“You grumpy ass,” I huffed, turning to scowl up at him. My ire felt silly when I had to keep tilting my head back andbackto look him in the face.
“Yeah,” he said, dark mischief shimmering in his eyes, “but you like me that way, don’t you, little wife?”
Nope.Never going to tell him how wet it makes me when he calls me that.
CHAPTER 19
YIRI
Just as Isuspected it would, calling Cora my little wife made her wet. I glared at the too attentive transport tech until he scurried away and left us alone.
“I’m sorry I’m late,” I said. “I had something come up.”
“Oh, I heard,” she said, her plump lips pressed in a furious pout. “They couldn’t get you, so they called your emergency contact. He told me you weren’t hurt or dead or anything, just taking care of some business.”
“It was urgent.”
Her nose wrinkled at that. “I traveledacross the universeto be here withyou. All the other girls had someone here to greet them, but not me. Not Yiri Ahlon’s girl.No. You hadbusinessto handle. Well, I’d like to know what kind ofbusinesswas more urgent than me.”
Fuck, she was pretty when she was mad. I was dimly aware that I was grinning like a fool at this tiny little wisp of a female, but I didn’t care. Grabbing her gently by the shoulders, I pulled her close to my chest and leaned down to mutter in her ear. “The kind of business that bad men do,Aneah. I’m sorry I kept you waiting. I’ll make it up to you.”
She leaned back, looking me over. “You better,” she scowled, while her gaze darted over my shoulders, chest, and middle. “You weren’t hurt, were you?”
“No,” I assured her. The small gash on my back didn’t count, did it? It was only burning, not throbbing. “Are you and Mr. Darcy ready to go?”
“We’ve been ready,” she reminded me, but the edge of her anger seemed to be wearing off.
“Let’s get you somewhere warm, then,” I said, taking her bag as she folded up a pink blanket with a pattern of very strange creatures all over it.
“Where are we going?” she asked, eyeing the guarded gate nervously.
“First, we have an appointment to be married,” I said, bending to activate the shield on her luggage caddy and synching it with the cruiser. Cora yelped when it zipped up and away.
“Mr. Darcy!”
“He’s alright. I’m just sending him to the cruiser.”
“Where?” Eyes wide, she searched the open air. “He just flew away! You sent him where?”
I took her hand, stroking her soft skin with the pad of my thumb, my blood humming through my veins just at her nearness. “To my cruiser,” I said. “It’s in a private docking bay. I locked the caddy to the cruiser. No one will have access to him. He’s safe,Aneah.”
She turned to me, so vulnerable and afraid for her small, furry companion, that her eyes glistened and her lower lip trembled. “You promise he’ll be okay? He won’t be too cold?”
“I promise,” I said. “We won’t be long behind him.”
“He doesn’t like noise,” she said, looking back to where the caddy had disappeared from view.
“Let’s hurry then.” I squeezed her delicate fingers gently.
She nodded and stayed close to my side as I led her to the gate. She was quiet as we entered the public access portion of the Station. Her gaze darted all over, her curiosity sparked by the most mundane things. Vendors, vehicles, and floating frames. We walked very close to an exotic dance parlor that catered to female tastes, a few of the dancers calling out to her as we passed by, but Cora was too fascinated by an Agollan selling live tedras to notice.
“Are those bunnies?” she asked.
“Tedras.”
Her eyes went unfocused for a moment as she likely received a translation, but then she gasped. “You eat them? They look like bunnies!”
“My translation of bunnies says they are eaten by humans,” I said.
