Ignite by Tana Stone

Chapter Three

Kalex

My heavy boots made the steel bridge tremble beneath my feet as I thundered toward the group of four. It was hard to ignore the Gatazoid wedding planner’s bright pink hair that contrasted with his equally bright yellow suit, not to mention his Vexling associate who was all willowy arms and legs topped with a blue swirl of hair that gave her even more height, but my gaze locked on the astro-architect.

Zoey wasn’t exactly what I’d expected when I’d been told I needed to work with an astro-architect, along with the construction crew building the space station. Since I was a Drexian, I was accustomed to working with males. And since I was part of Inferno Force, the males I was used to were rough around the edges and prone to violence. My experience with females was limited to pleasure planets and a few of the human tribute brides I’d encountered. None of them were like her.

She wasn’t as tall as me—no humans were—but she was taller than the other humans I’d encountered. To her credit, she didn’t attempt to mask her height. Instead, she walked tall with her shoulders back, as if daring the world not to notice her.

That was impossible, of course. Not only was she tall with warm brown skin the color of the canyons on Prexilia at sunrise, she dressed like a man, even though her curves left little doubt she was female. Her black hair wasn’t long like most pleasurers I’d enjoyed, or artfully arranged in curls. It was as short as a man’s and shorter than mine, but somehow this did not make her less feminine. It only seemed to highlight her high cheekbones and wide, brown eyes. Eyes that were now staring at me in open defiance.

“You went over my head,” I barked at her before I reached the group.

She pivoted to face me fully, squaring her shoulders as if bracing for an onslaught and pressing the metal cuff around her ear to disable the energy helmet. “You would have rejected the idea without consideration.”

I opened my mouth to argue with her, but clamped it shut just as quickly. She was right. I would have rejected it outright, just like I rejected any change that added time to the project. Instead, I glared at her.

“If I might interject,” Serge said, rubbing his hands together as he stepped forward. “Zoey was only conveying my idea.”

“And Serge was quite insistent she get it approved,” Reina added, which earned her a narrowed eye glance from the Gatazoid.

“You cannot make changes to this station—my station—without my approval.” I didn’t look away from the dark-haired beauty.

“You’re acting captain,” she said. “And don’t think we’re not all completely aware of how eager you are to leave your post and return to Infernal Force.”

Reina emitted a high-pitched noise that she stifled by slapping a hand over her mouth.

“Inferno Force,” I corrected, feeling certain Zoey knew the correct name, but also disturbed that my desire to leave my post was no secret.

“Sorry. Inferno Force.” She folded her arms over her chest. “Just because you’re dying to blow this joint doesn’t mean I’m not going to do my job to the best of my ability. And if that means tweaking the design until it’s perfect and adding a little time, then so be it. And if it means I need to go over your head to do my job, I’m going to do that, too.”

Although her words made anger bubble inside me, I couldn’t help being impressed that she was standing up to me. Despite her height, I still towered over her, and she was no match for my muscle or my training. Yet she wasn’t afraid to challenge me.

“This project is bigger than the two of us, Captain,” she continued. “It’s the new station that will serve as the link between our people. It’s also where human women are supposed to experience space for the first time. I’m not going to cut corners just so some hot, alien badass can get back to chasing lizard men.”

The female standing next to Zoey cut her an open-mouthed look before dragging a hand through her brown curls and muttering “dios mi.” Reina and Serge both inhaled sharply, while Serge muttered something about poking a bear.

Instead of making me angrier, her speech made the corners of my mouth twitch up. “The Kronock are not lizard men. They are a highly developed alien species with armament that eclipses anything Earth has yet to develop. And yes, I’m eager to return to the hunt for them because they’ve been a scourge on the galaxy for longer than anyone can remember.” I tilted my head at her and took a step closer, so she had to tip her head back so as not to break eye contact. “But most importantly, did you call me a hot, alien badass?”

Zoey’s eyes darkened as the pupils flared, and she opened and closed her mouth like a Tarithian bubble fish. “I didn’t mean…you.”

“No?” I couldn’t stop myself from grinning at her as she shifted from one foot to the other, her gaze darting anywhere but to me.

She drew herself up to her full height and met my gaze. “I only meant it in the general way that all Drexians think they’re gorgeous and fierce.”

“We do?” As much time as I’d spent with my fellow warriors, I’d never heard a single one refer to themself as gorgeous. “Please enlighten me on the ways of the Drexians since you have such a deep knowledge of us.”

This made her bite her bottom lip, and I battled the urge to reach out and brush a finger across her lips, to see if they felt as soft as they looked.

“I never claimed to be an expert on Drexians, but I’ve been around you long enough to know that you’re cocky, and you can’t stand the idea of being challenged by a woman.”

This made me stop. Did I hate that she challenged me because she was a female, and I’d never worked with females before? It was true that I’d originally had doubts when I’d learned that the astro-architect was a woman, but that was before I’d seen how hard she’d worked, and how relentlessly she’d fought for her ideas. Now, I had a hard time imagining anyone—male or female, Drexian or human—doing a better job.

I stared down at her, observing her chest rising and falling as she heaved in breaths, the warm, brown skin hinting at the cleavage below the scoop neckline of her snug shirt. “I do not mind your challenge. I mind your insubordination.”

She flinched at this, her gaze dropping for a beat before she lifted her eyes to mine again. “I’ve never been great at obeying authority.”

I breathed in the scent of her, warm and faintly floral without being cloying, closing my eyes for a moment as an image of Zoey submitting to me flooded my mind. “That’s too bad.”

When I opened my eyes, she’d stopped breathing, and her defiant expression had been replaced by furrowed brows. I cleared my throat and stepped back, eager to put some space between us.

What had just happened? Had I fantasized about the woman who’d been bedeviling me since I’d been on the station? I shook my head, willing the image of her on her knees in front of me to be banished to the darkest recess of my brain. The last thing I needed was to be distracted by the one person who could drag out my tenure on the station.

Besides, I wasn’t attracted to Zoey. She enraged me on a regular basis. She was insubordinate and mouthy and didn’t respect my authority as captain. She was the last female I could ever imagine myself with. But then I thought of stopping her sharp tongue by crushing my mouth to hers and dominating her smaller body and enticing curves while she begged me for more.

“Captain?” Her voice pulled me back to reality and to everyone staring at me.

Had I said anything out loud? Had I groaned as I’d envisioned myself overpowering the human and making her submit?

I clenched my hands by my sides and grunted. “You can have your waterfall, but not any more time.” When Zoey started to protest, I held up a hand. “You’re smart enough to have landed this position, which means you can figure out how to make this happen and stay on schedule. Now go give me a good reason to put up with your insubordination.”

I spun on my heel and strode away before anyone could respond, twisting my head back at the end of the bridge. Zoey stared at me, but instead of the furious expression I’d grown accustomed to seeing when she looked at me, she looked startled. Almost as if she’d seen into my mind and gotten a glimpse of my dark visions.

Turning away, I gritted my teeth and headed for the bowels of the ship. I needed to rid myself of whatever madness had possessed me and purge myself of thoughts of her. Zoey despised me. There was no way around that, no matter what desires she unleashed.