Total pages in book: 86
Estimated words: 80439 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 402(@200wpm)___ 322(@250wpm)___ 268(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 80439 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 402(@200wpm)___ 322(@250wpm)___ 268(@300wpm)
I never planned to marry. I guess I also never wanted to be manipulated by a man on a spaceship I wasn’t supposed to be on.
“If I take you to the captain, will he find you on the manifest? Will there be any record of you in any of the files? If we radio back home, will they confirm your acceptance to this mission?”
He’s asking question after question that he already knows the answer to, looming over with his muscly good guy stance. I’ve never found him more irritating than I do in this moment. I try to swallow that feeling. The only way out of this right now is to throw myself on his mercy, appeal to his sense of heroism and let him pretend he is protecting me.
I take a deep breath and will some tears to come to my eyes. I don’t actually start crying. I just start sort of glistening. I let my lower lip quiver just a little and my voice wavers.
“I don’t know what to do,” I whimper. “It was a mistake, at first. I thought it would be funny. And then the ship actually took off, and I realized how much trouble I would be in.”
His eyes widen. “Gods, Selene,” he says. “It’s true? You stowed away? And you let the engineering team think the ship was malfunctioning all this time? They’ve been messing with the code. That could have catastrophic consequences!”
“Only if they’re bad at their jobs,” I say. I know it’s not the smartest thing to utter in the moment, but the relentless lecturing is starting to grate on me, and not in a hot way. I like a dominant man, but I don’t need one who points out all my crimes and misdemeanors with this timbre in his voice. It’s like he’s not even impressed with me.
I am starting to lose patience with him. We’re all supposed to be intrepid explorers. Does he think that we are going to get to an alien world and immediately follow all the rules? No. Of course we’re not. It’s going to require the ability to adapt and improvise and yeah, do what has to be done, rules or fucking not.
“You caught me,” I tell him. “I’m not supposed to be here. But aren’t you glad that I am? We are way too far into this mission for that to change now, right? Besides, you don’t actually have to tell on me. I know you think you do, but you could show mercy. It is an option. I could be your little secret. I could serve you, and only you…”
He looks at me with a long, hard stare that only gets harder the more I silently will for him to soften and relent. I am way too cute for this not to be working.
“Relax, guy,” I say, trying to help that process along. “It’s just a little stowaway action. All the best voyages have them.”
Flippancy is not my friend.
I see a switch click inside his mind, like I just made his decision for him.
“I’m going to have to report you,” he says.
“Right, because that’s what real men do. Turn their lovers over to the authorities.”
There’s disdain in my voice that I can’t help. It runs so deep it might actually be disgust. How could he even think of turning me in? Why isn’t his first instinct to protect me from the consequences of my actions?
“Get up,” he says. “I’m taking you to the captain now. He can decide what to do with you.”
“He can decide what to do with your balls too,” I say. “You’ve obviously turned them in.”
“You’re not going to taunt me into keeping this secret from the captain,” he growls at me. “I am an officer on this ship, and I have a responsibility to every person here.”
“Not just the ones on your dick.”
“Don’t talk about yourself that way,” he lectures. “Having sex doesn’t absolve you of responsibility.”
“It should,” I snap back. I haven’t moved from the chair. I know they can come get me, but I’m thinking if he has to leave the room to go and report me, then I can run and hide. The ship has a lot of places where a woman of less than average height can tuck herself away. I’ve learned about access panels to various internal systems, too. I could hide in the walls of this place if I needed to.
“Get up,” he repeats.
“If you want to go and tell on me, go and tell on me.”
“I’m not letting you out of my sight,” he retorts. “You’re too smart and too audacious. You’ll be gone before I get back, and we’ll have a hell of a time finding you.”
I smirk. That’s probably the nicest thing he has ever said to me. It’s really nice to be appreciated for your core traits. Maybe there is some hope for us after all.