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“Then be careful. Although not too careful. You know I love it when you fuck me hard.” She kissed me again, her hands already under my shirt, her fingers tracing along my ribs.
I picked her up and carried her out of the room. She wrapped her legs around me and buried her face in my neck, and the bond between us sang, full, steady, and ravenous.
The Hollow Chorus sealed the door behind us and lit a path to the captain’s quarters, guiding us home.
Epilogue
Monica
I scrolled through the job requests on my tablet, bare feet up on the counter in the workstation’s kitchen, a glass of twelve-year Ardbeg in my other hand.
Hull patch on a Felari transport. Thruster realignment, rush job, overpaying by thirty percent. Nice. A request to strip and refit a decommissioned cargo hauler that came with a note saying please don’t judge the interior, my ex decorated it. I bookmarked that one for entertainment value alone.
A cold spot moved behind me, brushing against my hair.
“Gary, I swear to whatever space deity that’s listening, if you’re heading toward the shower again, I’ll find a way to exorcise you that involves a toilet, a prayer book, and a tank of biodiesel.”
Yep, when Cass’s hot hunk of brooding alien love machine docked with a fucked-up ship, a room full of ghostly aliens stuck in transit, and the high likelihood we’d all die onboard, he also brought something else.
Fucking Gary.
In truth, we didn’t know how Gary got here, or even what he was. Maybe the spooks on Rennick’s ship attracted him, but that ass-pinching spooky little pervert showed up around the same time, and had been goosing us ever since. Mainly me.
Star-damned jerk just loved a juicy ass.
The cold spot paused. A cupboard door opened and closed on its own. Then the salt shaker slid six inches to the left.
“Real mature, dude. Go haunt another work bay.”
Gary flickered into visibility on the counter next to my feet. Semi-translucent, vaguely humanoid, and radiating the energy of a thirteen-year-old who’d discovered he could phase through walls and had chosen to use that power for evil.
He knocked my glass with one spectral finger. The whisky sloshed.
“Touch my drink again, and I’ll dedicate my life to ruining you. And when I’m dead, I’ll haunt you. Don’t test me.”
Gary tilted his head, waved with the enthusiasm of a beauty queen on a parade float, and dissolved through the floor.
“Pervy little bastard,” I muttered, and took a long sip of my Ardbeg.
The docking chime sounded an incoming ship alert. I glanced out the window and sighed. Here we go. Full-on PDA incoming.
Cass jogged around the corner, wearing a silk tank top, a pair of shorts, her hair loose and still damp from the shower.
“No third base in front of me, or I’ll bring up my dinner,” I said.
She shot me the bird. “I’m going to PDA my tits off, and you can’t stop me.”
I groaned, but followed. Rennick always brought home amazing supplies whenever he returned from a job, and even if I had to watch them suck face, I wasn’t missing out on the goodies.
Cass’s Ship Daddy came down from the Hollow Chorus carrying a crate of supplies. The second she came into view, the crate went on the floor, and his hands went on her. He yanked her close, pressed his mouth to the top of her head, and stood there breathing her in while the ship pulsed gold around them.
Two months of this! Two months of watching a huge Kelvane alien melt into a puddle every time his human girlfriend welcomed him back. Okay, fuck, they were a bonded whatever, but it was so yuck-inducingly bleurgh.
“Take a chill pill. You were gone for four freakin’ days!” I strolled over, eyeballing the crate. “Not four years.”
Rennick looked up, smiling. “I missed her.”
Cass turned her head to glare at me. “Don’t spoil it.”
