He stalked across to Aletta and tugged off the blanket.
“Hey!” She scowled up at him. “I’m cold!” She reached for the blanket, but he couldn’t give it to her.
Gark froze.
He’d spent his whole life trying to prove he was more Taurean than Gnaggarian. And she’d upturned everything in an instant. And now he was withholding comfort because he selfishly didn’t want her to smell like another male?
I’ve been lying to myself.
He forced his breathing to remain even, fighting against the need to protect her. The intense feeling of being by her side and never leaving her.
Jerkily, he handed her the blanket back, his eye twitching and his lips pressed into a thin line.
Klath cleared his throat. “She has?—”
“My name is Aletta.”
Gark’s lips relaxed into a small smile. She was fierce, his mate.
Klath gave a short bow, as if he were at court. “My apologies.” His eyes lifted from the ground to meet Gark’s. “Aletta now has a blank identity chip. I took the liberty of programming it to your cabin and the ship’s common areas.”
That was the request he’d made to Klath while he and Vox dealt with the traitor.
“Thank you.”
Klath nodded and made quick work of leaving the mess, proving he was more astute than he let on. Gark wondered how much his behavior was giving away to the crew.
Probably far more than he would normally be comfortable with, but he couldn’t bring himself to care. Not when Aletta was near.
“Come. Let me take you back to your room. You can clean up and sleep.”
He held out his hand, and she looked at it with distrust.
“Klath said your cabin. Not mine.” She tucked her hands under the blanket, tugging it around her as she looked up at him suspiciously.
“We are a small ship.”
She snorted.
“The cargo hold might be bigger than most, but the crew quarters are small. It’s the nature of a ship like this.”
She nodded slowly. “Please don’t tell me we’re in only-one-bed territory.”
He frowned. “There are plenty of beds on the ship. One for each crew member.”
A small smile flickered over her lips. “Never mind.” She huffed a short laugh.
“The only vacant cabin is A’Kar’s.” He paused, swallowing. “You will be more comfortable in my cabin. I will take his.”
He didn’t say that he would also be more comfortable with her in his cabin. He might actually sleep that way.
“It’s not like I have much of a choice,” she said under her breath and slid out from the booth.
“You always have a choice.” Gark tried not to be hurt when she didn’t take his hand. He lowered it, his fingers aching at the lack of her touch. If she insisted on taking A’Kar’s cabin, then he would allow it, of course. He would never be able to refuse her.
But he would scrub it until it gleamed and remove anything that even remotely smelled like the disgraced security officer. The thought of Aletta in a space that smelled like another male was enough to make him want to tear the ship apart.
“Not in my experience,” she said softly. There was a sadness in her voice that he wished he could mend. “Lead on.”
