Page 35 of Havik: Warlord Brides
“Ohmigod, you have a tail!”
It. Was. Adorable.
Deep red and segmented like a scorpion’s tail, it curled at the end with a barb. Okay, okay. Maybeadorablewasn’t the correct word.
“This is the greatest thing I’ve ever seen!” She moved closer for a better look.
Havik sat up, holding a wrench. The details of his face were blurry but there was no missing that frown. His lips pulled down, and he seemed to show more of his bottom teeth than usual. She was sure he’d appear quite horrible if she wore her glasses.
“What do you use your tail for? Can you gouge out the eyes of your enemies with it?”
He turned, angling himself, and his tail, away. “Do not…That is not what my tail is for.”
“What is it for?”
His cheeks darkened. A scoffing laugh came from the floor. That had to be Ren.
“How did you hide that thing? It’s massive. I find it hard to believe you were smuggling that in your pants because there’s not much left to the imagination, if you know what I mean.”
Below, Ren’s laughter turned into howls of mirth, and Havik looked like he wanted to smash stuff with the wrench he kept squeezing with his meaty paws.
She didn’t know why she enjoyed poking at Havik so much. He was big, grumpy, and never smiled. Had to be the unreasonable attraction of the Danger Bang. She just wanted his attention, any way she could get it.
One day she’d make him smile. It’d probably be all teeth and snarling, maybe a little terrifying, but worth it.
“Where are your spectacles?” Havik asked.
“I couldn’t keep them in place. I should get a strap or safety glasses if gravity goes out often,” she answered.
“It does not,” Ren said from below, offense obvious in his tone.
“This is a hazardous environment. Return to your room,” Havik said.
“I’m not blind. I just can’t see the fine details or read what’s on those monitors.” Thalia waved a hand to the monitors on the wall. “But I want to help.”
“Are you an astromechanic?”
“No.” She was barely anything.
“Then you cannot help. Return to your cabin.”
She lifted her chin, smarting from the blow of his harsh words. “Come on. I’m small. I can get into places you can’t.” She wiggled her shoulders, miming how she would shimmy through the…whatever. Ducts. Service tubes. And she wouldn’t even need the lube.
That sounded wrong, even to her.
Ren poked his head up. He exchanged something that looked like a high-tech probe for Havik’s very low-tech wrench. Astromechanics made no sense.
“I have a drone to access what is too small for me,” Ren said, before ducking below.
“I can do your running and bring you tools,” she said.
“You do not know the tools’ locations or their description. In the time it took to explain what I needed and where to find it, I could fetch it myself.” Havik said.
“Then let me watch. I want to learn.”
“Why?” His eyes were dark, almost black. The length of his braid drifted out to his left, and Thalia strongly considered strangling him with it.
A thousand reasons. Because she wasn’t useless. Because sitting in her cabin was boring and she had caught up on all theGalactic Queenepisodes. Because she needed to make a living. Because this was a freaking spaceship and she knew nothing about spaceships.
