Page 21 of The Alien's Stolen Rebel

It wasn’t a good joke, but broke the tension between us, and we laughed a good deal harder than it deserved.

Sobering, Rachel smiled up at me and shook her head.

“Seriously, though, we both need sleep,” she said, reluctantly letting go of me. “Propersleep, not the luxuriating-in-the-arms-of-a-new-lover kind.”

I claimedthe captain’s cabin as my own. Both because the ship was mine now, and because it was next to the bridge, convenient in case of an emergency. Rachel got the emperor’s suite, the safest room aboard aside from the equally well protected medbay. Both sat at the center of the massive diamond from which Brenias-Alcar crafted theStarshadow.

It was also, in theory, the most luxurious room aboard. Unfortunately, most of its luxuries wouldn’t function without more power. According to my research, the suite should appear to be surrounded by space, images fed fromcameras on the hull to panels of holo-screens. Without power, they were a light-drinking black. It was disorienting, as though the furniture floated in a vast and empty space.

Rachel took one look at it and clapped her hands, proclaiming, “It’s beautiful.”

I couldn’t stop myself from laughing. “It’sbroken.”

“So? Broken can be beautiful.” She spun away from me into the room, what little light there was reflecting from her grin. Her torn dress spread out around her as she moved, and I watched with interest.

“Now it’s beautiful,” I said, standing in the doorway. “As any place you stand would be.”

She looked at me, blushing, her mouth turning up on the left into a quirky half-smile. “You aren’t going to stop, are you?”

“If you tell me to, I will. So far, you have not.”

“True.” Her smile spread a little, and she said nothing more. I counted that as a victory.

13

RACHEL

The door slid shut behind Kreel as he left. I stared at the featureless darkness where the door had been, then covered my face and collapsed backward onto the enormous bed. It felt big enough to accommodate a dozen people, which did nothing to dispel rumors of imperial decadence and made me think of Kreel again. I groaned.

Why the fuck am I flirting with him? How is that fair?

I knew the answer, of course. I wanted to give in and say ‘yes’ to, well, pretty much whatever Kreel suggested right now. My conscious mind might argue, but my body and my subconscious had joined forces, and they were both on team Fuck the Consequences.

I tried to walk through it in my mind, making a list of pros and cons, like my father would.

Cons first. Kreel was a pirate; I’d only met him a day ago, and that was under false pretenses; we’d onlyinteracted in high-stress situations; and I’d met none of his friends or family, nor had he met mine.

Pros: Justlookat him. I mean, God, what a body; he could cook a delicious meal from practically nothing; I was in his power, but he still respected my ‘no’ rather than try to push me; he’d even rescued me from a fate worse than death.

And he’d given me the wildest sex I could imagine. What more could a girl want?

Well, for starters, a chance to think about this when I wasn’t exhausted and in a post-orgasmic haze.

Despite that, I felt a powerful urge to go find the captain’s cabin. With a sigh, I forced myself to lie back and tried to rest. It’s hard to say whether I slept or just lay there, and I have no idea how long it was before I moved again. All I know is that I felt both rested and restless. The flickering light vanished into the darkness of the walls and floor, giving the uncanny impression that the bed and other furniture floated in a vast emptiness.

But therewasother furniture, which meant there might be a change of clothes and a shower. I pulled off the remains of my wedding dress with a sigh of relief and started searching.

I found the shower by accident, fumbling my way along a wall I couldn’t see. The blackness was so deep it might as well have been intergalactic space, which was a beautiful effect, but not very easy to navigate. My hand must have hit a control, because one moment I was dry, the next, soaked.

Water battered down on me, the force almost enough to take me off my feet before I adjusted. At least the downpour was hot—as long as there was any power at all, the engines would generate enough heat for that.

After a minute under the pounding water, the ship even mixed in some soap. At least, I hoped it was soap. It had a pleasant floral smell, and a soapy texture, so I risked it. After the last day, I really,reallyneeded to feel clean.

When I finally stepped out from under the shower, the water cut off automatically, replaced by a strong current of warm air that dried me quickly. Even running on minimal power, theStarshadowhad some luxuries I could get used to.

I wondered if it would provide me with something to wear. No way in hell was I putting the torn ruin of my wedding dress back on. A maker in the corner taunted me. Under normal circumstances, it would provide with perfectly tailored clothes in any style I could imagine.

Without power, it was just an inert black box. If I was lucky, I might be able to rig it to provide fabric and thread so I could sew my own. No thanks. But it was beside a sliding door which, once I’d forced it open, revealed a stash of stored clothes, much of which looked like it might fit. Thank goodness the Vehn were close to humans in size and shape.

---