Total pages in book: 112
Estimated words: 105936 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 530(@200wpm)___ 424(@250wpm)___ 353(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 105936 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 530(@200wpm)___ 424(@250wpm)___ 353(@300wpm)
Frux still looked furious but he had apparently exhausted his opinions and accusations—at least for now. I had a feeling I was going to have trouble with him later, though.
I decided that if I got out of this mission unscathed, I was going to give my Chieftain an ultimatum—I wasn’t going to do another mission with this sanctimonious asshole—I didn’t give a fuck who he was related to. It was going to be him or me and I had little doubt which one of us the Clan Savage Chief would choose.
I sat back in my chair and turned my attention towards the viewscreen, which showed the peaceful blackness of space.
“Set a course for Dovix Centra,” I said, speaking to Gurflug. “Let’s get this mission done so we can go the fuck home.”
“Yes, Captain,” he burbled. I frowned at the smug look on his face. I didn’t like not having Cass to check his work…
Then I remembered all over again that there was no Cass. There was just my best friend’s little sister who had tricked me into hiring her. But damn it, she really was an excellent navigator. I still trusted her a Hell of a lot more than Gurflug, even if she had been lying to me all this time. Her Cross-Dimensional Navigational skills were beyond amazing.
Against my will, it made me recall her words. She had the talent and brains to navigate a ship—why should she be stuck on Rigelis Nine, relegated to a miserable life Bound to a disgusting old lecher who would never let her rise to her full potential and would instead use her body as he pleased?
Just the thought of that—the idea of some disgusting old man pawing at her sweet, curvy body—made me sick. And so angry I ground my back teeth together and balled my hands into fists.
MINE! shouted the voice in the back of my head. She’s mine and nobody else had better fucking touch her!
But I couldn’t feel that way about my best friend’s little sister. She was off limits—as off limits as if she’d been my own sister by blood. I couldn’t betray Slade by doing something so unthinkable. I’d always had an affection for Jessina—she was my little bird, as she had tried to remind me. But I’d never felt anything sexual for her…until she came onboard as Cass and started getting close to me.
Against my will, I began to remember some of the facts I’d learned about Fated Mates. For one thing, when two Fated Mates started spending time together in close proximity, they started to crave each other sexually. Males developed what was know as “The Thirst” where they longed to taste their Fated Mate and drink her honey.
This brought to mind the way I’d been longing to taste Cass—to make him come…before I found out his real identity, that was.
I shoved the idea away. Surely that couldn’t be what was wrong with me. I didn’t have The Thirst. And I was certain that Jessina didn’t have any of the female symptoms, either.
At least, I hoped not. Because if she did, we were going to be in deep fucking shit.
43
TURK
The trip to Dovix Centra took some time. In fact, longer than it should have. I was certain we would have gotten there much sooner if Jessina had been plotting the course. But I had confined her to my quarters and there she was going to stay—I was determined.
The rest of the Crew just thought that “Cass” was sick and was spending time in bed to recover. None of them had seen her since the removal of the Synth implant and that was how I wanted to keep it. Jessina was too obviously female now. She’d stopped wearing the compression tank that she had claimed helped with an old rib injury when she was still pretending to be Cass. Without it, her full breasts and tight nipples were easy to see—though I did my damndest not to look whenever I was in the same room with her. Which wasn’t often.
I brought her meals three times a day but I still wasn’t speaking to her, though she tried to talk to me every time I went into my rooms. I had started sleeping in my Ready Room. My desk chair converted into a kind of cot and while it wasn’t very comfortable, it was at least less awkward and forbidden than sleeping in the same bed as my best friend’s little sister.
I won’t lie—I thirsted for her. I could feel the itching tickle of The Thirst every time I went near her and smelled her sweet, feminine scent—which I now seemed to be extra fucking sensitive to. I did my best to ignore it. I was determined to keep my distance from her until we got home to Rigelis Nine.