“What the fuck?”
“Are you playing this game or not?”
Not. I was busy fucking Willow in my mind. Apparently, I was taking too long to make my play. I was nearly out of betting chips, as was Bastion and several others we had lured into the game. Willow laughed.
Gods be damned, I could listen to her laugh for hours. Which was how long my cock had been hard and hurting.
“I do not believe this game is real. I think you created it to torment us, female.” A massive Atlan scowled at his few remaining chips.
Chloe and her mate, Seth, both laughed. The human male spoke. “Oh, poker is real. But if I’d known Willow was from Vegas, I would have kept my money in my pocket and walked.”
“What money?” Chloe leaned to her side and bumped her mate with her shoulder. She was a beautiful human female, with long black hair and dark brown eyes. But not as beautiful as Willow.
We had another day of travel before the rendezvous with the Atlans and their hijacked Hive ship. I had no doubt her mate would like to spend the entire time pleasuring his female. As would I.
We finished the hand, Chloe taking the ‘pot’—although there was not a cooking utensil in sight. She leaned her head against Seth’s shoulder and yawned. “This was fun, but I’m wiped.”
“Are you asking me to take you to bed?” Her mate appeared to have no resistance to her request. I understood the feeling. She wasn’t mine, but if Willow asked, I would provide. Anything.
The two humans said their good-byes and left our quarters. The Atlan surrendered his final chips to Chloe, grumbling the entire time. He bid us goodnight as well. That left three of us in the room.
Bastion and I had been assigned a small space. Two narrow beds in two attached rooms, each bed barely large enough to hold one of us. For a small ship, when one included the table space we occupied while playing the poking game, our quarters were unexpectedly spacious.
Which meant we’d been assigned the extra room to accommodate our newest family member, the female now legally under my—our—protection. Mine, and Bastion’s and Thomar’s. Thank the gods. I would not have slept if she were elsewhere on the ship, vulnerable to whichever aroused male believed it a good idea to seduce her.
Which is exactly what I wanted to do.
Willow began gathering the cards and chips, stacking everything into an unknown order. There were dark circles under her eyes. Now that things were quiet, and Willow wasn’t hosting her human companions, she looked frail. Weary.
Considering the transformation I’d witnessed today, she should be exhausted. Soft, feminine, fragile Willow was beautiful. Warrior Willow, as she had dubbed herself after our targeting competition, was irresistible. Sexy. The Coalition uniform she wore accented every curve, from hip to breast, and I wanted to explore all of her. For hours.
Bastion took one look at me and excused himself, taking the small sleeping room nearest the entrance. Good. That left the right for Willow. There was no need for Bastion to ask. We both knew I would be sleeping on the floor outside her door.
If I wasn’t invited to her bed.
“You are tired. Go. Sleep. I will finish this.” I waved my hands over the table and the items still scattered on top.
“Thanks.” Willow stood and walked toward her tiny bedroom, then stopped to look at me over her shoulder. She smiled at me with a tenderness I had never seen before. She didn’t hide her fatigue, or the gratitude I saw in her eyes. “Oberon, thanks for today.”
“It is my honor to serve you.”
The small smile faltered, and I wondered what I had said wrong.
“Right. Life debt and all that.” Her smile returned, but the matching softness was missing from her eyes. “Well, thank you anyway. This was the most fun I’ve had in a long time.”
Afraid to say something else that might offend, I simply nodded and watched her until she closed the door to her room. Everything we’d been using to play her strange game went into the recycling unit. I laid down on the floor with my back pressed to her door. She was here, with me. She was safe.
I slept.
* * *
What the fuck?Something wasn’t right.
I didn’t move, didn’t so much as twitch. Slowly, I opened my eyes to scan the room for intruders. My instincts raged at me to get up, fight, eliminate the threat.
Silence.
The room remained quiet as I lay there, listening.
