Ignite by Tana Stone
Chapter Sixteen
Zoey
“Someone’s hungry.” Nina eyed my tray as we moved through the line at the crew canteen. “Not that I should be surprised.”
I swung my head to her, my heart beating faster. “What does that mean?”
She started a bit, her eyes widening behind her glasses at my reaction. Overreaction, if I was being honest.
“You missed breakfast this morning.” She shook her head at me. “Or are you so drowsy from sleeping in that you forgot already?”
I exhaled slowly, allowing my heart to return to its normal pace as we shuffled along in the line behind a pair of Drexian warriors in dark uniforms, and a human with his energy hard hat device hooked to his ear. “I didn’t forget, although I am sorry I slept through breakfast.”
Zoey and I met each morning before work to drink the sad Drexian version of coffee—or occasionally an alien tea that wasn’t much better—while we walked from the crew quarters across the station. But this morning I’d slept right through it, not even waking when she’d beeped my door.
She shrugged it off. “It’s no biggie. I ran into Vekron, and we walked together. I guess we were both ditched by our friends this morning.”
I made a point not to meet her eyes as my face warmed at the thought of Vekron’s friend. Despite trying not to think about Kalex, images of his hard, naked body flooded my mind, his face hovering close to mine and his words urgent and demanding.
“Zoey!”
I snapped my head up, glancing first at Nina, and then at the huge gap between me and the Drexians in front of me. I hurried forward, snatching a bottle of nutrient-infused water as I exited the line. “Sorry.”
I didn’t look back as I snaked my way through the tables and chairs arranged on the scuffed gray floor, dropping my tray at a triangular booth for two wedged into a corner. The canteen was busier than usual, but I suspected that had to do with the arrival of more staff for the Island. Transports filled with aliens who weren’t Drexians had arrived the day before, and already their presence was noticeable. I’d been warned about the handsome—and easily aroused—Neebix. A quick glance at a nearby table filled with the long-tailed aliens with nubby horns was a reminder that even eye contact was a bad idea as a particularly handsome male winked at me.
Sliding into one side of the booth, I finally met Nina’s amused gaze as she sat down next to me, doing a much better job at ignoring the pointed stares from the Neebix.
“I don’t know if I’ve ever seen you so off your game,” she said, as she screwed the cap off her own metallic bottle of water. “And you’ve never overslept.”
“It’s nothing,” I insisted.
She peeked over the top of her glasses, narrowing her perfectly made-up, brown eyes at me. “You were fine when I left you at your door last night. I know it was a stressful day with the whole near-death thing and all, but you didn’t even seem that tired. What happened?”
Well, Nina, I decided to finally relieve years’ worth of pent-up stress, and I tracked down the captain, and we fucked like rabbits.
Definitely not what I was going to say to my friend. Then a thought occurred to me. “If you must know, Serge stopped by my quarters last night.”
Nina paused with a Drexian flatbread sandwich halfway to her mouth. “Serge? Why would he come to your quarters after hours? Was it about the accident?” Her mouth dropped open. “Was it about him finding you a match?”
“Unfortunately, yes.” I felt a pang of guilt that I was using Serge to deflect from the real reason I’d been so worn out this morning, but I wasn’t technically lying. He had come to my quarters the night before. He just hadn’t been the reason I’d tossed and turned all night, finally drifting off in the early hours and sleeping through my usual alarms.
Nina lowered her sandwich, some of the grilled padwump slipping out from between the squares of flatbread. “Ugh. I’m so sorry. I know I said I’d talk to him about it, but I had no idea he’d move so fast. Did you tell him you aren’t interested?”
“You know Serge,” I said, unwrapping my own flatbread wrap. “It’s a little hard to get a word in edgewise when he’s on a roll.”
Nina snorted out a laugh. “Very true. Don’t worry about it. I’ll find him today and tell him you aren’t interested in a match with a Drexian.”
I hesitated. I wasn’t interested in a match with a Drexian, but I was very interested in continuing to relieve stress with Kalex. If it was common knowledge that Serge was looking for a mate for me, no one would suspect me of being involved with the captain. I wasn’t crazy about making Serge spin his wheels, or about deceiving people on the station, but I was even less fond of the idea of people knowing what was going on between me and Kalex.
As far as I was concerned, it was no one’s business but our own. If two consenting adults wanted to use each other to scratch an itch, it shouldn’t be anyone else’s concern. I also knew that things didn’t work that way in any workplace, especially on a station that was as self-contained and insular as this one. If word got out, things would be awkward for both of us at the very least. At the worst, we’d be jobless and shipped off the station.
“Don’t worry about it,” I told Nina. “I’ve decided to let Serge do his thing.”
Nina almost dropped her sandwich a second time, finally setting it down on the tray. “You want to be matched? I thought…”
“I know, I know.” I took a swig of my infused water, wishing the Drexians had more of a sweet tooth and that they infused their drinks with things that weren’t so tart they made my cheeks pucker. “But Serge is obsessed with finding me the perfect guy to repay me for saving his life. Who am I to take that satisfaction away from him?”
“You’re going to become a tribute bride just to make Serge feel better?”
“Of course not.” I laughed and took a small bite of my wrap. “I didn’t say I was going to pick any of his matches.”
Nina grinned at me. “Got it.” She took a long drink of water. “So, you’re going to be the ultimate bridezilla.”
“I’d have to be a bride to be a bridezilla, and I’m fine to never be one of those.” I usually felt a twinge when I talked about anything that had to do with brides, but not this morning. Maybe that stress-relief session really had worked out some of my inner demons.
Nina shook her head. “Remind me not to be around when Serge finally realizes you’ve sent him on a fool’s errand.”
I took another bite of my wrap, grateful I couldn’t identify all the colorful and crunchy ingredients stuffed in the Drexian flatbread. Nina had a point. I didn’t want to be there when Serge discovered my true intentions, either.
“Enough about me and our matchmaking friend,” I said. “Did I miss anything this morning?”
Nina sat back in her chair and flipped her side-swept, loose curls off one shoulder. A feathered, teal comb held her hair up on the other side. “Same old, same old. Vekron and I are working as fast as we can on the waterfall modification. He thinks he may have found a coding shortcut, as long as it doesn’t have anything to do with the power fluctuations.”
I swallowed a mouthful too quickly, coughing a few times before chugging down some water. “Power fluctuations?”
“You know, the ones Kalex and Jaxon picked up yesterday on their fly-around. Vekron doesn’t think it has anything to do with the construction on the station, or the holographic power relays, but that’s also not great news. If it’s not related to the station, then there’s a good chance it may be a security issue.”
I gaped at her. “A security issue? As in…?”
“A potential Kronock attack. Like I said, Vekron isn’t sure, but he and Kalex are worried that the power fluctuations might be the enemy trying to jump their ships in without the right frequencies.”
My stomach tightened, and I dropped my wrap, my appetite disappearing within an instant. “He and Kalex have a theory about a potential enemy attack?”
Nina’s expression changed. “You hadn’t heard anything about it? I thought you’d be one of the first to know.”
“I should be.” As the station’s astro-architect, I was part of the senior staff, which meant I got looped in on major issues. Or, at least, I should get looped in.
“Don’t take it personally,” Nina said quickly. “The only reason I know is that I work with Vekron, and he and Kalex are tight. I’m sure the captain would have told you himself. Maybe he intended to tell you this morning.”
If Kalex knew yesterday, then he’d known when he’d come to my quarters and pressed me up against the wall to kiss me. He’d known when I’d tracked him down to the officers’ lounge. And like a typical guy, he’d been too busy trying to get in my pants to mention a potentially major security issue. My pulse quickened at the thought of Kalex, but this time, I wasn’t thinking about fucking him. I was thinking about how I wanted to kill him.