his gaze flickering to Violet as she spoke quietly with the comms ensign.
Faros tensed immediately and his scales rattled. She was his. The Tyboli wanted his female. The pirate captain growled. “No.”
“Surely one Earther—not even a very pretty one—is worth less than your ship.” Kryken’s mouth spread still farther in a grimacing smile. “The offer stands.”
“Get the fuck out of my sight,” Faros snapped. “We aren’t Slasu and we sure as fuck do not deal with slavers. You’ll have your payment in three days.”
Rage boiled up in his chest until he couldn’t contain it. He needed to break something or someone.
For a split second, he considered firing all the Sraibur’s weapons at the Tyboli ship to deal with the implied threat to Violet. He struggled with control as the Tyboli chuckled and ended the transmission, and Faros looked around for someone to fight. He needed to break something. He hated feeling weak, and caring enough about someone—anyone—but especially a female to ruin a deal and risk losing his ship… That made him almost as pissed off as Kryken’s offer to buy Violet. He needed to get his head out of his ass and focus before his lost his ship, his crew, or his life.
Chapter 21
Violet
Violet hung back on the bridge as Faros and the Tyboli continued their conversation, although it was one of those tense conversations that was really an argument in disguise. After the Tyboli lawyer admitted they’d been trying to pull a fast one under the radar, Violet knew her part was done. The rest was up to Faros to handle.
She hadn’t meant to save his ass. She’d been pissed when he jumped up in the middle of sex, right before he was about to get her off—again—and stormed off. Violet went after him to give him a piece of her mind for being an inconsiderate jerk, but she was so glad she’d put on clothes and looked almost normal when she stormed onto the bridge and saw him confronting another ship.
Part of her wanted to let Faros flounder and suffer the consequences of his stupid deal with the Tyboli, but it occurred to her in a split second that she was on the ship that would be forfeited and might end up caught in the shit-show that the pirates created. And she wasn’t about to go down in flames alongside them. So she scanned the contract to find the typically standard provision the Tyboli put into their agreements to give them some wiggle room in calling in debts. It was typical Fleet protocol to allow that provision in the contract because they knew there was an out due to ambiguity; she doubted the pirates would have had the foresight or knowledge to challenge that provision.
And her luck held. It was there. And the Tyboli weren’t expecting the challenge.
She almost felt badly for the other lawyer, but being a Fleet counsel had beaten every ounce of sympathy out of her within the first year of practicing.
Violet started paying attention when Faros’s demeanor changed from mild irritation to fury in a split second. His scales went from a rusty orange to brilliant scarlet in a snap, and the Tyboli offered an oily smile as he studied Violet a little too long for her comfort. Faros snapped something at him and the transmission ended, but not before Violet sensed a change in the air around them.
The captain’s scowl deepened when he saw her. “You shouldn’t be out here.”
What the hell? Violet straightened up and put her hands on her hips. “I beg your pardon?”
“Now the Tyboli know you’re on this ship. And that son of a hawgmaut knows you’re a lawyer who outmatched his.” Faros’s expression hardened still more as he stepped toward her. “What’s wrong with you? You should have stayed…where you were.”
Her face heated with a combination of humiliation and fury. Right where she’d been—in his bed. Still sweaty and boneless from being thoroughly fucked. Maybe that was what he expected, to jump her when he wanted, run off to deal with pirate business, then return to find her in the same place, still waiting for him to come back and finish up. She swallowed as much of her fury as she could and dredged up her icy Fleet lawyer exterior to save some of her dignity. “Considering this entire ship would have been seized by the Tyboli if I hadn’t reinterpreted their contract and saved your ass, you should have thanked me very kindly and asked what you owe me for legal fees.”
He stared at her in disbelief. “What I owe you?”
“A thousand credits an hour is the typical rate,” Violet said. She ignored that Wyzak snorted in amusement off to the side, though the second-in-command hadn’t bothered to step in to help her. He had to see how unreasonable—and unfair—the captain was being. None of it was her fault. “Billable by the hour, of course.”
“A thousand credits,” he repeated in a flat tone.
Violet waited for an apology. For some acknowledgment that she’d helped him and he appreciated it. And that he’d just abandoned her in bed because the Tyboli called. She didn’t entirely blame him, but he could have said something to explain what was going on, instead of leaving her to figure it out and sneak out of his room like a prostitute.
Faros’s scales remained far too red. “Return to your quarters.”
Violet recoiled. Every angry thought she’d had about the pirate returned at full volume. She’d been a fool to think sleeping with him wouldn’t be problematic. She should have known better. That kind of male... He took what he wanted and didn’t give a shit about anyone else. “What’s wrong with you? I saved your ass by making sure you didn’t forfeit your ship. Why are you in such a bad mood?”
“We’ll discuss it later. Return to your quarters immediately.”
She started seeing red. The son of a bitch. “You’re not going to order me around like I’m one of your crew.”
“I’m the captain of this ship. Return to your quarters.”
“I don’t work on this ship,” she snapped. “So you can go fuck yourself and your orders, because I’ve had enough of—”
Violet had half a second to reconsider her tone as Faros stormed toward her, then she sucked in a breath as he tossed her over his shoulder and strode off the bridge. He didn’t say a word until they’d returned down the long corridor to where his quarters were. She tensed at the possibility that he’d lock her in his quarters again, then didn’t know whether to be relieved or disappointed that he dropped her to the floor outside a different door.
Faros barked orders in Low Xarav too fast for her to catch, and a young crewmember appeared and saluted smartly. Faros opened the door, pushed Violet inside, and said, “Do not leave until he allows you to.” He jerked his chin at the kid, who tried to look confident, then stormed off without another word.
Violet stared after him, furious and confused, then closed the door so she could scream her frustration into a pillow. The maddening brute. The awful, insensitive son of a bitch. She paced in agitation. What the hell kind of game was he playing? He hadn’t seemed that selfish when they were having sex. In fact, he’d gone out of his way to deny himself and make sure she got off more than once. Violet hadn’t orgasmed that many times in her whole life to that point maybe, although the thought was too sad to really dwell on.
She knew objectively that she needed sleep. Her brain needed sleep and the rest of her needed time to relax and regenerate. Stewing over the shitty manners of a pirate wouldn’t achieve any of that. She took a shower and scrubbed until her skin was as red as Faros’s scales had been, but she couldn’t get rid of the memory of his touch. For just a second there, it had seemed like something more than just a fling was possible. That there was... something between them. Something mysterious and inexplicable, but still there.
And then he went back to acting like a pirate and she came to her senses and that was that.
Violet kept pacing most of the night, periodically stopping to try and sleep, but in the end she’d almost worn a track in the floor from the back-and-forth. Her eyes felt scratchy and raw, but she hadn’t cried. There wasn’t a reason to cry. She scowled at herself in the mirror in the water closet and wished she had the opportunity for a Griggs pep talk—or verbal beat down. The security officer was great at “motivating” others to be their best selves, and to stop whining about bullshit and get the job done.
Well, Violet’s job was to get the hell off this ship. She wasn’t going to let a little naked wrestling with the pirate captain distract her. Again.
Chapter 22
Faros
Faros went back to his quarters after shoving Violet into the adjacent rooms. Even having her that close screwed with his senses and drove him to distraction. He needed to get her out of his head. The clock ticked on saving his ship and his own skin. He couldn’t afford to let a sexy body and beautiful eyes keep him from what they’d worked for for
so long. He couldn’t lose the Sraibur.
He took another cold shower but it didn’t help. He still thought of Violet’s soft, naked form pressed up against his, and started to imagine what she would look like on her knees in front of him, taking his cock in her mouth. His head tilted back under the running water. He left it cold; it didn’t make a difference, not with the strength of his lust for her. Her full lips would close around the head of his cock as her tongue teased him, and he pictured his cock moving in and out of her mouth as her hands stroked him.
Faros groaned, closing his eyes. He’d take her on her knees, too. In front of a mirror, maybe, so he could see her face as he fucked her from behind. He could only imagine the soft give of her beautiful round ass against his hips, the warm clasp of her body around his cock, the sounds she made as he pounded into her... He stroked himself slowly, enjoying the daydream, even though it was a sad comparison to having the real woman in his bed.
She’d made the most unbelievable sounds—sighing and moaning and a lust-inducing huh when he first entered her. Faros moved his fist faster, harder, trying to recapture the feelings of being balls-deep inside her as the knot swelled and prepared to join them together. He wanted to join with her, to pin her beneath him and fuck until his cock never left her. Then Violet would know she was his to protect, to keep. To love.
He didn’t stop stroking himself but gritted his teeth against a curse. It wasn’t love. It couldn’t have been love. He didn’t have time for that, and he sure as fuck didn’t have space in his life for a lawyer and an Earther. Plus she was sentimental and sensitive and very, very delicate, and she’d never be able to survive the hardships of living on Xarav or as a pirate queen.
Faros hunched over and tried to focus on finishing. She wasn’t going to be a pirate queen. She could be his for a little while, but then she’d want to leave and go do her moral, upstanding citizen work somewhere else. It wasn’t supposed to be long-term. Neither of them wanted long-term. A little short-term fun was just fine. Or it should have been.