Page 43 of Smuggler's Beauty

He chuckled as he lowered her to the ground, savoring the feel of her body sliding down his. Aiden smoothed her hair back behind her ears.

“Good,” he said. “Get some rest. I’ll see you in the morning.” Aiden kissed her on the forehead and, with a monumental force of will, turned to walk back to the car. It felt as though he was fighting against an asteroid-sized magnet dragging him back toward her. He completed the walk to his car, programmed the car to drive him to the nearest twenty-four-hour grocery store, and clenched his fists as his body slowly returned to normal. He would not let the raging hard-on in these ridiculously tight jeans dictate his behavior. Tonight.

Every atom in his body longed to be inside Evelyn. But Aiden knew that Evelyn needed a clear head to make the decision that had been laid out before her. Giving her enough of a distraction to snap her out of her maudlin musings had been his goal. He’d been selfish to push things along as far as he had.

He wouldn’t think about the fact that this was the first time in a long time that he’d had the opportunity to sleep withsomeone he’d wanted to, and he’d turned it down. That level of introspection was dangerous in a grocery store.

Aiden strolled the aisles, finding little treats for the moms and crew. Little reminders of home — or a beloved planet, in Nannette’s case — always helped keep the morale up when the latest haul was starting to feel never ending, and if Vinnie succeeded in talking them into this next job, who knew how long they’d be away. He loaded his cart with sweet, spiced cookies, frozen dumplings, chocolate spread. Crusty bread for the freezer, a wheel of brie. Chocolate covered almonds.

He couldn’t stop himself from loading a few pineapples into the cart, too. Evelyn had given him no indication of her decision, but Aiden had a feeling she was going to throw herself headfirst into danger. Again.

Aiden checked out and headed back to the ship. He pulled up to their assigned space at the spaceport and was greeted by Tariel. He was perched on a ladder, a wrench in one hand.

“I thought it might be prudent to change out the serial numbers and designation before we head off to join a coup.”

Aiden saw the panel for the electronic serial number display system was in pieces on the higher ladder steps.

“I knew sending you into that registration office was a good idea.”

“Three months of mind-numbingly boring customer service hell. But we did get some useful tools out of it.”

Aiden laughed and continued on, gesturing at the grocery bags. He hurriedly shoved the groceries into their proper storage containers and headed back outside.

Tariel had removed the panel with theRising Dawn’sdesignation. He was backing down the ladder with it in his hands, and Aiden rushed to help. They maneuvered the panel back into one of the ship’s storage spaces. A freshly painted panel was leaning against the wall.The Glittering Twilightwaswritten in bold blue script, along with the relevant information and a different set of contact instructions.

“Your attention to detail never ceases to amaze me,” Aiden said.

“L.I.N.D.A. helped,” Tariel said, grinning.

They installed the panel and settled in for the night, the uncertainty of the next day contributing to fitful sleep and unsettling dreams.

CHAPTER TWENTY

The moment Evelynclosed the door behind her, she leaned against it and spent a few minutes trying to get her breathing in order. When that didn’t work, she then spent the next half hour getting reacquainted with her shower nozzle.

When she could finally function, she reached for her shampoo and lathered her hair as she thought through her options.

Plan one, as she saw it, was to take a set of fake documents from Corrie and fade into obscurity. She could go farm chinchillas on Proxima Centauri or buy a condo on a mega-metropolis and read books until her eyeballs fell out.

Didn’t sound half bad.

Plan two: get back on theRising Dawnwith the crew, and Aiden, and head back to her planet. Embrace her talent without becoming a monster. Wrest political control from a militaristic lunatic. Save the day.

Sounded fucking horrible.

Evelyn had no desire to be a hero. She’d never read books about avenging heroes and longed to be the one wielding the sword. She’d wanted to be, at best, back-line support. Or the loveinterest. Heroes were always super hot in the kind of books she read.

When presented with the chance to step up and save the day, she’d opted to go and nap for a decade. Seemed like a no-brainer. Granted, no one else in her family had beendoinganything, at least not as much as she could see. Lots of thumb twiddling and concerned speeches. Her impulsive action had seemed sensible when the alternative had been sitting in on another debate on the merits of yet another round of arbitration versus contacting the GPC again. She now knew she’d played right into Emil’s carefully laid trap.

Her fingers were starting to cramp from furiously working the shampoo through her hair. She rinsed her head off and reached for the conditioner and a wide toothed comb. She slicked the rich cream through her locks and worked it through as she went back to ruminating.

If she went through with Corrie’s plan, she could actually save her family from Emil’s. She couldn’t deny she’d like to see the looks on their faces when they realized that they’d been saved by soft, quiet, book-obsessed Evelyn.Secret Monster Evelyn, more like.And sure, the satisfaction would be sweet. But the more she thought about it, she knew that going back and trying to fix the mess she’d helped make was The Right Thing To Do. Capital letters and all.A two-fer.

She could live with that.

And if that meant that she got to spend more time with Aiden . . . Well. She wasn’t going to complain about that. One had to take their motivating factors where they found them.

She wasn’t looking forward to the rest of the homework that Corrie would no doubt have prepared for her. If she knew her aunt at all, she’d already gotten things ready to start whipping Evelyn into shape.