The tenseness in Ransom dissipated.“That is acceptable.Thank you.I will escort you to your ship.”
“Everyone to theIndy,” Ry said.“We’ll depart as soon as the luggage arrives.”
“The males on this planet are prime,” Kaya said.
“We don’t have time for you to play with them,” Ry informed her.“I want to get back to Camryn.”
Less than a cycle portion later, the green-and-blue planet grew smaller and smaller and disappeared from vision with the naked eye.
Gweneth unstrapped her safety harness and stood.“I’m going to my cabin to sanitize and change.”
Mogens stood too, his face a pearly gray, an indication his mood hovered midway between happy and angry or disturbed.“Do you require any medical attention?”
“I have a few scratches and grazes.Nothing serious.Ellard is the one who requires your aid,” she said.
Mogens regarded her and tilted his head in acknowledgment.“Come with me,” he said to Ellard.“You can sanitize in my cabin.”
“I don’t—”
“I can smell your blood.You wear a wound on your side.Go with him,” Ry said and his voice held a snap of tension.“Mogens is skilled and will help.”
“Ellard, Mogens will help you,” Gweneth said, her tone imperious.“Don’t make me hold you down for him.”
Kaya coughed, her head cocking like a curious bird.
“Check on Gweneth first,” Ellard said after a lengthy silence.
“My cabin is near Gweneth’s,” Mogens said, a ribbon of black dissecting his face.“I don’t need to read the clouds to learn of your stubbornness.”Mogens issued a heavy sigh.“All felines are stubborn.”He glanced at Gweneth.“Half-felines too.”
“Very well.”Ellard stood and followed her and Mogens off the bridge.
“I wonder what happened between them.”Kaya’s nosiness trailed them, as did Ry’s comment about this being none of their business.Gweneth and Ellard would tell them what they wished them to know.
“But aren’t you curious?”Kaya demanded.
“No, I want to get back to—”
Gweneth didn’t hear any more but guessed Ry wanted to be with his mate.They passed their mess room and the galley and headed into the accommodation corridor, where they all had cabins.Their corridor wasn’t gray.She and the others had painted a colorful mural of the different things they’d seen during their travels and her residual tension seeped away.Home.
“I am not badly injured.”Gweneth came to a halt outside her cabin door.“Please, I’m telling the truth.I have bruises from when the ship jumped around.A couple of shallow cuts.Nothing is painful, and I’m healing rapidly.”
“Go and sanitize, child,” Mogens said.“I will deal with this stubborn feline first.”
Gweneth pressed her palm to a decoder.Her cabin door slid open.“I’ll come to your cabin once I’m finished.”
Alone in her cabin, Gweneth sighed, feeling more tired than she’d ever felt before.Although she’d told the truth about her injuries, her body ached.Bone-deep.For a sec, she studied her image in a looking glass.A wild woman stared back.Hair loose and fluffy.A scratch on her cheek and a dirty smudge on the other.Her tunic bore three rips, and her trews had a hole in the knee.Her mud-splattered boots needed a good cleaning.
She forced her arms upward and managed to pull off her tunic.A big bruise covered her left side plus a few minor scratches.The faint bruises on the upper curves of her breasts made her smile.Ellard.She didn’t mind those ones.
Gweneth turned away, tugged off her boots and trews.Her underwear hit the floor, and she stepped into her sanitizer.Warm spray pummeled her aching torso, and she sighed again.Luxury.The scents of lime and basil filled the air, and her mind shifted to Ellard again.
He’d become quiet, his thoughts turning inward.He’d decided he wasn’t worthy of her or some such idiocy.Maybe he worried about his handicap, but she refused to let him get away with a retreat.They were good together, and she wanted him.She loved the big idiot.She, more than anyone, knew what it was like to get judged on appearance, so that excuse meant nothing to her.
Gweneth turned on the drying function and let the warm air soothe her aching muscles while she formulated a plan.
Two cycles.She’d give him two cycles to clear his thinking before she acted.
She’d beat down his objections once.
