“Minding its own business, I would imagine.” She pushed a pile of clothes from the armchair onto the floor to sit and pull on her socks and boots. Adding, under her breath, “like I wish you would.”
“I just don’t want you to get hurt.”
That was it. It was bad enough that everyone else on this ship treated her like a child, but her own sister?
She stood and turned to face Laila, hands on her hips. “I’m short, not five years old. What exactly do you want to protect me from?”
Laila gaped, mouth opening and closing like a fish gasping for air.
“I’m not a child!” Krystal shook her finger at her sister. “What I choose to do with my life is my business.” She crossed her arms and cocked her hip, sending Laila a glare for good measure. “If I want to have sex with a hot as fuck alien dude with a donkey cock, then I will. OK?”
Laila’s hid her mouth behind a hand, her eyes crinkling at the corners.
“Don’t you dare laugh.”
She snorted, her eyes dancing. Finally, gathering enough breath to speak, she choked out. “Donkey cock?”
Krystal’s lips twitched. “I don’t kiss and tell.”
Laila laughed, wiping tears from her eyes before sobering. “I’m sorry, Krys. With mom and dad gone…”
Krystal’s anger dissolved, and she cleared the few paces between them to wrap her arms around her sister in a hug. “I know it’s your way of showing you love me.”
“Hey! I remember you asking if Zac had two dicks.” Laila gave her a pointed look.
Krystal giggled. “I did, didn’t I?”
They shared a smile and stood, side by side, surveilling the carnage. “Well, at least you two had a good time.”
Krystal snorted and smacked Laila lightly on the arm. “No comment.”
* * *
The hangar was busy with small hover transporters running gear to and from stealth ships and shuttles. Krystal dodged a bot that almost crashed into her feet, making a mental note to ask about increasing the collision avoidance buffer.
Spying Laila and Zac, she broke into a jog as she crossed the hangar to the small shuttle where they were standing.
“How’s the cloak?”
“Good. I’ll need to check a few things, but I think I fixed it.”
Zac smiled a rare smile. “That’s great news. We’ll need every advantage we can get for this next mission.”
“Oh?” Krystal knew better than to ask for details of Zac and Laila’s missions, even if she was now privy to what their team actually did.
Zac’s answer was lost as a familiar figure appeared from the far side of the shuttle behind the lowered ramp, a wicked grin on his face.
Oh boy. Hold it together, Krystal.
T’arq sauntered up to her slowly, stopping within touching distance to grab a latch on the undercarriage of the shuttle above his head and stretch his arms. He was huge like that, able to reach over nine feet off the ground. Krystal’s eyes were glued to where his hands flexed around the latch, his hands that had worked her into a blubbering mess last night, flexing and sending the muscles in his forearms rolling. The sleeves of his flight suit had been pulled down and tied around his waist in a knot, his chest barely contained by a black tee that strained against the defined muscles.
She swallowed, wondering if it was possible to choke on your own tongue while you were conscious.
“Don’t you mean I fixed it?” His eyes flashed dark purple as he winked at her.
“What?” She gave him a blank look.
“The cloak. You said I was a genius, remember?” He grinned.
