The Pirate Prince (13 page)

Jarek bit back a weary laugh, wishing not for the first time that Evan wasn’t so astute.

“Communicators almost finished,” Lucien said. “Testing them now. The ship coms should be up and running and good to go. After that, it won’t take long before the ship’s mainframe is up and running—at least good enough to get us by until… well, until after.”

“Excellent,” Jarek acknowledged.

“Ugh, there is one thing,” Viktor said. “We ended up using a part from the food simulator, so it’s permanently broken until we can get to a port that sells spare parts.”

The men groaned. Jarek felt like joining them, but refrained.

“Good thing we got Mei,” Evan said softly, studying him. Jarek knew he was trying to sense where things were between the captain and his guest. He nodded once at the man and Evan relaxed.

“That’s no lie,” Dev said.

“She is one stellar cook,” Viktor agreed.

“Do you think we can get her to program that stuff into the unit for us before we drop her off wherever she’s going?” Lucien asked.

The men turned to him, their expressions hopeful. Jarek chuckled, saying, “I’ll see what I can do.”

Their sounds of appreciation rang over the engine room. He shook his head. The simulator programming was hardly high priority, but he understood their desire. It got old eating in space with limited programming.

“We’re about done in here,” Dev said, bringing the conversation around to business. Jarek studied him. He might be at odds with Rick most of the time, but he was awfully testy about having him missing. Jarek nodded in his direction. They were all worried and working as fast as they could.

“We should be able to fly out of here in about twelve hours,” Lochlann said. “I’ll take this ship straight to a space dock station to fuel up and we’ll be on our way back to Lín…tian.”

Jarek nodded slowly. He opened his mouth to answer but stopped when he realized everyone was looking over his shoulder. Turning toward the door, he saw Mei.

She was wearing one of his shirts. The loose black linen was tied at her waist, showing off a narrow strip of skin along her midsection. She’d transformed her gown into a skirt that wrapped her hips with a decorative ruffle down the side from the old neckline and sleeves. If he hadn’t seen the robe-like gown before, he would’ve never known. Jarek licked his lips. His shirt had never looked so good. Black ground shoes covered her feet and her hair hung over her shoulders in thick dark waves. There was a flushed look to her features, the look a woman got after she’d been in a man’s bed. Her eyes were clear, sparkling and unashamed.

Jarek swallowed, at a loss for words. He glanced back to his men. They seemed to suffer from the same thing he did. Their jaws were slack in awe, as they stared at the pretty woman in the doorway.

Dev broke the silence. “Welcome, my lady.”

“Thank you,” Mei said.

“Ah,G-gax,” Lucien stuttered, managing to step forward even as he stumbled over his feet, “gax-ìng jìan-dào…Um… n-î. I am Lucien. I run communications on the ship.”

“Pleased to meet you, too, Lucien,” Mei answered, taking a step into the engine room. She tilted her head to the side and studied them. Lucien nodded dumbly as if he’d never seen a woman before.

“Oh, hey,” Viktor put forth, moving in front of his gawking brother. “I’m Viktor.

I’m the ship’s mechanic. I can fix anything you need fixed, my lady.” “Pleased to meet you, Viktor,” Mei said, a small laugh in her voice. “You are the one who … made me cook?”

“Yeah,” Viktor said, his voice airy. Then, as if finally hearing what she said, he added, “I mean, no, Jarek broke the food simulator. I was going to fix it for you.” Mei lifted a delicate eyebrow.

“But, I can’t now,” Viktor rushed. “We had to use a part… and… You are really pretty, my lady.”

“Mm-hmm,” Mei said, thoughtfully. “I do not mind the cooking.”

“Ah, Jarek,” Lucien sighed, “Can we keep her?”

“Yeah, Captain, can we keep her?” Viktor asked, just as breathless. “Please?”

Jarek chuckled. Mei’s eyes had narrowed some, but she didn’t look concerned.

She looked irritated.

“You are the women I saw running?” she whispered, staring at Lucien and Viktor.

The men began laughing, all but the two Dere brothers who looked sheepishly at the ground. Jarek watched, impressed by her quick observation. “You are, aren’t you? You are thepu ren I saw running away from Emperor Song’s palace.”

“Ah, well, you see....” Viktor began.

“It’s not what you think,” Lucien inserted, kicking at the floor. “We didn’t like it.”

“We don’t do that,” Viktor added. “You know, wear women’s clothing like that.”

“We had to,” Lucien said.

“You two appeared to enjoy it to me,” Lochlann teased wryly.

Mei stepped closer, studying all of them intently. Finally, her dark eyes turned to Jarek. His gut tightened in response. She just had that affect on him. He couldn’t breathe when she looked directly at him. It was a shock of electricity through his system, like

someone took a phazer to his heart.

Sacred Cats! She was beautiful. Everything seemed to go into slow motion as he stared at her. His body ached just to be near her. And she intrigued him too. Everything about her utterly and completely fascinated him.

“There are no other women on this ship, are there?” she demanded.

Jarek gave a sheepish grin and shrugged. Stepping forward slowly, she stopped to run her finger lightly over his chest. She looked at him and smiled, completely unashamed by what the others might assume from the gesture. In fact, her eyes claimed him, as did her open expression. Her hand stopped above his heartbeat and she stood, gazing up at him as if she wanted the crew to know she was his. “What did you take from Emperor Song?” Mei kept her hand on his chest, as she looked them over, one by one.

Lucien and Viktor cleared their throats and looked away. Evan and Jackson turned back to work on repairs. Dev didn’t move. Lochlann grinned. “Who says we took anything?” Jarek asked, looking down at her. He liked that she wasn’t embarrassed to be his woman.

“So, what? You went to Emperor Song’s palace just so you could streak though it in women’s clothing? And now you’re going back there to do it again?” Mei nodded mockingly. “Or is it you are going to look for this Rick who is missing? And, for some reason, you believe Emperor Song has him as a prisoner?” “We mean no harm to your Emperor,” Jarek assured her, amazed at her perception.

“Emperor Song?” Mei laughed. “He is not my Emperor. Singhai is not my empire.”

“You were a prisoner?” Dev asked. Jarek’s heart squeezed in his chest to think of her in harm’s way.

“Have you seen Rick in the prisons? You know him?” “No. I was a guest of Emperor Song’s,” Mei said.

Her eyes stayed trained on his.

“And I don’t know your Rick.”

“Then why did you try to escape, if you were just a guest?” Jarek didn’t really have anything to hide from his crew. Not in this. When it came down to it, regardless of what he was feeling, her presence on the ship affected them all.

Mei lifted a brow and dropped her hand from him. “I wasn’t escaping. I was fighting you.”

Dev chuckled and held his hand out to Jackson. “You owe me twenty space credits.”

Jackson grumbled, but nodded. “Fine.”

“You were fighting me?” Jarek smiled.

Mei gasped, pretending to be offended. “As if you couldn’t tell!”

“You flew into my arms,fea ,” Jarek said, knowing he was being cocky. He couldn’t help it. She was too adorable. “I thought you were unable to resist my charm, even from the distance.”

“You’re such a gentleman.” She hit his chest, her tone wry. Walking past him to the engine, she picked up a laser and tapped it in her palm as she studied their repairs.

“The least you could do is lie to placate my ego. Pretend I bruised you.”

Jarek laughed.

“Your wires are crossed here,” Mei said, handing the laser to Lochlann. She turned toward the door. “I’m going to cook something for us to eat. Be in the dining hall in one hour, washed and scrubbed, if you want to eat. I won’t wait for you and I will not dine with a group oflajiyaoguài .”

When she was gone, the men laughed. Jarek stood at the door staring after her.

“What’s a
l
a
j
i
yaoguài?”

“Blessed Stars, if I know,” Viktor swore. “But if she doesn’t like them, I’m not going to be one.”

“Imagine, a little thing like her, bossing us around,” Jackson said, chuckling as he shook his head.

“Huh, she’s right. We did get the wires crossed.” Lochlann studied where Mei had been looking.

“I like her,” Lucien announced.

“You like all women,” Evan said.

“Ah, true, and they like me.” Lucien winked. “But this one is funny. And she attacked the captain which makes her brave.”

“Or very foolish.” Evan snipped the wires so Lochlann could fix them.

“I’d say brave,” Dev offered seemingly without emotion.

“How did she know about Rick?” Jarek asked when Mei was no longer in sight.

“Um, yeah, that might have been us. We were talking about him earlier in the hall. She could’ve been crawling around above us.” Lochlann shrugged. “Sorry, didn’t think it mattered. Evan said she was all right.”

“Evan,” Jarek said.

Evan cleared his throat. “Uh, yeah, I might have not been completely forthcoming when we spoke earlier about Lady Mei.”

Jarek arched a brow and crossed his arms.

“I might have manipulated the situation just a little.” Evan looked guilty.

“Tell me everything. What do you think?” Jarek ordered. “Can we trust her?”

“I don’t think we have a choice,” Evan said. “She seems comfortable with you, Captain. You should show her the map. Her soul is good, though there is always a risk that she’s hiding something or that her goodness will keep her loyal to others against our purpose.”

“I hardly doubt she’s in with drug traders if she’s good,” Dev reasoned.

“I just feel obligated to toss out the warning,” Evan said. They all knew he didn’t like to be called upon to use his gifts, even though it was sometimes a necessity. He never complained about it, but he did get a melancholy air about him afterwards.

“Agreed,” Lucien said. “I like her. I think we can trust her.” “You said that already,” Viktor scolded.

“And I agree too. What harm can there be in it? So what if she knows we have a map.”

“Show her,” Dev said.

Lochlann and Jackson nodded. Jarek sighed. They were in agreement.

“All right. Let’s get this ship up and running. I’ll talk to her after we eat.” Jarek took a deep breath and motioned Evan to follow him. When they were alone in the corridor, he said dubiously, “Not completely forthcoming? Might have manipulated the

situation?”

“I didn’t lie, Captain, I promise. She is hard to read. But when you appeared she was … ah … very responsive to you as you were to her. I don’t think I needed to be telepathic to see that much. The guys see it too.”

“Matchmaker is a little out of your area of expertise, isn’t it?”

Evan shrugged. “All your brothers seem pretty happy with their mates.” Jarek lifted a brow and crossed his arms over his chest. “And have I ever indicated I am not happy without one? Have I once said I long for a wife?”

“All right, I’ll talk.” Evan sighed reluctantly. “When you are around her, I get the same impression I get when your brothers are around their wives. Exactly the same. It’s powerful, intense, so strong it makes me shake and a little nauseous. In fact, it’s a little hard to be around sometimes, if you must know the truth. To feel that kind of passion and not have it myself is torture. But, to know that Mei is your soul mate and not push you in that direction is unthinkable. I know how stubborn your brothers were in finding wives.

Being around Reid and Falke as they stumbled their way around was… well… let’s just say I would rather sit in a bath full of Lopen acid leaches. Please, for my sake, Captain, don’t put me through the hell of having to feel another Var prince find and deny love because of some mistaken, yet understandable, connection to a father who was sufficiently devoid of love and compassion.”

Jarek didn’t move. Evan took a deep breath and continued.

“I mean Falke, when he fell in love with Sam, she wasn’t much help in being forthright about her feelings for the commander… But, Reid, he’s your twin and, well, that was....” Evan whistled, shaking his head as if he could still feel the stress over Prince Reid and his wife Jasmine’s budding relationship woes. “Whoa. I don’t want another one of those on my hands.”

Jarek chucked. “So this is about you?”

“Absolutely. Very much so,” Evan agreed, nodding enthusiastically. “Thanks for

understanding. Oh, and if you could get in there tonight and fit in a ‘marry me’ when you’re discussing the map that would be great. It would save me weeks of aggravation as you ponder your future desires only to come to the ultimate conclusion that is so clear to me and very apparent to everyone else, that you and Mei are made for each other, just as your brothers were made for their wives. I’ll tell you, Captain, you Var men are sure of that from the first moment, even if your minds are reluctant to agree with your innate instincts. I’ve never seen a race with such a single-minded purpose when it comes to… I don’t even know what to call it. A targeting device that hones in on the love object and refuses to set its sights elsewhere until it has it? Yeah, I think that works for an analogy.

So, there you have it. Good luck proposing. Don’t forget to talk about how you feel when you’re with her. You Var have trouble with that sometimes. And don’t forget to ask her to lifemate with you. You Var sometimes forget to ask, just assuming the other party knows about it when it happens. You’ll want to say the words aloud and clearly so she gets what is happening.”

Jarek opened his mouth, but was speechless.

“Yep, I think that about covers it.” Evan patted Jarek on the shoulder and, whistling, strode back into the engine room to help the others. “Great,” Jarek grumbled, rubbing his temples. “Just what I need.”