Page 29 of Tempting Cargo

Shohari

HE MIGHT LEAVEthis morning.

Queasiness churned in my gut at the sudden realisation, and I gritted my teeth. Maybe it was mere coincidence and yesterday’s bread had been off, because I shouldn’t have cared that Garrison might walk onto Lietan shipyard and out of my life.

I ripped open a pack of breakfast crackers with such force that crumbs sprayed all over the table. Fine, perhaps I was more irritable than usual.

He wasn’t.

He strolled into the canteen as though today was just another day, grabbing a mug and activating the drinks machine like he lived here.

“Morning, Captain,” he said, wearing his casual smile with its usual ease.

“Good morning.” I knew I sounded stiff. I wanted to scream at him not to leave, which was the most ridiculous skykking thought I’d ever had.

I could have asked him if he was looking forward to seeing Lietan, but I didn’t want to know the answer. Maybe he was relaxed because he’d decided he was going, and that had brought him some peace. Or maybe he was relaxed because he was Garrison, and nothing bothered him. Why had I told him Vadias was wrong for him?

“Do you want a brew?”

He was only asking about drinks in his odd human phrasing, but it felt like more. Which was also skykking ridiculous. How could chrya be anything else?Skyk, Shohari, you are so awkward.It was not like me to have these ghosts in my head. It was him. Making me want things I couldn’t even name, let alone actually have.

“That would be nice, thank you.”

I ignored the fact I’d used my good manners.

I ignored the fact neither of us clarified what drink I wanted.

And I certainly didn’t smile into the hot chrya once I’d taken it from his hands.

Fine, maybe I did. A little.

“What time do we get to the shipyard, Cap?” he asked.

My stomach plummeted, dragging my smile down with it.

“A bit over two hours.” Why did I sound like I was declaring a death sentence?

“Thanks. Look, I know you’ve got important captain shit going on, and I don’t need to know about that unless you want to tell me.”

He fiddled with the handle on his mug, and it didn’t seem like him to ramble this much, so I ignored the allusion to my comm from Mother and let him continue.

“I don’t know if this is going to make it better or worse—better, I hope—but I’m going on to Vadias. The shipyard’s not for me.”

It was all I could do not to exhale in a rush of relief, and I carried on drinking. “Two more days of an extra human eating my food and making me good chrya,” I deadpanned. “That’s a bit of both.”

When I glanced up at him, he was still grinning. I let my lips stretch in a small smile and held his gaze as I took another sip. It was a good ‘brew,’ after all.

THE SHIPYARD DROPOFFwent as planned, and I’d finally reviewed the future shipment data, so I took the opportunity to have a break.

When I entered the canteen, Garrison was half naked and upside down.

I wasn’t sure why.

His hands were on the floor. His feet rested on the wall, and he was bending his arms before straightening them again. Even though he knew I was here, he was focused enough on his strange activity that I allowed myself a few moments to enjoy the view.

I thought I’d enjoyed the way his arms and shoulders strained against his shirt; without it, he seemed even larger. I drank in the way the muscles flexed and bunched, how the inked designs on his skin rippled and shifted with them. There was hair on his chest, I realised, a smattering of dark curls trailing up his stomach and into the waistband of his delightful trousers.

I shouldn’t have been leering at him with the self-control of a youth at a brothel, but as my face heated and my cunt flooded with wetness, my curl rippled in readiness. For a heartbeat, I forgot how to think.