Total pages in book: 182
Estimated words: 171288 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 856(@200wpm)___ 685(@250wpm)___ 571(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 171288 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 856(@200wpm)___ 685(@250wpm)___ 571(@300wpm)
Crap! The last thing she wanted to do was put her body on display, especially when V’rex was so clearly no longer interested. But the other items of clothing he had made for her were all the same kind of body suit—just in different colors.
Giving up on finding something different, Penny simply went back to the bathroom and got another long, silky towel to wrap around herself as a kind of sweater. She would ask V’rex to make her something else to wear soon…
If she could ever bear to face him again, that was.
Ninety-Four
“You need to tell me where to take you,” V made himself say when they finally sat down to Last Meal together.
“Take me?” Penelope looked up from her steaming bowl of licklack stew which she had barely been picking at and frowned. “Why would you take me somewhere?”
“Because we are Foresworn,” V said patiently. “Which means we have to part ways. As much as I wish you could, you can’t stay here aboard my ship forever.”
“Who says I want to?” Penelope shot back, lifting her chin. “I mean, while I appreciate your hospitality, it’s really not necessary. We’re docked at Hell’s Gate, right? So I’ll just leave the ship and go back to the Lucky Lounge where…where I first saw you.” She cleared her throat. “And that’s that—we never have to see each other again.”
“You want me to just leave you here? In the most corrupt and dangerous station in the whole sector?” V growled. “I don’t think so. And why would you want to go back to the Lucky Lounge?”
“To make a long-distance call, of course,” Penelope said, frowning. “To let the Kindred of the Mother Ship know I’m stranded because my ship-mates got stuck and frozen in a slow time-suck.”
“You can’t fold space in the Yown System,” V pointed out. “It’ll take them at least a solar week if not more to come to you once they get the call.”
“I know that.” Her chin went even higher and he felt the stubbornness coming from her. “It doesn’t matter—I’ll just wait for them in Hell’s Gate. I’ll be fine.”
“The hell you will,” V growled. “If you really think I’ll let you walk out of here and hang around unprotected while you wait for help that might or might not come—”
“They’ll come!” Penelope flashed and he felt her anger. “Captain Sylvan is an honorable male. He won’t just leave me here.”
“Well, I won’t either,” V snapped. “Even if I’m not as honorable as your precious Commander Sylvan.”
He knew the leader of the Kindred Mother Ship by reputation, though he didn’t know any personal details about him. Was he bonded to someone? Did he want to bond with Penelope?
The thought made his jaw clench and his teeth grind. Mine, whispered a little voice in the back of his head.
Not anymore, V reminded himself grimly. You’re Foresworn, remember?
But still, even if he couldn’t Claim Penelope for his own, he wasn’t going to leave her here to fend for herself!
“Look,” he said, taking a deep breath to calm the possessive wave that tried to rise inside him. “Let’s not part on a bad note. You can make the call from my ship and avoid the Lucky Lounge altogether. Only lowlifes go there, anyway.”
“You were there,” she pointed out, raising an eyebrow at him.
“My point exactly,” V said dryly. “Make the call from here and then wait here, where it’s safe, until they come pick you up.”
She frowned. “I thought you wanted to get rid of me? Thought you wanted me off your ship?”
“I never said that,” V protested. “I said that since we can’t be together, we have to part eventually. But I never said anything about kicking you off to wander around a dangerous hole like Hell’s Gate. What kind of male do you think I am?”
Penelope opened her mouth, clearly to voice a sharp retort, but then her anger died abruptly and she shook her head.
“I…I don’t know, anymore,” she said softly. “I thought I knew you—thought I was beginning to know you, anyway, back in the Compound. But now…I just don’t know.”
Her words felt like a dagger in V’s heart but he kept his face expressionless.
“You’ll make the call from here and wait until they come to pick you up,” he said again.
“But…do you want to be here when the Kindred come?” Penny protested. “You’re like Public Enemy Number One to them. You’re not afraid they’ll try to arrest you or take you in or something?”
V shook his head.
“Not if you ask them not to. They’re Kindred, after all, which means they’ll keep their word.”
“All right.” She nodded reluctantly. “Since I don’t really have anywhere to stay in Hell’s Gate, I’ll take you up on your offer. And…” She looked away from him. “I’ll try to stay out of your way.”