BECAUSE? (Cosmic Coffee Book 2) by Ophelia Leigh

Author:Ophelia Leigh [Leigh, Ophelia]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Published: 2023-07-10T23:00:00+00:00

Rhodes breathed in so deeply it startled Grace. He breathed out just as deeply, his eyes closed. Was he deeply meditative? Deeply tired? Deeply sick of the entire situation? Or maybe, something she hadn’t considered in all her own panic, deeply frightened?

Slowly, he stood.

Opened his eyes.

Slammed his hand down on the console.

Whoa, whoa, whoa. Holy wow, he was enraged! She hadn’t considered “deeply offended” or “deeply agitated” in her earlier assessment. Clearly, she was no savant yet. Her brain still had plenty of room to develop.

Rhodes cleared his throat so pointedly the essence of knives filled the cabin. “Excuse me, Crystal P!nk Persuasion.” His words were tiny daggers, ice cutting into the crystalline shards. “I don’t usually like to speak on anyone’s behalf except for my own, because where I come from, free will and consent are actual things. But if you have brought us on a suicide mission, I’m going to make good on my threats and feed you to the parasitic fish living in the Embryo River. Either that, or tear you apart and toss you through the airlock to the space agitators in the asteroid belt. So stop manipulating Gretel. Let her tend to the environmental controls. Put away the fangs. Stop playing with vibrations and frequencies. We are not amused by these hijinks.” He glanced at Grace, possibly for confirmation, so she added a stern nod to his soliloquy.

WE BLAME THE EARTH HUMAN. DRUGS MADE US DO IT.

“Oh, pshaw. That thing was so old, it didn’t have much if any potency left in it.” Grace waved that off. She also waved her hand back and forth rapidly, because it was still too hot in the cabin.

“Gretel.” Rhodes sounded very commanding. “What’s up with the environmental controls?”

WORKING ON IT, SIR. PLEASE HOLD. SINCE CRYSTAL P!NK PERSUASION HAS PIGGYBACKED ON MY METADATA BACKBONE, I AM RESORTING TO MY OWN PERSUASIVE METHODS TO REGAIN CONTROL.

“Hurry it up.” Rhodes rarely barked orders like that, so it had to be important. And as if it had been planned, Mr. Rocky, who’d been oddly silent throughout the entire experience, began trilling in Grace’s pocket.

She pulled it out, studied it, but still couldn’t really see how to silence the alarm.

The music from food storage stopped abruptly. Everyone and everything in the ship, save Mr. Rocky, seemed to be holding their breath.

The cabin temperature kept increasing. Wow, even covered in tiny beads of sweat, Rhodes looked amazing. He could be one of those anime characters who got even more attractive when it rained on them. She, on the other hand, would only end up looking like a drowned rat. Mr. Rocky’s volume increased until it was almost unbearable.

Grace gnashed her teeth together. Dying of heat on Europa was definitely not one of her bucket list items. Time to take control of the situation. She turned to Rhodes.

“Hey, incredibly hot Ouranian.” She liked the double-entendre there. If nothing else, she still had her sense of humor. “I’m going to pop in and see what’s going on with Gretel.

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