“And I’m one more bad thing that came out of that whole mess.”
“Oh no. No, you’re theworstthing that came out of it,” Caj said with an annoying laugh. “Neither school nor the military ever commanded Shank’s loyalty. You do. That is going to make her hate you all the way up until you have children, and then she’ll only dislike you and accuse you of trying to ruin her grandchildren.”
Allie’s mouth fell open at the very suggestion of children. When did children come into the discussion? She sure as hell wouldn’t bring them up. Ever. Before she could regain control over the conversation, Caj opened the door and gave her a little shove to get her inside the room. It locked behind her.
Shank quickly got up. “Hey,” he said as he came around the couch carefully, studying her like she might be infected or explosive or something.
A woman’s voice asked, “Are you okay?” When Allie looked over, Copta sat on one of the beds, a data pad in hand. “You look pale.”
“I feel a little shaky,” Allie admitted. Okay. Why was Copta in here with them?
Shank hurried to Allie’s side and slipped his arms around her before he guided her to the bed. “My mom can be like that. She really is a nice person if you can break through that ‘I am a pirate, and I don’t care if I have to shoot you to get what I want’ exterior.”
“Oh. Good to know.” Allie grimaced. “And here I thought she honestly wanted to kill me. Maybe that was all an act.” From the way Shank flinched, Allie’s paranoia had some basis in reality. However, Shank’s mother hadn’t freaked her out as much as Caj had with the talk about babies. Allie really needed a little recovery time.
“What are you doing over here?” she asked Copta instead of dealing with all the other problems. Copta being in the wrong room seemed like such a nice, simple puzzle, and that was all Allie could handle right now.
Copta set the data pad to the side. “I thought I would give Becca and Ben some privacy. While I appreciate their willingness to share their bed, I did not want to impose.”
Allie was going to have an aneurysm from all the brain rewiring today. “You shared their bed? I thought you were asexual?” The words sounded accusatory even to herself, and Copta’s dark eyes got large. “Sorry. That came out all... I’ve had a bad day.” Allie waved dismissively as she offered her apology.
Copta gave her a long look. “Asexual does not mean I cannot enjoy the simple pleasure of touching another.” Her tone was carefully measured, and Allie guessed she was trying hard to avoid calling Allie a bitch.
“Of course not. I didn’t mean...” Allie sighed. She was just spreading the joy today. “Look, I’m not on the top of my game here.”
Shank tightened his arms around her, silently offering support, and Allie leaned into him. He’d sided with her, promised his loyalty to her even over his mother. He had to know how well that would go over, yet Allie couldn’t regret that he’d done it.
“My mother gave you grief, didn’t she?” he asked softly.
“Oh yes. She hates me.”
“I figured.” Shank didn’t even try offering any platitudes.
Allie huffed. “Well thank you for sending me out to deal with her.”
“If I went out and tried to negotiate, her first, second, and third reactions would be to order me back to her ship.” Shank let go of her and leaned back, bracing his arms behind him on the bed. “There would not have been any negotiation. Then she would have asked Caj to drop you guys off on the nearest station, preferably one overrun with either government agents or violent smugglers. So, if you did better than one kidnapping and four counts of getting abandoned, you’re ahead of anything I could have done.”
Allie nodded. She did understand his logic, even if she hadn’t been thrilled with it. “She said she knows where we can steal a ship, but she’s not giving us so much as an ounce of fuel. If we want it, we can steal it,” she said. Her father would have a heart attack at the idea of Allie stealing anything, but Shank’s mother had issued the challenge, and Allie wasn’t going to back down. Her morals would survive. Zeke and Jacqs might not if the rest of the crew didn’t reach that planet soon.
“See?” Shank gave her one of his patented smiles. His whole face lit with joy. “You did do better!”
“If that’s your definition of better, you had some low expectations to start,” Allie said with a grim smile.
Shank playfully bumped her shoulder with his. “I really did. I love my mother, but when she gets really upset, it’s like she forgets I’m not ten anymore. I had my manhood ceremony years ago. I’m a trained gunner and a passable pilot, but all that vanishes and she talks to me like I’m a child.” He rolled his eyes with disgust.
“My father did that,” Allie admitted. “I was probably seventeen when he caught me with a boy in the back pasture. I was a registered hypersexual pan by then. I was using protection, and the boy was very nice, but it’s like my father lost his mind.” Allie laughed at the memory. It was funny now, but at the time she’d been ready to kill her father. Either that or she had wanted to die of humiliation. “If Casey hadn’t been so damn fast, I think my father would have beat him stupid. I mean, he acted like Casey was molesting his prepubescent teen.”
Copta nodded. “In my family, women are expected to marry men. If you are pansexual, you can find a male you like, but when I told my father I was asexual, he acted like I didn’t know myself. He told me that children were asexual by nature, and I would grow out of it. I was eighteen, and he was telling me I didn’t know my own sexuality.” She gave a soft curse in some language Allie didn’t recognize.
“So all our parents are crazy.”
“They are parents,” Copta corrected her. “They remember us when we could fit in their arms, and they will always see us like that.” She twisted her lips in either disgust or frustration, maybe both.
“Yep,” Shank agreed. “The universe is unfair like that.”
“I think our parents would say it was unfair for allowing us to grow up and reject their opinions,” Copta said. “At least my father would say as much. When I received my draft notice, my father went out and found me a husband willing to take my place. He called it a blessing and told me I didn’t have to enjoy sex to keep a husband happy—I only had to have it.”
Repulsion rolled through Allie’s body. “That’s barbaric. Anyone who has sex with a person who isn’t attracted to them is a dyssexual.”
