Page 70 of Smuggler's Beauty

A compact, muscled, redheaded man was leaning against the wall. Mathias recognized him as the ship’s pilot from thedossier that Corvinia had prepared for him. The pilot’s blue eyes twinkled with mischief as he clocked Mathias’s puzzled look.

“We’re rebranding,” he said and stuck out a hand. His brogue was thick, but understandable. “Cairn. And you’re Vinnie’s man, Mathias, yes?”

Mathias took his hand and gave it a shake. Cairn’s grip was strong, but not punishing. They broke the greeting, and Cairn gestured for Mathias to follow him down the hall.

“The crew and the princess are in the lobby. Come along. Also, don’t call her princess. The lass hates that.”

“Corvinia mentioned that.”

They headed down the hall in silence. Cairn didn’t seem to feel the need to fill it, which was fine with him. Mathias hated small talk. Cairn led him into a glittering atrium, then veered off to check on a towering plant in a pot the size of a bathtub.

“Am I going to have to spray you for mites?”

Mathias continued into the lobby. The scent of espresso overpowered his sinuses as he took in the room. The crew seemed to be focused in the area between the bar and a shiny piano. Someone had set up a whiteboard.

A slender, bald Black man sat at the piano. His glasses were perched low on his nose as he took in the keys. His long fingers picked out a jazzy melody, and he nodded along with the conversation happening behind him.Tariel. Two older women sat at a cafe table next to him.The moms.

The princess — Evelyn — and a trim, neatly attired, bearded man — Aiden — sat at another cafe table. He was sprawled in his chair, his arm around the back of hers, whispering something that made her clutch her coffee cup all the more tightly. Mathias felt a smile bloom on his face.

Called that.

A tall, muscular man with a dark goatee came out a door behind the bar, massaging his shoulder as he spoke to hiscompanion.Veselko. He was talking to the woman the files had described as Veronique. She was balancing a plate of pastries. The deep pink shade she’d slicked on her lips made her glowing tan skin pop.

And that leaves . . .

Veselko was still holding the door open, and the woman who stepped through took his breath away.

Nannette.

She had the richest blue eyes Mathias had ever seen. Her smooth brown hair was tinged russet, the reddish brown reminding Mathias of a cinnamon stick. Her lush mouth was quirked in a smirk, tilted up in one corner. She wrinkled her nose at something Veselko was saying and batted his hand away from the pastry tray.

Mathias’ vision fuzzed. Static filled his mind in a way it hadn’t since he was a young man, inexperienced with his ability.

He was standing in a tuxedo in the high chapel in the Tanalian capital. The chamber was decorated with dozens of varieties of white flowers, their sweet scent perfuming the air. His hand kept nervously gliding to his pocket, to the small hinged box inside.

Music filled the air. He knew the tune. It was traditional, the song played at weddings for hundreds of years on Tanalia.

His gaze went down the aisle.

Nannette walked toward him. The gown she wore was demure and alluring all at once. Floral lace skimmed over cerulean satin, mere shades lighter than those eyes he could happily drown in. The low neckline showed the top of her shoulders and the barest hint of cleavage before the satin caressed her generous curves in a floor-length, flowing skirt. Lace covered her arms, ending in dramatic bell sleeves. She was clutching a bouquet full of the same flowers that decorated the chapel.

Her face looked serene.

The grip she had on the flowers told a different story.

Mathias’ vision fuzzed back to reality.

“Is this guy really the best Vinnie could send us?” Nannette crossed her arms as her gaze raked down his body, and only the fact that he was laser focused on her every movement allowed him to notice the hitch in her breath as she took him in. She quickly arranged her features into a disdainful glare, those beautiful blue eyes icing over.

Fuck.

CHAPTER THIRTY-THREE

Aiden didn’t trustpeople easily. He could count on one hand the number of people he trusted outside of those on theDawnwhile having fingers left over. It went against every natural instinct he had to let this stranger onto the ship and welcome him into their plotting.

But he might be able to help Evelyn get around the block she had on her siphoning abilities. If cordiality with this stranger could help erase the shame that Evelyn’d had hardwired into her sense of self, he would bake him a fucking “welcome aboard” cake.

Aiden assessed Vinnie’s precognitive agent, Mathias, as he walked into the lobby with Cairn. He was tall, dark, and handsome, as if someone had put in an order to some casting agency for a disarmingly attractive man. His dark hair was neatly arranged into a cut that flattered the finely carved planes of his face. Brown eyes glinted with intelligence as they darted around the room, taking in the scene. He walked with a practiced nonchalance that Aiden could identify, a “nothing to see here, folks, do look the other way while I rob you blind” pace that he’d perfected himself years ago.