Page 15 of Fighting Gravity
He took another step toward me so I could feel his body heat on my skin. And I could smell him. He smelled of cedar and leather. Or something akin to those smells and I was pissed to find it pleasant.
“So, the valerians want your military,” he said.
“No… yes? Why?”
“Syfer is valuable. There must be other reasons. It is worth more than some small military managed by pests with soft skin.”
At that point, the questions were making me uncomfortable and I decided to stop commenting. The gek’tal were the enemy, according to the valerians. Why they were the enemy, I wasn’t entirely sure, but revealing secrets to them was probably considered treason or something. And what I was picking up was that they didn’t know the size or strength of our military or the extent of our relationship with the valerians yet, so I should just zip it.
Honestly, I didn’t really know the extent of it either. It wasn’t in my pay grade. Maybe there really was more to it, but I had no clue about it.
Crossing my arms over my barely clothed body, I shivered, realizing how cold the room was as feeling returned to my body. My shirt thing was thin, I had no undergarments, there was a draft cutting through the fibers of my clothes, and Norm’s presence was giving me chills.
“Could you back off?” I snapped.
He cocked his head like a curious dog. “Back off? You’re on my ship. You don’t give orders here.”
“As far as I can tell, I’m a prisoner. You brought me here and I’m gonna make you regret it. So, back the fuck up,” I repeated, shoving my hands against his chest.
His very firm, big chest, felt hard as stone.
He didn’t budge and I wasn’t sure whether it was because I was so weak at the moment or if he was just that solid.
Probably both.
I growled at my failure and pursed my lips. I really hated feeling weak. I hadn’t felt weak in years and I was beginning to remember why I’d strived so hard to get stronger in the first place. Because feeling weak was terrifying.
“You know, if it’s information you want, I don’t have it,” I said. “I’m just a pilot. Or I was going to be if you hadn’t snatched me up. I suppose you’re going to kill me? Torture information I don’t have out of me?”
Norm sighed, his eyes skimming down my body. “You are good,” he said less harshly.
“What’s that supposed to mean?”
“It means you had a poor vessel to retreat in and you made the chase exciting.”
I narrowed my eyes, leaning toward him challengingly. “If I’d been in a razor wing, you’d have been left in my figurative dust.”
My gaze dropped involuntarily to his mouth when his tongue peeked out to lick his bottom lip. I blinked, taken aback by the purplish-grey color of it. It was also smooth and pointed… and possibly pierced, but it wasn’t like he gave me the best view. His face, however, was in perfect view and I couldn’t dismiss the number of piercings on it. On his brow. His ears. His nose. When his lips curled up on one side, I looked away with an irritated groan.
“Gross,” I muttered.
“It’s alright to be fascinated with me,” he said. “I am fascinated with you.”
I scoffed because the way he said that didn’t sound at all like a compliment. “I’m not fascinated by you. I’m sickened.” Glaring, I gave his body a once-over. “Norman.”
“My name is Rhone,” he said, the name unexpectedly easy to say, even with his accent.
“So? I won’t be here long enough to use your name.”
“What makes you think you won’t be here long? Do you plan to escape into space? Because no matter how good you are at flying a human ship, gek ships are vastly different. You wouldn’t get far if you even managed to get on a shuttle in the first place. Our recon vessels are one level down if you’d like to try.”
I was fuming inside because what he was saying was true. I couldn’t fly an alien ship. I wouldn’t know where to begin and I had no clue how to navigate parts of the galaxy I was unfamiliar with. I’d be a sitting duck.
“I always figure something out,” I said under my breath.
“What was that?”
“Nothing,” I smiled sweetly. “Norman.”
