Well, he was irritated, too. “You distracted me. How am I supposed to finish my warrior training if you keep distracting me?”
She snorted. “You’re not technically a warrior. You’re human.”
Her dismissal infuriated him. Corey stormed over to her, but kept his voice down so the others wouldn’t hear. She had been needling him for months now and he wanted to know why. “I need to speak with you privately.”
She tried to turn her back on him, but he wasn’t going to put up with her attitude toward him any longer. It hadn’t always been that way. True, she had started out questioning his place there, but as Corey had grown stronger and learned quickly, she’d started showing him respect. She’d been amazing, offering advice, being patient with him and staying late after regular training hours to give him extra help.
Then a few months back, her attitude toward him seemed to completely change. He’d held his tongue about it as long as it wasn’t interfering with his training, but enough was enough. It was time they got to the bottom of what the problem was. The only family he had left was on board the command ship and he wasn’t about to leave them. He had to make this work.
“I don’t have time,” she said, trying to brush him off yet again.
“Lieutenant, we can either have a private conversation now or we can have it out right here in front of everyone. Your choice.”
She raised her eyebrow at him, anger clear on her lovely face. “Fine, you want to talk in private...let’s talk.” She walked toward the exit of the training room, and he followed her down the corridor to a steam room, currently occupied. “Out now!” Nix ordered the poor warrior, who scrambled to keep his towel on as he shuffled obediently out of the room.
He couldn’t help but find her commanding nature (and her ire) sexy as hell. Surely she would be a woman full of passion in bed. He felt sure her fire would make things hot. Really hot. Not that he planned on having sex with her...or anyone. He hadn’t had sex in a while, not since right after Maggie had married her Drastan husband Captain Liam Estro, one of the commander’s sons, and maybe, just maybe, it was starting to affect his thought processes.
But he knew he wasn’t looking just looking for sex. After Maggie married, he had tried to hide his misery by occupying himself with training, but one night, his heartache and loneliness had finally gotten to him. He’d gone to one of the socializing areas on the ship and hooked up with a Drastan woman. Apparently.
He couldn’t really remember much about that night. His body hadn’t been one hundred percent yet and Drastan liquor was three times the strength of human liquor. Fuzzy images of a dark-haired woman with a perfect body undulating under him tickled the edges of his memory. He’d had sex with her, and then somehow staggered back to his own quarters. When he woke up the next day, he’d felt so guilty about it that he hadn’t even tried to find the woman. He certainly hadn’t tried to hook up with anyone else. He didn’t think it was fair to go after someone else when his heart just wasn’t in it.
After that, Corey foused on training full time as a warrior, hoping it would help take his mind off Maggie, and it had worked. His mind and body were too busy to dwell, and as time went by, his heart ached less and less. The time he spent with Nix in training filled him with a sense of purpose… and something else. He didn’t understand it, but it was the truth. Nix constantly being on his ass to do better was what he needed, not only to become a warrior, but also to start to see he had a future ahead of him. He might have to go through some growing pains, but it was worth it. Looking at the furious woman now, though, he wondered if he might shortly be experiencing another kind of pain.
Nix crossed her arms over her chest and glared at him. “What was so important you had to insist on secrecy?”
“I want to know what the hell you have against me. Is it just because I’m human, or a man, or is it simply my fucking personality? You have been riding my ass even harder than usual, and honestly, that’s fine, but it’s the attitude that I’m done with!”
“I don’t owe you anything, especially an explanation on my training technique!” She tried to step around him to leave, but he blocked her.
The room was starting to get hotter from all the steam; he watched beads of sweat roll down her throat to disappear underneath that tight collar of her uniform top. He licked his lips reflexively, imagining tasting that pearl of liquid against her smooth, golden skin.
Clearing his throat hurriedly, he said, “We’re not leaving until you spill.”
She frowned. “Spill what?”
“It’s an expression. It means spill your guts.”
“That’s disgusting,” she said, clutching her stomach.
“Not actual guts...spill whatever it is that you have against me and have been keeping secret.”
“Why wouldn’t you just say spill your secrets?”
“That’s not the way it’s said... this is not the point here. You’re angry with me for something and have been taking it out on me during my training.”
“I don’t take my anger out on the warriors; I keep my emotions in check.”
“Really? So why am I the only warrior in training that has to organize the cleaning of the exercise equipment? None of the other warriors have had to do that, and there is a professional cleaning crew that performs those duties.”
She suddenly wouldn’t meet his eyes, which told him that she was about to lie. “Others have had to do that before, I’m sure of it.”
He doubted that, but continued pointing out her treatment of him. “I also assigned to make a diagram of the quickest route to medical from the commander’s personal quarters, and let me tell you, he was not thrilled to see me that early in the morning. Then I was told to patrol level two on even hours for two days. Level two is where most of the chefs sleep and the shift I was given made it impossible for them to get sleep. Oh, and my original pilot training results were somehow lost and I had to take the training for flying the fighters a second time.”
“For some warriors, it take a lot more effort than for others to get them ready to fly a fighter. No need to be ashamed. Our technology is new to you.”
“I was asked to translate for a tribe leader from China.”
“Of course. You were part of a tribe, so you should know how to communicate well with other tribe members.”
“I don’t know Chinese!” He pulled at his hair in frustration.
“It seems very inefficient for you humans to have so many different languages.”
He reached for her arms, pulling her close to him, and knew immediately that he had made a mistake. Having her body so close to his set something off in him he hadn’t expected. An overwhelming need to touch, hold, and lick was nearly impossible to ignore.
She licked at the condensation on her lips and he couldn’t look away. Her lips were so soft and sweet looking; he wanted to know what they tasted like. He had to find out. As he lowered his head, intending to find out all her secrets, she leaned forward and stomped down hard on his foot.
“Ouch!” He bent over and she squeezed past him. “Why did you do that?”
“I don’t like to be touched,” she told him before leaving him there, bent over and wincing. Damn that woman to hell and back. Glancing up, he couldn’t help but enjoy the view of her backside as she stormed out. God, what a woman.
