Page 307 of Gladiators of the Vagabond Boxset

“The hell?” Tori demanded, and I was a little shocked myself, she’d melted so perfectly against my side that I’d almost forgotten she was there, lost in my little standoff with this asshole.

“Enough of this bullshit posturing. Men, seriously, they’re the same the freaking universe over…

” Her last words were half muttered under her breath, but she could be heard well enough.

It was obvious from a single look that the Son of Ragnar, too, had forgotten she was there.

She stepped out from under my arm and held Novalee out to the Son of Ragnar in such a way that he scrambled to receive her, his eyes huge and shocked now.

Then she spun on me and jabbed me in the chest again.

“How dare you act like I am the one who needs protecting when you’re ready to start a fight over nothing? Bah, idiot.”

Then she ranted at me in Italian, speaking rapid-fire, her hands moving with each word as if she were talking with her hands as well as her mouth. My translator didn’t have that language in its database; Akri hadn’t located it for me yet, despite having started the search months ago.

I didn’t need to know her language to understand that she was cussing me out something fierce, and then she did the same to Sin and Aramon.

I could only grin and stare, weirdly turned on.

Here was my shy Tori, making several grown men look ashamed, even though they couldn’t understand a word she was saying.

Novalee, perched awkwardly beneath Sin’s arm, was also quite the sight, her pink skin and purple-and-pink hair brightly contrasting with all his grayness.

The symbiont had shifted into a long, lemur-like monkey, dangling a fluffy, silvery tail in front of her face and tickling her chin.

When a peal of baby laughter interrupted Tori’s rant, she turned around to beam at her baby. “Yeah, that’s much better, isn’t it?”

I’m pretty sure that’s when it sank in—what she’d done.

Her eyes went wide, a hand shot up to cover her mouth, and her skin turned red.

She realized she had an audience now that she was no longer angry.

If I knew her at all, this was when she wanted to run off and hide.

I could already see a tremble start in her hand; she was shaken up.

That’s what always riled my protective instincts, and I struggled with them.

Should I go to her and help her hide against my side?

Should I let her be and see if she could settle herself?

I just really wanted her to feel better the fastest way possible, but was that the right thing to do for her?

If I stepped in again, maybe she’d never get comfortable talking to others—never learn to speak her mind.

I loved it when she spoke her mind to me.

I loved that she’d spoken her mind to Sin just now, too.

Was this the thing Tori wanted me to stop doing?

Was this a small way in which I could concede to her—to stop this thing she called ‘coddling’?

Frozen with indecision, I realized that she was on her own now.

The longer the moment lasted, the more everyone seemed to lose interest. The mess hall was starting to empty, though Tori and Sin were still staring at Novalee, frozen in place while his symbiont entertained the baby.

“What’s going on?” a voice demanded, and I jerked my eyes off my beautiful, slightly unsure Tally to see that the Naga Captain had shown up.

Arms crossed over his chest, he was frowning at Sin holding the baby, then at Tori.

“Didn’t take you for the maternal type, Sineater.

” He slithered silently closer, plucked Novalee from the Son of Ragnar’s arms, and handed her back to Tori.

“What’s going on is that I’m freaking bored!

This job is stupid! Since when are we just a passenger ship?

” the Rummicaron complained. He was one of the few still left in the mess hall, hovering just next to his captain, his laser cannon cradled in his arms in exactly the same way that Tori was now holding Novalee.

“We don’t have to be bored. The lady’s got a side job for us,” Aramon said, and then he eagerly started explaining it to the Captain, arms waving around as he talked—just like Tori had a habit of doing.

I kept my eyes on Sin as he moved, backing away from his Captain, from Tori, and then stalking from the mess hall without a single glance my way.

I drew in a relieved breath when he was gone, just as I heard Tori exclaim, “But we can pay you to do this rescue! There’s some kind of fancy treasure supposedly there, you guys can have that; we’re not interested.

” I swiveled around to look at her in time to see her face go red with embarrassed nerves.

She was scared of the Naga and had subconsciously drifted closer to me.

“Treasure, huh?” the captain drawled, his nictitating membranes sliding closed over his eyes from the inside corners in a strange kind of blink.

Tori faltered, falling silent, and looked rather helplessly up at me.

So now she wanted help, just as she’d made them a promise we couldn’t possibly keep.

Fucking treasure. No way was Aramon going to be stopped now, I just knew it.