Adiron (Corsair Brothers 1)

His eyes flash with a look that's pure excitement. "Kef yeah we can."

38

ADIRON

There are no messages.

I hate the clear disappointment on Jade's face, and hate even more that she tries to hide it. "I knew there wouldn't be any," she says with a brave smile. "I just was kind of hoping." She turns to regard the ship's empty bridge with a sigh. "And we can't send anything out, right?"

"Not unless you want to take the risk of someone tracing down the signal and heading in this direction."

"Of course not."

She keeps smiling, but it doesn't reach her eyes, and I feel like I failed her. I don't want our date to end on a down note, so I grab her hand and haul her after me. "Come on. I have an idea."

Jade's expression brightens, and she lets me drag her down the halls of the ship, her bare feet making the cutest little smacks against the metal flooring. I lead her into the main lavatory on the ship, the one just down the hall from the bridge. A ship this big has small, private lavatories in the personal quarters, but there's also two larger ones to accommodate crew needs. This one will suit me just fine. I pull Jade inside after me and immediately head toward the shower heads, turning them all on.

"What are you doing?" she asks. "We can't waste water."

"We're not wasting it," I tell her. It'll just go right back into the system and be recycled. But we need the steam."

She tugs her hand from mine and gives me a suspicious look. "What is it we're doing in here?"

I take her by the shoulders and turn her so that she faces the large mirror over the row of sinks. Kef me, but she looks good in front of me. Her full, bouncy hair puffs up and brushes against my chin, and she's so curvy and dainty against my chest that it makes me want to crush her against me and never let her go. Seeing her like this—with me—does strange things to my heart. But she watches me in the mirror with expectant eyes and I force myself to focus. Right. I can moon over how beautiful she is later.

"The mirrors get steamy," I tell her. "I saw a human vid once where they left each other messages in the steam. They wrote on the mirror. I used to make it a thing with Zoey. I'd leave her a message, and then she'd leave me one. I left her a message on our ship for her, but I figured you could leave one here? That way if—uh, when—you see the others again, you can share it with them."

Her pleasure fades at my little slipup. But she smiles anyhow, and nods. "Leave secret messages. I like it. Does it matter if I write in English? I don't know your language."

"Sure, that should be fine. In fact, if you want to write something out, I can walk you through it." I beam innocently at her.

Jade thinks for a moment. "Can you write 'Please send food'?"

"Of course." I move toward the mirror, soap my finger with some of the cleaner on the sink, and then begin to write in my language's blocky, formal letters. I leave a short, silly message instead. "There."

Jade watches with her head slightly tilted. She taps the mirror and one of the symbols. "How do you say this character?" I pronounce it for her, then deliberately pick one in the middle of the stream, and teach her that one, too. We go over the sounds, Jade's lips moving as she tries to memorize them. I'm impressed by her cleverness. She never takes a moment to stop learning. Everything is a weapon and she wants to be prepared.

"Sa-zhed-li-is-ka-mro-da-sha-nal-vru-ta-li," she says slowly. She repeats it, faster, and it still doesn't sound quite like my language, but enough that I can tell when her translator picks it up. "Sa zhedli iska mroda shanal vru tali? I am naughty girl, spank me?"

I can't help it, I chortle. "If you're asking, I'll gladly spank you."

"Adiron!" Her expression is utterly exasperated. "Are you ever serious?"

"Never," I admit. "What's the point? If you want to write sad things in the mirror, go for it. But you're better off smiling and spending your time in pleasant ways."

She glares up at me, but her glare softens ever so slightly when I move closer and put a hand to her waist. "It should have said 'naughty boy' instead of girl," she chides me, but her expression is no longer irked. She looks thoughtful. Distracted. And she's gazing at my mouth.

"But then I wouldn't have the opportunity to spank you," I point out. I pick her up, lifting her onto the counter so we're close to the same height. She doesn't complain, just watches me with those fascinating amber-colored eyes. "I guess we can skip the spanking if you want to move right along to the end-of-the-date kiss."