Page 15 of Smuggler's Beauty

Lillian snorted and rolled her eyes. Aiden knew breakfast was no time for a semantics battle. Besides, it was a battle he was steadily losing. He watched her take a bite of her scrambled eggs. Elenor looked like she was trying not to spit out the mouthful of coffee she’d just sipped. She managed to swallow it down.

“Yes, dear, you’re very respectable. How do you want to handle today? Evelyn needs clothes and such.” Elenor picked up her bowl of oatmeal. “She’ll feel better if she has some more autonomy.”

He could almost hear her say that he would, too.

Aiden tapped his fingers on the table. Evelyn had pulled herself together by the time Lillian had shepherded her off to rest, but the sight of her with tears rolling down her cheeks was one that had played on repeat in his mind. He had wanted so desperately to go to her and wipe her tears, despite knowing thathe needed to keep his hands off her. Anything else would be unprofessional.

Plus, he didn’t want to look like an overbearing lunatic.

What he did want was to find Vinnie and shake her for sending him into this job so unprepared.

He wanted to feed Evelyn pineapple on the beach, listen to the delectable little moans she made when eating delicious things.

He doubted he was going to get away with any of those things.

“We have plenty of operating capital. I assumed it was to pay for hyper fuel to get back to the drop point ASAP, but it seems less likely now,” Aiden said.

“Vinnie plays her cards close to the vest,” Elenor said. She threw her spoon down. “Honestly, though. She should have prepared us. We’re trustworthy.”

“Yes, love, we’re very trustworthy thieves,” Lillian said. She smirked at Aiden before he could voice his objection again. “What? I didn’t say the ‘p’ word. I’m just saying I get why she didn’t clue us in from get. Too risky to let the intel out before the job is well underway.”

“I kind of want to stab her. Just a small maiming. Like in the calf. She’ll have plenty of time to think about hiring us to traumatize that poor girl while she heals.” Elenor poked at the air with her spoon.

“See, babe, this is why Aiden gets Veronique to do the diplomacy.”

Aiden grinned. He loved his moms. They were loyal and ruthless and sort of terrifying if the right circumstances presented themselves. Lillian and Elenor loved hard, and they presented Aiden with an example of marriage that was staggering to envision living up to. Not that he’d ever envisioned himself married. Relationships had fallen off his radar in thelast few years. He generally envisioned himself eye-fucking a bartender in a spaceport until their break, then engaging in a quick but mutually satisfying tumble in a storage closet. Aiden had beenenvisioningthe princess in his guest cabin entirely too often in the last twelve hours. He stopped his brain from meandering down another entirely inappropriate pathway and refocused.

“I would feel better if she had a full security detail going down to 14 And. But that would draw entirely too much attention, so I’ll settle for you two and Nannette keeping an eye on her. Veronique has good situational awareness, too, if she’s not busy.”

Lillian nodded and scooped up more eggs. “I think between the four of us we can keep her safe. Who knows if they’re even looking for her yet? And honestly, who would start the search for an escaped political prisoner in a mall?”

“I suppose if we were prepared, we’d have provisions, and then where would we be? Hurtling toward a sensible place to start looking for a liberated prisoner. Shit. Maybe I can’t stab Vinnie.” Elenor picked her spoon back up and poked at a blueberry. “She has no idea how lucky her calves are.”

Aiden laughed. “It’s a wonder I didn’t wind up more feral.” He got up and kissed them both on the cheek before heading to his office to plot next steps.

CHAPTER EIGHT

Evelyn stirred,stretching lazily across the silky sheets. She arched her back and heard something in her spine crack. She wasn’t used to the slow gathering of awareness that coming awake naturally brought. Snapping out of stasis was an instantaneous thing. There was something deliciously luxurious about waking up slowly.

Then she remembered the day she’d had and the bottom fell out of her stomach. Shame at the naiveté of her actions flooded her, her cheeks heated and tears prickled at the corners of her eyes.

Stupid Evelyn. Idealistic Evelyn. Life isn’t a story you can analyze.

Her dreams had been a recurring loop of some of the worst moments of her life. Fighting with her mother about how her sisters got to train for court with her father, but she was always left out. Sobbing in Aunt Corrie’s arms, explaining her fear that she would never live up to the family name.

She swung herself off the bed and took the few steps to the bathroom door. From this angle, she noticed a tray with a covered plate sitting just inside the bedroom door. After a brieftrip to the bathroom — all black and white marble tile work and gold fixtures; Lillian must have spent a fortune decking the ship out — she examined the tray. There was a folded note under the plate. She slid it out to read:

A sweet start for your day. It’s practically tradition. -A

A grin formed on her face. Evelyn lifted the lid off the plate and found a beautiful, fruity fractal of pineapple, placed just so, on the plate. The tenderness of the act took her a moment to digest. She eased a slice off the plate, trying not to destroy the rest of the carefully balanced pieces. It was the perfect temperature, ripe and dripping with juice. She took a bite, and the explosion on her tongue was tropical heaven.

Juice dripping down her chin, Evelyn took the plate to the armchair and plopped down in it. She alternated between annihilating the fruit and re-reading her note, remembering the taste of sweet pineapple candy on Aiden’s soft lips. Their brief kiss was a very welcome distraction from the depressing reel of her least favorite memories. Chewing proved difficult with the idiotic grin that had plastered itself to her face, but she managed to only bite the inside of her cheek once.

Halfway through the plate, she noticed a subtle notification blinking in the lower corner of her view screen.

“L.I.N.D.A., good morning. I think? I seem to have a notification,” she said. She’d been surrounded by curt, efficient medidroids for years, and stunning conversationalists they were not. L.I.N.D.A.’s social programming was lightyears ahead of theirs.

“It is morning, Evelyn. Lillian wanted to inform you that when you are ready to go, Cairn will transport you all to the 14Andromedae station for supplies. There is a change of clothing in the bottom drawer of the dresser.”