The Stowaway (3 page)

Just as she was about to peek out of the hatch to her little hidey-hole, she heard the unmistakable sound of deep male voices.

“That bloody mowc is back again, Devlynn.”

Rachel froze, hunger instantly forgotten. Mowc. Years ago her brothers had thought it extremely funny to put one in her hair. Admittedly it was in retaliation for some childish prank she had committed against them. A crime she couldn’t even remember now, though she was sure she enjoyed it at the time. She remembered the sharp little claws digging into the scalp though. The eight scurrying legs and the high-pitched squeals—both from her and the mowc.

She didn’t like the idea of sharing her little space with a mowc. Not one bit.

Someone laughed. Rachel focused on the rich, deep sound—allowing it to distract her. It was warm and smooth and it sent prickles of awareness racing across her skin.

Rachel shook her head, nearly hitting her temple on the bracing strip beside her to clear her head of the weird sensation. She closed her eyes, straining to listen to what was being said instead.

“I’m glad you think it’s so funny. Look what the little shit did to my ration pack.”

“So catch it.”

“Thank you so much for that outstanding piece of advice.”

There was a pause, then a shout of announce.

“Shit! Look at this. The little fucker’s been into my socks too. They’re ruined.”

“Well, I guess that takes care of the problem once and for all then. Poor little thing didn’t stand a chance against close contact with your socks.”

“Shut up!” There was the muffled sounds of movement and voices—both fading out as if the speakers were moving away until Rachel couldn’t make out what they were saying anymore.

For several minutes there was silence. Then the first man’s voice spoke again, this time directly beneath her. Rachel started in surprise. Damn, she hated not being able to see what was going on.

“Just look at this mess, would you! Damn animal’s been right through it.”

“I don’t think we can blame the mowc for
all
the mess in here.”

Several clangs and bangs later Rachel heard the sound of heavy footsteps on the deck plates below.

“Here. I got sick of you whining and picked up a couple of traps while we were on Thebia ,” the man she thought was Devlynn said.

“I don’t whine.”

“You keep telling yourself that, Arek. It’ll make you feel better.”

Arek. Rachel filed the name away carefully, just in case.

“Just give me the fucking traps, Mr Comedian. I’ll fix the little bugger.”

“Yeah, right.” More muffled sounds drifted up to her. “What are you going to do when you’ve caught it?”

“What do you mean?”

“It’s a trap. You catch the mowc. Then what?”

There was a pregnant pause. “I’ll work that out once the bastard isn’t eating its way through my laundry.”

Rachel was really starting to sweat now. If they were setting traps they might find her. Worse, what if the mowc found her? She really didn’t like that idea.

Then, from out of the shadows in the dimly lit storage locker, Rachel spotted her worst fear—a small blue nose, long whiskers twitching rapidly. Gradually, eight thin, double-jointed legs carried the bulbous, furry blue body forward. Four beady eyes focused on her.

Heart pounding in her chest and breath now coming in short, sharp pants, Rachel tried desperately not to make a sound. But when a loud noise below made them both jump and the mowc scuttled forward in alarm, the battle was lost.

Rachel screamed and made for the nearest exit—pushing her way out of the overhead hatch heedless of the distance between her hiding spot and the floor. She just needed to escape. To get out.

Falling, screaming and thoroughly consumed with irrational fear, Rachel fell…right into a pair of strong, muscular arms. Before she had time to process and reject the ridiculous sense of safety that washed over her as the arms tightened around and held her securely, another man appeared from a corridor to the left. Tall, powerfully built, with a head full of spiky brown hair, the man skidded to a halt and simply stared at her in amazement.

Finally, the handsome stranger seemed to snap out of his daze. “That’s the best looking mowc I’ve ever seen, Arek.”

Without warning, Rachel found herself heading the remaining distance to the floor. At the last second the man who had caught her—Arek—seemed to change his mind and fumbled to help her stand rather than fall on the decking plates at his feet.

Rachel looked up to thank him for not dropping her on her ass, and was instantly caught by the most intense, deep blue eyes she had ever seen. Set in a dark, angular face and surrounded by long, curling lashes, the effect was…stunning. Seconds or aeons could have passed and Rachel would never have known, never have cared as long as she could go on looking into the man’s amazing eyes.

“Can we keep it?” the second man—Devlynn—asked, amusement clear in his voice.

Rachel turned her head to see a wide smile erupting on Devlynn’s boyish face.

Arek couldn’t seem to tear his gaze away from the magnificent creature that had quite literally fallen from above only seconds before but the sound of Devlynn’s dry amusement helped to break the trace.

“What the fuck is going on here? Who the hell are you?”

“Rachel.”

The sound was sweet and low and edged with a husky quality that pulled at his senses. But Arek ruthlessly resisted the sound. He’d been caught initially, but he’d be more careful from now on.

“Damn it all! What else can go wrong?”

“Excuse me?” Rachel’s brows pulled into a small frown, and Arek thought he saw the first flickers of temper ignite in her honey-brown eyes. It sparked an answering fire in his belly that had nothing to do with irritation.

Arek covered his reaction by turning away with a growl of annoyance. “Great! A stowaway. Just what we need right now.”

“What are we going to do with her?” The amusement was gone from Devlynn’s voice now. Replaced with a tight edge—as if he was anxious about what Arek’s answer might be.

Damn it! Devlynn should know him better than that.

“She’s right here, you know?”

Turning back, he saw Rachel’s almond shaped eyes narrow dangerously. Arek’s cock thickened at the sight.

Fuck! So not the time, big guy!

“We don’t have time to take her back.”

“Hello,” Rachel added, trying to get their attention.

“Guess we’re going to have to keep her then.” Devlynn sounded far too happy with the idea for Arek’s liking.

“Hey! I’m right here.”

“That much is obvious. Don’t you think you’ve caused enough trouble for one day?” Arek aimed a scowl at the girl—woman, he corrected. She didn’t look very old, but she was definitely all woman.

Rachel snorted in derision at him. “Screw you.”

“Sure,” Arek said with sarcastic pleasure. “You got a last name to go with that mouth?”

Apparently ‘Rachel’ wasn’t stupid enough to give her last names. Pity.

“What the hell are you doing on my ship?”

Rachel had the good grace to blush. “I just needed a little help to get off-world.”

“There are no free rides here, sister.”

“Of course not. I don’t expect—”

“Really? Cause from where I’m standing it sure looks like you expected.”

“I can work for passage.”

“We don’t need anyone.”

Rachel narrowed her eyes again then pointedly scanned the room. Arek followed her gaze as it came to rest on the chaos and disorder of the common room. One that even he admitted could probably do with a little attention.

“What?” Arek snapped defensively when Rachel turned back to stare at him.

She looked him straight in the eye, all confidence and determination. And it went straight to his cock. The little spitfire was challenging him.

“Let me show you what I can do. Let me prove myself to you. Then you can decide.”

“We’re not a pleasure cruiser. This is a working interplanetary cargo transport ship.”

“And I just offered to help,” Rachel replied firmly, crossing her arms.

The action lifted her generous breasts—though Arek was pretty sure by the fierce look in her eyes it hadn’t been an intentional move. Without turning to see, Arek knew Devlynn’s eyes would be completely focused on them though. It took all his self-control to resist joining him.

“You think you’re up to it?”

“What makes you think I’m not?”

Arek looked her over—from the beaded combs in her over-styled hair to the points of her completely impractical slippers.

Rachel blushed to the tips of her ears this time.

“I can pull my weight. Just give me a chance to prove myself.”

“Oh, don’t worry, I plan to work your ass.”

The instant the words left his mouth, Arek wanted to scrabble after them and yank them back. Rachel’s eyes widened comically. Her cheeks colouring to a deep, dark red. Arek felt his own face heat furiously. He opened his mouth to correct himself, but Devlynn beat him to it.

“Leave it, man. There just isn’t any coming back from that one.”

He didn’t want to, but he conceded the point and clamped his mouth shut. He could see Rachel’s lips twitching, fighting against a smile even as her cheeks continued to glow a rather pretty pink.

It was going to be a
really
long trip.

Devlynn stepped into the cockpit and casually dropped into the co-pilot’s seat. One of the advantages of calling
The Wyvern
home was it made it easy to track Arek down. It was harder for the man to avoid him or run away in the tight confines of the space transport. Devlynn had the feeling Arek would be looking to do both by the end of the conversation he was about to start.

“Hey.”

“Hey,” Arek grunted in return, not looking up from his study of the engine output data.

“Anything new?” Devlynn asked, looking through the forward viewport at the cold, empty expanse of space.

“Nope. Just space, stars and more space.”

“How’s the run time looking?”

“Long as nothing goes wrong we should be okay. We might even get in a few days ahead of schedule.”

“Will wonders never cease?” Devlynn mumbled, letting the easy familiarity he shared with Arek settle over them—easing his way forward.

“Rachel’s settling in well. She was asking about the sub-light engine specs earlier today. Wanted to know if she could take a look down in the engine room and check out the propulsion units.”

“Just so long as she’s pulling her weight I don’t care what she does.”

Devlynn let silence build between them—like taking a breath before jumping into an ocean.

“What about when we reach Nareen?”

Arek shrugged, but Devlynn could see the tension building in the man’s shoulders. “She won’t be our problem then. She can do what she likes.”

“We could always keep her on.”

“Dev,” Arek growled in warning, finally looking up from the data display.

“What?”

“Don’t get too attached.”

“Why not? She’s a hard worker…and I kind of like having her around.”

“She never said anything about looking to stay on.”

“She never said she didn’t want to either.” Devlynn paused, wondering how far he should push. “I think you like having her around too.”

“What’s that supposed to mean?”

Just as Devlynn opened his mouth to answer, a frustrated shout echoed down the passageway.

“Arek!”

Devlynn watched as Arek rolled his eyes.

“Yeah, I can see why you’d think I liked having her around so much.”

“Arek!”

“What?” Arek yelled back, swivelling his chair and throwing himself out of it to stomp down the corridor towards Rachel’s voice.

“Don’t ‘what’ me. You’re the one that keeps complaining about the mowc getting into everything! Then you go and do something like this.”

“Something like what?”

The muffled sounds of a heated argument drifted back to him, but Devlynn didn’t move to interject or break it up. After a week of watching the way the two of them sparked off one another, usually in a heated battle of wills, he’d ceased to worry and learnt to stay out of it. It was kind of fun watch the fireworks actually.

They were quite stunning together really. He hadn’t seen so much life and energy from Arek in months. There was a tiny part of him that felt a pang of hurt—knowing he hadn’t been able to get Arek to come back to life after Danni’s death, whereas Rachel seemed to manage it effortlessly with every stubborn, wilful word out of her mouth.

Devlynn quickly pushed the pain down. He was just too damn grateful to see the old Arek struggling back to the surface. If Rachel was what he needed, so be it.

And he had to admit he didn’t know
anyone
who could get away with goading Arek the way Rachel did and live to tell the tale.