Page 51 of Breakaway
"Dirty man," she whispers at me, but there's a tease in her voice that has my smile breaking free as well.
As much as I'd love to continue the flirting that Reese has started with me, I don't want to put Isha through having to listen to it. That and if I do it poorly, I already know I'll be hearing from Kolos about it. My comm chimes with a notification, and I slip it out of my pocket. It's the sound for alerts when a new job has been requested. It's the fifth or so job we've been requested for since we came to Earth, but none of them have been a good fit for Kolos or Isha. Not good for any of us, really. There've been a lot of babysitting gigs, which, granted, so is this one with Reese, but we're particular about the ones we take. Guarding some royalty while they go out partying for a week isn't something any of us enjoys doing.
"Is it a good one?" Isha asks, her attention finally straying from the window.
"Let's see," I mutter as I click the details tab and pull everything up. I let out a soft sigh when I see who's requesting our assistance and already know we'll be saying yes to it. "Intergalactic Alliance's Sentient Smuggling Department."
"I'll do it," Kolos and Isha both say at the same time. It's not often that we're asked to help with this kind of work, but when we are, we're always willing to do it.
"It's going to be Skia," I tell them as I scroll over the text on my screen. Reese leans over, trying to be sneaky as she reads along with me. I slow down how fast I'm going through everything to give her a chance to see it all.
"Am I allowed to be reading this?" Reese whispers to me.
"You'll be bonded to him soon," Kolos answers for me, and isn't moved when I glare at him.
"If you allow me the honor of bonding to you, you'll know all of this already," I tell her. "We'll amend the contracts andinformation we send to prospective clients to alert them to someone new accessing their information."
"And that won't be bad for business?" Reese asks, her eyes going wide all of a sudden with a fear I don't quite understand. Isha and Kolos are eerily quiet, though, waiting to see how this all pans out since they can hear my soulbond's thoughts and everything she seems to be worried about right now.
"I'm going to be so bad for your business," she mutters, and I have to force myself to keep the laugh threatening to bark out of me from escaping. "I'm serious, Zill. You know my reputation. One little search into me, and no one's going to want to work with you. I'm, well, I'm a mess."
I hand the comm over to Isha and Kolos, letting them review the details so I don't have to go into too much detail explaining why Skia is taking the job. The job requires intelligence gathering, and since Skia is the only one who has worked with these people before and is the only one I trust to be serious and not make rash decisions, it'll go to him once he's done with the human trial happening here on Earth.
"Reese, you're not going to be bad for business," I tell her, cupping her face and keeping her from looking away. She places a hand over mine, and my gaze snags on the middle finger where it's lost its hot pink nail.
"What happened?" I ask, flipping my hand to take hers into mine and bringing attention to the nail.
"Oh, I chewed it off," she tells me, her lips pressing together while she looks at the offending finger.
"Do you still have the fake nail?" I ask.
She gives me a confused look before pulling it out of her pocket. "I'm going to glue it back on when we get back up to the ship."
"I got it," I tell her, pulling out the little kit of supplies I've been carrying around with me since Mauve gave it to me the dayof the photoshoot. I didn't even question the gift. It's not the first time I've done something like this. I turn to face Reese as best as I can in the seat and rest her hand on my thigh while I get everything out.
"You just have that?" she asks me, a little confused, but also grateful.
"I just have this," I tell her, keeping her eyes for a moment, hoping to convey to her that I'm in this. With or without the bond, I want to be it for her. "Now, let me get your nail back on while I tell you why you're not going to ruin my business."
She looks like she wants to argue, but I pick her hand back up and begin to file away the old glue on her nail.
"We've been doing this for seven years. We're good at our jobs. Some say we're the best, and that's not going to change because I've found my soulbond. If anyone thinks it's an issue, then we aren't the right company for them."
I put the file back into the kit and pull out an alcohol swab.
"Sombrans take on soulbonds, and we share everything with them. It's something all of our clients are made aware of before they hire us and during the onboarding documentation. You signed a document that said if I were to find my soulbond during my time working for you, you understood the risk of your information being shared, in its entirety, with another unnamed entity."
Next is the glue, which I dab lightly on the fake nail before pressing it back onto Reese's fingernail. I hold her finger between mine as it sets.
"You're not an unnamed entity any longer, you're Reese. And as much as I'd like to say it makes you mine, it undoubtedly means that I am yours. Whether or not our relationship ever progresses to a full bonding or not, I'm yours. Anyone who has an issue with that is someone we don't want to work with."
I release her hand, letting her check to make sure the nail looks good, but she doesn't even do that before wrapping her fingers around the back of my neck and pulling me in close so her lips can brush against mine.
"You should read my contract sometime," Kolos says, breaking up the moment Reese and I are attempting to have. Getting to the port can't come soon enough. "My entity isn't unnamed, and trust me when I tell you that if our clients don't mind the heiress to one of the biggest weapons manufacturers on Earth, they won't care about a pop star who dresses a little provocatively.”
I glance over at Isha, who has her eyes lifted up from the comm just enough to catch my eyes. Kolos bringing up Skye twice in one day is unheard of. Even getting him to say her name is always iffy. I know all about her because he had to let me into his mind before I hired him, but she's always been a sore subject for him.
"Huh," Reese says as if Kolos isn't acting profoundly unlike himself. "I guess that's a pretty good point."
