Page 9 of Found Treasure Bride

Okay, so maybe I hadn’t been overreacting. He wanted us to go canoodle in public!

“Honestly?” I bit out. “You think now is the time for a date?’

He narrowed his eyes at me. “Listen, sweetheart. I don’t do dates.” He palmed his straining erections suggestively. “I want someone, I like to just get down to business. No entanglements, no troubles, got it? But we need Rando’s spies to think you’ve got a thing for me, so are bringing some shit to my ship while you stay over a few days while we knock boots. Got it? Grorsch goes on ahead while we go play games of seduction in public before going to play hide the sausage sells it. It also gives Grorsch time to secure the box and plot a hyperspace course before we haul ass outta here.”

Well, when he put it that way…

“Fine. But, um, if you’re Paethian, won’t that give the impression that I’m your mate?”

“Half-Paethian,” he corrected. “And if they think that, that’s even better. He’ll think I’ll take his job to keep you safe.”

I nodded. “In that case, I suppose I can hold hands and kiss you in public for an hour.”

He guffawed. “I’m glad you won’t find it a hardship, professor.”

I glared at him. “I know your partner’s name, and you know mine, but I don’t know yours. I should know the name of the guy I’m kissing, right? Especially since you’re being paid to get me to safety.”

He gazed at me steadily, tilting his head slightly off to one side as he regarded me. “Well, yes, aside from needing to know who you’re doing business with, people would expect you to at least know the name they expect you’ll be screaming later.”

Gods, he was insufferable!

“And it is?”

“Jakrah Jones,” he replied, spinning on his heel. “Come on. We’re wasting time.

“Jones? Really?” I asked, following him out.

“My dad is human,” he replied. “I’m told Jones is a very common surname.”

“Yeah,” I chuckled. “It is. Enough so that it and Smith are kinda generic names people use if they want to be incognito.”

“Well, I doubt I could be incognito if I went to art.” He gave me a roguish grin. “Doubt there are many Joneses that look like me.”

I laughed. “Probably not.” We strolled along the deck, heading for a lift. “Where are we headed, anyone? We’re both broke.”

He gave me a wink. “Observation deck. Looking at the nebula is free.”

“Free is good!” I didn’t point out that there likely would be plenty of dimly lit corners for us to be seen kissing in, either. My guy told me that he’d already thought of that, too.

I wonder what it feels like to kiss someone with fangs. I guess I’m about to find out.

A shiver of anticipation ran through me. I needed to be careful. The last thing I needed to do was fall for this jackass and end up with a broken heart.

8

Jakrah

I grabbed her hand and kept hold of it even as we rode up the lift. There was no one else in it with us, but I knew cameras were watching, and Rando knew absolutely everything that happened on his station. With that in mind, I quickly located the camera and turned us so his watchers could see me pulling her to me, dropping her hand to hold her around her waist. I pretended to drop a kiss on her head, mindful that making general physical contact over time would kickstart a bond if we were indeed mates, but if either my saliva or semen got absorbed even the tiniest bit and we were? It would be game over.

She leaned into me, rested her head and shoulder against me. It felt nice, but I knew it couldn’t last. She was some big shot history person, and I was a disgraced Paethian pilot. If you want to stay in the military, taking a swing at your CO is never a good idea, even if he deserves it. They tend to really frown on that, kicking miscreants like me to the curb after a court-martial. Luckily, my dad agreed the guy was a prick and should have lost his commission as well, so he provided me with a stake to buy my ship, in partnership with Grorsch, who was looking for a partner to go into business with.

The observation deck this time of day was full of couples, as anticipated. They’d stare at the stars, make out a little, then had somewhere more private. A little later, there’d be more couples and even trios or more, spilling from the casinos, lounges, and bars, all looking for a place to feel a little romance while ramping up to their night’s main event. All this made it an ideal spot to carry out our ruse. We’d be seen by Rando’s spies but not stand out too much.

“It’s beautiful,” Nancy sighed. I moved us to a good vantage point, close to a bench we could sit on if we decided to carry our little charade on a bit farther. I pulled her against my chest as she sighed dreamily. “I’ve never really had the time to just look at the beauty that’s out there. I was too busy jumping through hyperspace when I traveled, going from point a to point b, and reading up on the culture I was there to examine.”

“Yeah, I hear you, though sometimes we travel sub-light and take a bit of a scenic route.”

“It’s nice to just stand here like this, with someone. I’d feel so alone under such vastness otherwise.”