“Yeah. It’s gone.”
“What was it?” She resumed her struggle with the straps of the five-point harness.
“Dirt maybe, I don’t know.”
“Dirt?” She stopped struggling and frowned. “Where would I have gotten dirt on your ship?”
“No clue.”
“But I haven’t gone anywhere.” She kept wiping at her face. “And I bathe a lot.”
“It’s fine. It’s gone.”
“It’s so weird, though. How could I get dirty?” She poked at the buckle.
“You’re doing it wrong. Don’t push it.”
Her head tilted back, mouth dropping open, brows lowering. “Then what do I do with it? I watched you. You pushed right here, and it just popped open.”
“I didn’t push.” He wasn’t sure he really wanted her to know how to undo the straps. He’d miss watching her wriggle.
Her eyes narrowed. “Just show me how to unbuckle it, you big barbarian.”
“Pull the button to the side.” He dragged his thumb over the smooth plastic button.
The straps fell open.
Her mouth formed a circle. “Oh.” She brushed a stray strand of hair back over her shoulders. “Thank you.”
He stared at her pouty lips.
“Is the dirt back?” she asked.
“What? No. Do I need to tie you up?”
“No! Why?” She brushed at her face a few times, checking her hands as if to see whether anything came off.
“I need to leave the ship. But I need to know you won’t dismantle the engine while I’m gone.”
“Can’t I come? Please. I’ve never been anywhere but the Institute.” She looked up at him. “And I owe her an apology.”
“She doesn’t need to know about the birds. It was an accident. Let it go.”
She stepped closer, her eyes going wide and earnest. “Just let me out for a few minutes. Just to see the planet.”
“There’s nothing to see. This place is ugly.”
“To you, maybe. You’ve seen lots of places, but I’ve never been anywhere. I’ve been cooped up on this ship for so long, I’d love a breath of fresh air.”
“The air here isn’t exactly fresh.”
“But it will smell different from the air on this ship.” Her gray eyes went imploring.
Abysmos, he was pathetic. “Don’t make me regret it, or I’ll—”
“Yes, yes, I know.” She rolled her eyes. “You’ll tie me up and spank me, right?”
A quick image flashed of his hand slapping down on a firm, tanned cheek, right above a soft, pink... and he sucked in a breath.
“I swear. I won’t cause any trouble.”
He sighed.
She made a beeline toward the passageway, but he caught her as she tried to walk past him toward the bathing chamber. “Show me your feet first.”
“Wha... oh. They’re fine. The ointments you’ve put on them have worked nicely. My feet are quite healed, thank you.”
“Show me.”
For a second, he thought she’d argue, but she only nodded and dropped back onto the seat. He squatted and lifted her foot, sliding his hand up the smooth, bare skin of her calf.
He’d found a thinner pair of socks for her that fit with her slippers. He rolled them down over soft, warm skin, and inspected her feet. The angry blisters had faded to a smooth, new pink. She should be fine to take the short walk to Jasto’s and back. It wasn’t far.
He glanced up at her face, at her slightly parted lips, and stroked his thumb along the fine bones of her ankles. Her gaze lowered to his lips.
He dropped her feet. “Fine. We leave in five minutes. Meet me at the hatch.”
WHEN HE ARRIVED AT the rear hatch a few minutes later, she was already waiting for him with her face pressed against the portal, all buttoned up, hair coiled, clutching her holo-cam.
He expected her to make a comment about the grim weather, but she didn’t complain while he opened the hatch.
The planet was about as ugly, rough, and unpolished as they came. Squalid was probably the most complimentary thing that could be said of it. It had to be a far cry from the capital of Argentus.
She passed through the hatch. “Look!” She pointed at a cluster of monstrous gnarled old trees.
“They must be a hundred years old at least.” She took a few quick steps to the left, raising her holo-cam up in front of her. “They look almost haunted, don’t they?”
He grabbed her elbow and hauled her around. “Wrong direction.” He jerked his head toward the rickety buildings hovering in the dirt a few hundred feet to their right. “Town’s this way.”
“A town? So romantic.”
He eyed the sullen structures squatting at the end of the pitted lane. “Not the word I’d have used.”
She kept her holo-cam up on the walk, and he wondered for the hundredth time what she intended to do with whatever she was filming. People shuffled past, eyeing them warily. Primes were unusual in the colonies, and she might be the first Argenti woman ever to come to this planet.
“Look. Flowers!” she said.
Several heads turned at the bright peal of her voice. Feeling like the biggest idiot in the universe, he peered closer at a bucket full of dirt. “They’re gray.”
Her brows lowered. “Silver.” She tilted a flower back and forth, and the dingy light glinted off the tops of the petals. “And look.” She grabbed his arm, pulling him closer. “Look at this. On the backside. It’s red.”
He grunted and stepped away, taking a quick look at her ass, which was thrust out as she bent over, the fabric of her dress sticking to it. “Nice.”
An elderly couple, wrapped in loose gray togatas, approached slowly, eyeing her. They seemed harmless, but he moved closer to her anyway.
She blasted them with a smile and a flurry of excited, accented words, florid hand gestures. She pointed at the flower and declared it, “Abellina.”
Beautiful. They’d only spoken in Argenti so far. Her accent was undeniably sexy, a little hesitant, a little rough.
The couple smiled. The old woman touched a gnarled finger to the ugly flower and erupted with a long horticultural history of the squalid planet.
Klym grinned and waved her holo-cam around.
The old woman laid
