Page 16 of Master
"Fuck." I gunned the engines, ignoring the second sensor that flashed red.
“What do we do?” The fear in Clara’s voice made my stomach hurt.
“Keep going.”
Clara leaned forward, gripping the edge of the control panel so tightly her knuckles turned white.
This would be close.
I angled the skiff to fit through the triangular-shaped hole that minimized with every second.
“Shit!” Clara hissed as we drew closer. “Shit… shit… shit… shit....”
She screamed, slamming her hands over her eyes as we skated through the dock doors and into space. I wouldn't dare tell Clara, but we'd only cleared the opening by a few inches. Too close. My heart raced with adrenaline.
“We’re out.” I patted her knee, and she slammed her hand down atop mine, squeezing tightly.
“What now?”
"Now we set course to rendezvous with the Bardaga," I grinned at her, returning my attention to the controls. "Make yourself comfortable. There's a food replicator on the wall and a bathing room at the back of the ship.
Clara slipped out of the safety harness. Her light footsteps told me which part of my ship she explored. The sound of her movements conjured a strange sense of comfort within me. She was safe. I’d kill to keep her that way.
Hopefully, our escape spurred her to forgive me for my earlier lack of control. I didn't regret it. I would never regret getting to hold her… taste her… and know the exquisiteness of being sheathed deep inside her.
When Emmy first came aboard the Bardaga, I wondered why my Chieftain seemed so taken with such a tiny, fragile creature. Now I understood.
My fingers flew over the components, engaging the protective shields and setting the autopilot to the rendezvous coordinates. It would take a few days to reach the Bardaga… days I intended to spend getting to know Clara and, hopefully….
“Freeze fucker!”
I spun in my chair to find her standing behind me, a blaster pointed at my head.
Chapter 5
Clara
“Hands in the air!"
The way Tarook rolled his eyes indicated I sounded every bit the idiot I felt. Holding the strange alien gun on him was a spur-of-the-moment decision. I questioned if the piece in my hands was even real. In my limited experience, guns had some weight to them. This thing was light as a feather, and I kept my finger away from what I suspected to be the trigger lest I have the thing pointed backward and blow my own head off.
"Seriously." I widened my stance, adopting a posture learned from twenty years of watching Law and Order SVU. “I want to know where my friends are, and I want proof you’re not just another slaver.”
Tarook smirked and turned back to the console. His shoulders shook as though exercising control to keep from laughing out loud.
“I mean it!”
Deep golden eyes danced as he glanced over his shoulder at me before reaching out to flip a series of buttons. A small square of pure white light flickered on the console.
"Tarook to Bardaga. The package is in my possession."
Package?
“Package?”
Another glance, another smirk. I might just shoot this guy on principle. Even if he had been excellent in the sack.
"Package," I repeated, the gun in my hand shaking. "How dare you call me a package? What is this? The alien version of Amazon? Listen, buddy...."
