Hysterian was also aware that Alexa had been here as well.
The ship’s cleaning bots could hide a lot, and if he’d been human, he might have missed the signs. When his door was triggered, he’d known immediately. He’d watched the whole thing from the security camera feed channeled into his head as it happened.
Daniels was a problem.
Hysterian hated problems.
Especially ones he couldn’t deal with adequately because he was stuck in the middle of space with witnesses. He’d planned to let Daniels go and force him to disembark on Luxor but had forgotten, losing himself in what was even worse…
Alexa Dear.
His mundane, worker bee stationed to oversee his living requisitions.
She blushed.
Her pulse had drummed in his ears the moment he’d returned, across the fucking room. He scented her fear, her anxiety.
Worst of all, he’d felt the heat her body gave off from those emotions. She was normally cold. It had stunted his mind long enough to forget about Daniels. His focus had been on Alexa.
Now his phantom woman had black hair.
Hysterian squeezed his brow, allowing the door to finally open. No one stood on the other side. He wasn’t sure if it was disappointment or relief he felt. A mixture of the two perhaps.
The bridge was empty. If he went there now, he could read his correspondence and review his new requisitions without watchful eyes. He could contact Titan and let them know he was several days away.
He could study the layout of the mines and the footage taken of the bugs.
Hysterian turned away and went in the opposite direction.
Reviewing the ship’s feed in his head as he walked, his crew was all where he expected them to be. Horace and Daniels were sleeping in their bunks. Pigeon was in the lounge ahead of him—the smell of cheap coffee in the air—and Raul and Alexa were in the menagerie.
Except Raul was already up and at his desk, and Alexa was still in bed.
I want to see her.
He crept past the lounge and descended the stairs toward the laboratory. A soft, gasping moan pricked his ears.
Hysterian stiffened, listening. The moans built then slowed, followed by a rasping breath. It sounded like sex.
Alexa and Raul? Angry, he strode into the lab.
He half-expected to see Alexa bent over her desk and Raul atop her. Even though he knew she still slept. His fingers twitched to tear the image in his mind and beat Raul’s head against the wall until there was nothing left. For a microsecond, it was real.
Finding Raul jacking off to porn, was, to say the least, a fucking relief.
With his back turned to Hysterian, Raul had no idea that his captain stood behind him watching him yank his cock, itching to shatter his skull.
Hysterian tamped down his anger as Raul’s arm jerked. Disgust filled him for the second time that morning. It wasn’t because of what Raul was doing—so out in the open as he was—but that Hysterian had been doing the same thing not a few minutes prior.
That, and Alexa was mere yards away and could stumble upon Raul in the act.
That she shared a room with him.
Co-ed rooms—with locked privacy screens—had never mattered in the past, but now it pissed him off. A screen wasn’t enough. Alexa shouldn’t have to worry about her crewmate. Hysterian swallowed the need to throw Raul against the wall and punish him for being a disgusting creep and stalked to his and Alexa’s quarters.
Had they fucked?
He needed to know. It was his right to know. He was the captain, after all, and if his crew were fucking, it was good to be aware of it. That’s what Hysterian told himself as he neared the room. He and his brethren all had an annoying trait where they needed to know everything that was happening around them at all times. It was embedded in their codes.
