Page 185 of Gladiators of the Vagabond Boxset

The monkey allowed me to set him on the counter, where he promptly made a nest with the hand towel carelessly thrown on it.

I had a feeling that this room had just been vacated, and they’d only bothered to strip the bed before they threw me in it.

That theory was confirmed when I noticed that two of the three huge towels the room supplied were carelessly thrown in a corner, still clearly damp.

I curled my lip in distaste but stripped and got into the shower anyway.

Maybe the warm water would ease my head a little; it was still pounding as if I’d drunk Aderian wine with the gladiators again.

As the only Aderian on the Vagabond, you’d think I’d handle the liquor better.

*

Noa

As I did the rooms closer and closer to the looming Rummicaron guard, I was starting to get more and more nervous.

Soon, I’d have to talk to him—tell him I was supposed to do that room too.

Failing to ask meant I would get punished for not completing my list, but I was pretty sure the guy was going to bite my head off for asking.

I’d never spoken a word with any of the half a dozen Rummicaron guards in charge of security at the resort.

They looked too much like sharks for me to feel comfortable around them—too alien.

Most alien races I’d met here hadn’t been so different that I struggled to understand how they’d come to be.

The Aderians, for example, were pretty close to humans, except for their freaky eyes, pointed ears, and anthracite skin.

With only one set of clean towels and sheets left on my cart, I eyed the guard, meeting the flat, gray eyes when he looked right back at me.

I stiffened my spine and curled my lip in an attempt to look tough.

“I need to clean that room.” He opened his huge maw, displaying several hundred sharp, hooked teeth and a gaping hole that led straight down his gullet.

He snapped it closed with an audible clack, then stepped aside and slammed a hand on the door panel.

The suite room door slid open soundlessly, and I tried to hide my unease as I pushed my entire cart into the room ahead of me. Unlike in the previous rooms, I was fairly certain I wasn’t allowed to just leave the door open while I worked.

There was no one inside the suite, but I heard a shower running, so someone was home.

I surveyed the place, noting that it was the same as always, except that the bed had already been stripped of all the sheets.

I started there, keeping my front to the bathroom door so I wouldn’t be surprised by whoever was in there.

I was still startled when the bathroom door opened and an Aderian male suddenly stood in the opening.

Steam curling out of the room from behind him, his body was draped in a silky gown and little else; it clung far too much to his still slightly damp skin, outlining his strongly defined muscles—from the thick curve of his bicep to the slabs of his pectorals, down to the ridges that made up his abdominal muscles.

A long screen of silky black hair draped over one shoulder, already blown dry and shimmering blue-black.

He was tall, with thickly muscled thighs, but he wasn’t bulky with all that muscle—sleek and understated instead.

At least, he would be if he were actually wearing clothes.

In this silky gown, it was almost obscene.

Drifting my eyes over his pelvis, I saw his package clearly outlined against the thin fabric.

A shocking rush of heat spiked through my body at the sight.

It was followed by a rush of panic. I hadn’t let myself feel anything but fear and anger—hadn’t had the time or inclination to feel any kind of arousal—and this rich asshole just brought it out of me by being too dang sexy? I couldn’t stand it.

To jolt myself back to the reality of my situation, I forced myself to look him in the eye.

Into his freaky, evil-looking black eyes.

Yup, that did the trick. Those shimmering pools of black immediately put thoughts of the Dragon and the Dumb Duo in my head, and I couldn’t feel any semblance of arousal for him after that.

Then there was a chittering kind of noise, and the guy (who had only stared at me without saying anything) turned into the bathroom and came back with what looked like a little monkey.

“Hello,” he said. “Thank you for making the bed.” And then he just continued to stare at me, all the while petting the little monkey like he was a supervillain from a cartoon petting his cat.

I stared back, then eyed the freshly made bed and the dirty pile of room service dishes on the table near the window.

This place hadn’t been cleaned yet, but this guy was not the same guest as the one who’d been here yesterday.

I knew it because I remembered bringing up that tray of dinner last night.

I remembered greeting the Xionian guest and the way he’d glared at me over his beak, his red-feathered ruff standing up in a display of distaste.

This situation was getting weirder and weirder—like, why did a guy with a bodyguard out in the hall stay in a room that hadn’t been cleaned yet?

This made no sense. My eyes darted to the door behind which the Rummicaron guard stood at his post. Rich Aderians often traveled with a guard like that.

Their alien faces were hard for me to decipher, so I hadn’t a clue if that guard was one from the resort or one this guy had brought with him.

The Aderian male sauntered over to a nearby chair and draped himself into it, the sash around his waist only barely keeping the thing closed enough to keep the pertinent parts covered.

The monkey stayed curled on his chest, brown eyes staring at me just like his master’s black eyes.

“You are human,” he said. “How did you end up in the Zeta Quadrant? You’re a long way from home. ”

I curbed the instinct to touch the fancy lace slave collar around my neck.

Was this guy serious? Didn’t he know I wasn’t here by choice?

I felt anger surge through my body—the kind of anger that had sustained me the past three months.

Opening my mouth, I did what I’d been expressly forbidden from doing: I snapped at a guest.

“Oh, I don’t know. The work opportunities were just soooooo much better out here than back home,” I drawled sarcastically.

I popped a hand on my hip, flattening the palm on the black cotton fabric that covered the bright pink underskirt.

Immediately, his eerie black eyes followed the movement, lingering on my hip before sliding down my stocking-clad legs.

The transparent hose did nothing to hide the colorful tattoos that painted my skin.

“I see,” he murmured, shifting his body a little before he got up and stalked past me to the wardrobe in the corner.

He flung it open and stared at the empty interior, his brows lowered into a frown.

“I don’t suppose you can arrange for some clothes?

” he asked, turning partially so I could see how the robe was now gaping open, revealing a V-slice of his chest. His skin was that marvelous anthracite, lustrous with silver.

I rapidly swung my eyes away from him so he couldn’t provide any more temptation than he already was.

“I’m just the cleaning lady. Go get your own clothes,” I snapped, then fled into the bathroom so I wouldn’t have to look at all his tempting bare skin.

Only after I’d slammed the bathroom door behind me and spent a good five minutes fanning myself and splashing cold water on my face did I realize I didn’t have any of my cleaning supplies with me.

My face heated in embarrassment. What would he be thinking about me?

The weird cleaning lady who could only stare at his sexy chest and yell in his face?

Trying to at least pretend I had been doing something in here, I collected all the dirty towels, holding them like a shield in front of my body as I stepped out.

The Aderian male was standing at the open door to the suite when I exited the bathroom.

His incredibly long black hair hung down his back, hiding his backside from me almost to the backs of his knees.

That had to be so impractical when he had to go number two.

As if he heard my thoughts—though more likely just because he sensed my presence—he tossed a look over his shoulder my way, a smirk curling his full, dark lips and revealing just the tip of a sharp canine tooth.

“Yeah, seriously, I need clothes. Get them,” he demanded of the Rummicaron guard.

When the male didn’t respond, the Aderian rich guy rolled his eyes and sighed.

“I know you can’t leave your post, wouldn’t want me to run off and get into any trouble.

Just…” He flapped a long-fingered, fine-boned hand at the guard.

“Call someone on your comm and get them to deliver me some damn pants. I know there’s an internal system that still works on this planet! ”

The Rummicaron gave him zero reaction; he just stared at him with those slate-gray eyes. The Aderian stared back, his shoulders slowly lowering little by little. I was almost starting to feel a little sorry for him. Had he arrived so ill-prepared that he had no clothes with him?

He let out an annoyed growl that seemed oddly out of character compared to his so-far upbeat way of talking.

Then, he slammed his palm on the door reader with such force that I feared the panel had cracked, and the suite door slid closed with a soft swoosh.

I stepped back a few steps, bumping into the wall next to the bathroom door when he turned around to face me.

The monkey was on his shoulder, half-hidden beneath his long hair.

While the male crossed his arms over his chest, his robe was thankfully tied more snugly around his body again.

It was a little like we were facing off, only this time, I felt even more unsteady, with my body at least mostly hidden behind the pile of dirty towels I was holding.

“I’m Lukalyn Nerizana, Master Surgeon,” he said.

“You can call me Luka. I’m told humans like to shorten names.

This is how you greet each other, correct?

” Then he did the oddest thing: he held out his right hand to me, palm out.

I stared at that odd offer for a handshake long enough for him to fidget, until he slowly lowered it. “Did I do it wrong?”

I shook my head, trying to settle the strange feeling in my stomach.

So this rich guy—this doctor—knew enough about humans to know of handshakes and naming conventions.

How? Did he own human slaves? Had he seen other humans before?

Why did it make me feel like a real human being for a moment, as if he cared what I thought?

Stepping forward, I dumped the pile of towels into the right bin in my cart before wiping my clammy palms on my hips.

Then I reached out with my right hand and offered it to him.

This time, he stared at it for a moment, his eyes trailing up my arm, which was as tattooed as my legs were.

I knew that was a pretty unusual sight, but most aliens on the resort barely glanced at me twice.

Being a maid here made me practically invisible.

When his palm closed around mine, I felt the smoothness of those fingers—no callouses.

But his grip was firm and warm, his long fingers closing around mine in a snug clasp.

He shook our hands up and down a little more enthusiastically than I expected, his handsome face breaking into a wide grin.

“Nice to meet you. What should I call you, human?”

His wild handshake made me stumble, bringing me in far closer than I meant to. He grinned wider, amused, while he used his free hand on my shoulder to steady me. “Noa. That’s my name,” I said, searching for that anger that I’d felt earlier, trying to get back to familiar ground.

This was a rich guest, a nearly naked guest. I needed to steer clear of him, lest he think I was on offer too, like nearly everything else in this resort.

He let me back away, and he didn’t say more, just moved to drape himself in a chair again, though he seemed to take better care to keep his robe fully closed this time.

I wasn’t sure if I was happy or sad about that.

I rushed to get through the rest of my jobs, disappearing into the bathroom for far longer than it usually took me to clean the space.

His eyes followed me across the room when I vacuumed and dusted, then lingered on my backside when I set the windows to clean.

When I was finally done, with the tray of dirty dishes stacked onto my cart, I hurried for the exit without another word.

When the panel slid shut behind me, I could have sworn I heard him say, “Bye, Noa, nice to meet you.” I pretended not to listen. I was just a momentary distraction for this guy; he had no clue what I was going through. I didn’t want to play games like that.