“You can’t stay in here all day, every day. Face the fucking light, Kat.” Dommik set her on her bare feet.
She slapped at his chest. “What light!? What light? The only light on this ship is in the one place I don’t want to go! Unless you mean the alcove but that’s off limits to me,” she yelled again. “I hate you.”
Dommik hauled her like a petulant child to the lavatory. She dragged her feet.If you want obnoxious, I’ll give you obnoxious!
But her nausea swallowed her up causing her struggles to falter as she dry heaved. She felt the tug of her hair, held away from her face, and his arms rubbing her back as she coughed and gagged. When her fit eased and nothing but spittle was left on her bottom lip, Dommik walked her to the shower. Kat hunkered onto the metal floor away from the spray of water as it warmed up.
He stripped and got into the stall with her. “I hate you,” she said again.
“I know.” He sat down with her, naked. “I wish I could say I was sorry but I’m not. Talk to me.”
The water sprayed off him and landed on her, drenching her nightshirt. “How could you even have that horrible thing on your ship? Why make me hold it?”
“Because It’s harmless. The parasite was eradicated years ago, it can’t hurt you, it can do nothing to you unless you let it.” One of his hands brushed up against her lips, wiping her clean. Kat jerked forward and bit his finger. “Did that make you feel better?” He didn’t move his hand.
She let him go. “I wish it did.”
“Would keeping the plant a secret from you have made you happier?”
Kat held back her tears. “No.”
“Do you wish you had stayed in Ghost, far away from me, away from the secrets we shared?” Dommik’s voice grew harder with each question.
“No.”
“Do you regret opening up to me?”
Tears formed on her eyelids. “I don’t know.” She bent her knees up to her chest and watched as he grabbed something from outside the stall. He handed her a disk of medication.
“What’s this?”
“Something that will relieve your nausea and help with your cramps. Synthesized Ano Algae from Elyria. Take two a day. You’re suffering from a vitamin d deficiency as well, common for first-time space travelers. It will help.”
“Thank you,” she whispered and took it from him, gripping it close.
“Do you want to know a secret?”
Kat rubbed her eyes and was about to say ‘no’ again but stopped her robotic response. “Yes,” she whispered into the water.
“You’re an angel.” Warm, wet hands cupped her cheeks as he forced her to look at him. “An angel. You have to move on. You have a–”
Incoming sirens blared.
Dommik looked up and away from her, his sentence unfinished at the tip of his tongue. One of the Bin’s walked into the lavatory as he stood up, tense and straight. Kat felt cold under the hot water.
“What’s wrong? What’s happening?” His muscles bulged and his jaw broke off his face before reattaching. “Dommik?”
The siren rang once again. “It’s a hail. We have company.” He turned toward her, long hair against his white skin appearing like trails of oil on water. “Go to your room and get dressed.”
Kat climbed up to her knees. “What were you going to say before?”
His eyes flew over her body, prickled and glistening. Her body priming itself for his dominion. He could have taken her from behind, forced her to call him master, and she would have let him.
The moment passed.
“Stay quiet. They can’t take you away from me.”
Chapter Sixteen:
