Sophie's normally chatty, asking questions about the various bits of scrap or talking about her life back on Earth. She usually likes to talk about the book she's been reading or whatever Sleipnir has done recently that she finds charming. Really, she finds it all charming. Today, though, she just sits in silence and blushes. Her hair is pulled up in two tight little knots atop her head, accentuating the column of her throat and showing me just how far down that blush goes.
"You all right?" I eventually ask, my head still full of the sight of her on my bed, her hand between her thighs as she held onto me.
"Just fine." She fakes a yawn. "Sleepy."
"We can go to bed early, then." I can't resist teasing her, just a little.
Her face turns an even brighter shade of pink. "Not that sleepy." She ducks her head, her gaze focused on the engine scrap laid out on a table in front of her.
I love seeing her flustered like this. The carinoux rubs against my leg and I absently give him a pat. It's like when I'm affectionate to Sophie, he's affectionate to me. He's a good gauge of her emotions, and if his neediness is any indicator, Sophie's feeling a lot for me today. So I'm going to take advantage of that.
I clear my throat. "Can you hand me that pry bar?"
She automatically reaches over and picks it up, then holds it out to me.
"Good girl," I croon.
Sophie's lips part. Her eyes get that unfocused look and her breath hitches, and I suddenly realize I'm playing with fire. I don't want to call her a “good girl” to tease her. I want to call her that when she's tossing her head on my pillow, when she's coming. I want to pull her against me and tell her to touch herself again, just to see if she will.
Something tells me she would, and that makes my entire body ache with want.
I take the pry bar and disappear back into the stripped ship before I can do something stupid, like pull her close and touch her. Sophie has to take the lead in this. I can't push her into anything, no matter how badly I might want her.* * *To my vast displeasure, we get two more incoming comms that afternoon. One is a ship that calls itself The Tempest, but when I ask for a name and get nothing but a voice modulator, I suspect it's my prank-loving cousin, come to check up on me as promised. The other incoming message is from the Jabberwock, another pirate ship I'm very familiar with.
That's going to be…interesting. Last time they came through, the crew hadn't stayed long and their females had stayed on board. I hadn't asked, and they had been on edge and uneasy. I know there's a few humans in the mix, and I wonder if Sophie will want to meet them.
For rare creatures, I sure am running into a lot of humans lately.
"We're going to have company," I tell Sophie grudgingly after I respond to the comms.
She tenses, her eyes going wide as she wipes her hands with a rag. "Are we in trouble? Do we need to run?"
"No, nothing like that," I reassure her. "It's fine, I promise. I know the crew of the Jabberwock. Their nav is mated to Zoey va Sithai."
"Oh. Zoey." To my surprise, her lips purse and she doesn't look thrilled. "The guys will be sad they missed their sister."
"You met her?"
"No." Her tone doesn't sound welcoming.
"You want me to turn them away? I will."
Sophie blinks at me and then eases into a smile. "You would for me?"
"Yeah," I say gruffly. "You being comfortable is worth way more to me than some credits from scrap."
She moves to my side, crossing the long hall just to stand right in front of me. I stay in place, hoping for one of those feather-light kisses, and I'm not disappointed. She puts her hand on my shoulder, indicating I should lean down, and when I do, she pecks at my cheek. "You're very sweet, you know that?"
"You're the only person that thinks that."
She tosses a sassy look over her shoulder. "I'm the only one that matters."
That she is.* * *That night, Sophie looks at me breathlessly as we head to bed. Sleipnir moves to join us, and I pull out a fresh metal pipe, waving it under his nose. "You get this if you eat it outside the room."
The carinoux butts his head against my leg, nearly knocking me over, then winds around my lower half, making little sounds of pleasure.
"You're going to spoil him," Sophie tells me, but her eyes are shiny with anticipation, her hands curled in the blankets.
"That'll be someone else's problem." I lead the carinoux out and shut the door when he's on the other side, leaving me alone with one tense and slightly breathless human female. I glance over at Sophie, trying not to seem too affected by her clear arousal. She's excited over what tonight might bring, and it's the most keffing beautiful thing I've ever seen. How anyone could mistreat this gorgeous creature is beyond me. It makes me want to murder anyone that looks at her wrong. "Are you ready for bed?"