Keeping the gun trained on him, Shay cleared her throat and glanced away. That didn’t save her from the mental image of him standing in that maintenance tunnel with his long, thick cock jutting toward her. “That was obvious.”
Her gaze dipped to the tray of now cold, congealed food, and her lips pulled back in disgust before she returned her attention to him. “So after that pronouncement, why should I trust you?”
“Because you’re pregnant and alone in an alien city, living in a shithole.”
Though he was right, she couldn’t help taking some offense. “I’msurviving.”
“And I want to give you more than just survival.” He leaned forward, settling his elbow on his thigh. “I know what was in my pockets when you robbed me. Living frugally—like you are—you might get as much as four or five months out of it before it dries up. Considerably fewer if the owner of this dump takes advantage and adjusts your rent at a whim, like a lot of thesegresh navarido. You can’t get real work because you were a slave and have no identity here. If you go for something legitimate, the authorities will be notified, and that’ll cause you trouble. So if you keep working jobs like passing out flyers and getting paid off the books, you might stretch your funds out to as long as half a year.
“But your cub will come before then, won’t it? And once that happens, it’s only going to get harder. How are you going to work with a little one? Who can you trust to care for your cub?”
Indignation swept through her. Her hand tightened around the blaster’s grip, but she kept her finger away from the trigger. The strength of the resentment burning inside her was unreasonable. He was right. Shayknewhe was right, but that didn’t make hearing it any easier. As much as she’d tried to deny it, the fact was that she was floundering. There was little hope, no help, no sign of relief.
But this azhera—Drakkal—was offering her help. It was tempting, and it also ratcheted her suspicions up through the stratosphere—if this planet even had a damned stratosphere.
Nobody did anything for free.
“I freed you from that place,” Drakkal said, his voice low, deep, and oddly passionate. “I haven’t come after you for my belongings. And I literally disarmed myself for you. I’m not asking you to come to my slave dungeon to pleasure me, terran. I can give you a safe place to live and work that pays well. A chance to build a future, to build apresent.”
“Why? You freed me, shouldn’t that be enough for your conscience? Why didn’t you just let me go and forget about me?” Her brows lowered as she stared at him. “You were looking for me before yesterday, weren’t you?”
His ears perked and flattened, and his tail sped. “I’ve looked for you every day since the first. I’ve scoured this city. I wasn’t lying when I said I want you, terran. You’ve consumed my thoughts.”
Drakkal stood up and stalked toward her, slowly but confidently, and once again, Shay had the impression of powerful muscles shifting beneath his clothing and fur. She watched him approach, her body frozen in something like awe, the blaster forgotten. When he reached the table—standing only a meter away from her now—he placed his right hand on the tabletop and leaned forward.
His scent—leather and sweet cloves underscored bysomething wholly, uniquelyhim—struck her, as potent as any drug she’d ever used. That scent was familiar by now, almost soothing. It was the smell that clung to the clothing she’d taken from him, the smell that lingered on his jacket, which, despite everything, she still had tucked away in her bedding. She hadn’t understood why she couldn’t part with it, only that it was her only comfort in this damned city.
“I want you and your cub safe and secure,” he said. “That’s my priority. The rest will happen naturally.”
“The rest?” she asked, mentally shaking off the effects of his nearness and scent even if her body couldn’t ignore them. Her thighs were squeezed together, her toes curled upon the floor, and something had kindled low in her belly, something that hadn’t sparked in months.
Was she…attractedto him? Attracted to an azhera?
“It’s in your eyes right now, terran, even though you’re resisting. That’s all right. I’m patient.”
Shay forcefully hardened her expression, but she couldn’t stop warmth from flooding her cheeks; he’d caught her with her guard down. “So certain, azhera?”
He slid his big hand across the table’s surface and settled it over hers, apparently unbothered by the blaster she was pointing at him. His palm was strong and rough but also warm and comforting. “I am.”
She swallowed, remaining completely still. She knew she shouldn’t have allowed him to get this close, knew she should’ve slipped her finger behind the trigger guard, knew she should’ve pressed the barrel to his chest…but she couldn’t. His eyes held hers, their slitted pupils expanding until there was only a thin ring of vibrant green around them.
For several seconds, Shay and Drakkal remained like that, with eyes locked and bodies connected in that small but somehow intimate fashion. Then Drakkal lifted his hand awayand stood straight. Still moving with deliberate care, he dropped his hand to one of the pouches on his belt and opened it. Shay’s eyes widened, and her finger shifted toward the trigger.
He withdrew a small notepad and a pen.
Shay’s brow furrowed as he set the pad on the table, fumbled to get it open one-handed without releasing his hold on the pen, and then pinned it beneath the side of his large palm. He clicked the pen open and wrote something on the paper.
When he was done, he took the top of the little pad between the claws of his forefinger and thumb and held it toward her. “My contact information. Think about what I said.”
She didn’t move. He lifted the pad slightly, gently urging her to take the paper. Shay finally gave up the pretense. She wasn’t going to shoot him, and if he’d meant to harm her, he would’ve done so back in the tunnel weeks ago. She laid the blaster on the table, keeping one hand over its grip but turning its barrel away from him, and used her free hand to tear off the paper. The characters printed upon it were in Universal Speech—and in surprisingly neat handwriting, despite the size of his hand compared to the pen and pad. It was a comm ID.
Drakkal tucked the pen and pad into their pouch and closed it. Once they were away, he fished a credit chip out of his pocket and placed it atop the table. “Whether you decide to take my offer or not, this should help you keep afloat for a while longer.”
Startled, Shay stared down at the credit chip. Her father had taught her from a young age to always be prepared and adaptable, to respond to unforeseen occurrences quickly and confidently. But she was caught off guard by this; her time on the wrong side of the law had taught her that people weren’tkind, weren’t charitable, weren’t willing to help others unless they somehow benefited from it. This…couldn’t be real. Nothing was given for free, not in her world.
But Drakkal wasn’t asking anything of her. He was simply giving.
She looked up at him. “Is this a trap?”