I shielded my eyes, grimacing as I struggled to adjust to the glare.Hope ducked inside, carrying a plate of food and Penny followed her.
"Sooo," Hope started as she flopped onto the pallet of blankets and crooked a brow."How was your night?"
"None of your business."
I glared at her even as I reached for the food, my stomach growling like an enraged bear as I spotted mini donuts on the sheet of dented metal.Hope held the plate out of reach with a chuckle and I contemplated tackling her for the food.I was so hungry I'd eat a shoe right now and those donuts were mine.
"Oh come on," she laughed."One juicy detail and I'll let you eat in peace."
"Fine, we had wild, alien sex, and I'm in love with him.The sun rises and sets on his smile and I'm carrying his child."I lunged for the plate."Now give."
Hope relinquished the plate and I stuffed a powder covered donut in my mouth with a groan.
"We know you didn't have sex."Penny settled on the pallet next to Hope and offered me a bottle of water.
Eyeing them suspiciously, I ate another donut and wondered when I'd become the kind of girl who had a gossip session first thing in the morning.Nope, pretty sure I'd never signed up for this.
"How do you know?"I asked, spraying powdered sugar all over my shirt.It was a good thing Dargo wasn't here, I'd never felt less attractive in my life.
The moment the thought crossed my mind I batted it away.I didn't care what he thought of me.Dargo was the one that dragged me into this relationship.He was getting the real Taz, messy shirt and bad attitude all the way.
Hope rolled her eyes.
"They can smell it when you've been 'gentled.'"She made air quotes around 'gentled' and I shared her cringe at the word.I didn't like the idea of being broken in like a horse and that's what it sounded like."Dargo's been fielding challenges all morning, and that's not going away until you're fully mated."
"Are you serious?"There really was no privacy in the apocalypse.Having an entire camp of alien males sniffing at me to figure out my sex life was not appealing.
"Dead serious."
"Yuck."I set aside the plate and opened my water.Between my throbbing head and my dry throat, I was starting to think Dargo had been right about my level of intoxication last night.Thinking back, I definitely hadn't been in my right mind.Unfortunately, that meant I still had the looming challenge of losing my virginity in a tent.
"Are we still serious about staying here?"I asked."No one wants to strike out on our own and leave all this alien crazy behind?"
"I'm not leaving Aeko."Hope eyed me like I was a fly in her pudding."If you're not serious about staying with Dargo, you need to tell him.It's not fair to him to keep risking his life fighting for you if you're going to up and disappear."
I turned my sights on Penny, hoping her strange mood was a symptom of wanting to run for the hills with me.Anything to avoid facing Dargo after the way I'd thrown myself at him last night.
Penny's expression was a lot more understanding than Hope's, but she popped my balloon when she shook her head.
"It's really not safe out there, Taz."
I noticed she didn't declare her undying love of Adak, who I hadn't seen since I'd arrived.There was a story there and I was going to get to the bottom of her subdued attitude eventually.But since neither of my friends was ready to risk leaving camp, that meant I was stuck here, too.With Dargo, my almost mate, who'd blown my mind and then turned down sex last night.
It was a blow to my ego that he'd fallen asleep so easily after treating me to my first orgasm.I could understand him wanting sex.Somehow I doubted the dating scene was hopping when you were a slave in space.But if he'd wanted a mate to get laid, he wasn't getting his money's worth if his plan was to service me and then pass out.
Maybe he'd been drunk, too.Alien whiskey dick?How was I supposed to know?
Something Hope had said finally penetrated my thoughts.
"He's fighting?"
She smirked."Three challenges so far."
“These guys are really committed to getting a girlfriend, aren’t they?”
“Oh, yeah.Before I came back for you guys, Aeko got jumped by a whole band of turochs.He almost got killed because they could tell I wasn’t gentled and that meant I was up for grabs.”
“I can’t believe you ran them over,” Penny said.
