Trade Secrets by Cassandra Chandler

Author:Cassandra Chandler
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Cassandra Chandler

Chapter Nine

Gwen’s heart was hammering as Xan piloted the shuttle into a huge hangar bay. She tried to control her breathing to help herself calm down.

It wasn’t just that she was about to head out into her very first spaceship. Okay, aside from the shuttle. Or even that she was sitting next to a lizard-person.

No, she was pretty sure a lot of it had to do with the alien whose lap she was sitting on and whose arm was draped around her waist as he landed the vessel without so much as a bump.

“Wow, you’re good,” she said.

He grinned up at her. “Best pilot in the fleet. That’s why I was assigned to the Reckoning.”

“Well, I’d say you earned your commission,” Gwen said. She felt her cheeks heat again.

Cyan hopped out of her seat and headed for the back hatch. It was already descending to act as a ramp. Bandit squirmed out of Gwen’s grasp and ran after her.

“If you will excuse us,” Cyan said. “Bandit would like to say hello to his siblings. I will take care of it while you two”—she lifted her little green fingers and did air-quotes—“pretend to be pair-bonded.”

Shaking her head, she and the kitten disappeared into the hangar bay, leaving Gwen and Xan alone.

Xan didn’t seem like he was in any hurry to leave. Or maybe he liked having her close as much as she liked being close to him. She really hoped so.

“I really like your friends,” Gwen said, trying to make conversation.

“I’m glad.” Xan grinned at her, then looked away briefly. “What about me?”

Gwen laughed. “I like you, too.”

He returned his gaze to hers, his smile growing. “I’m glad, because I really like you.”

“Now that we’ve established that, what’s next?” she asked.

“Next, we get you a uniform.”

“So I can fit in on the ship? Will people think I’m Sadirian?”

“No one would ever mistake you for a Sadirian.”

His words might have pinged her ego if it wasn’t for the hungry way he looked at her as he said it, and how his grip on her waist tightened, his free hand moving to her thigh possessively.

She had to swallow before she could force words out of her suddenly dry mouth. “And why is that?”

That hungry look swept down over her body, the hand on her thigh drifted around to her hip, verging on her ass. His lips parted and the heat in his gaze seared her like a nova going off in her core.

He shook himself suddenly, and returned his hands to a more discreet location on her knee. This time, he was the one struggling for words.

He cleared his throat and said, “Most Sadirians are designed to take up as little space as possible. They’re skin and bones—just given enough substance to get whatever job they’ve been assigned done.”

A chill flooded her, snuffing out the heat from just before.

“That sounds awful.” She angled her head, leaning to the side as she very blatantly looked him up and down. “I thought you were Sadirian, though.

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