Not the Man She Thought by Paige Tyler Page B

doubted his first officer had hung
around to watch him spank Laken, but if anyone knew what had gone on in the
cargo hold, it would be Kellen. There wasn’t much that went on within the ship
the older man didn’t know about.
    “She’s a naïve, spoiled brat,” he muttered.
    Kellen nodded. “The girl is that, but that wasn’t what
pissed you off. It was the fact that she called you a pirate.”
    “That didn’t bother me,” Rade said, opening the door to his
cabin and leading the way inside. “I know I’m a pirate, and I’ve made my peace
with it. She had no right to say the same about my crew.”
    Kellen’s mouth curved into a smile. “The crew is aware of
what they are, and you can’t take blame for that. Every one of them follows you
willingly, and it’s not because of the money, either. You do the best you can
to take care of them. None of them can ask for more than that. If the girl
wants to call them pirates, none of them will care.”
    Rade ground his jaw. “Maybe not, but it pissed the hell out
of me anyway.”
    Kellen regarded him thoughtfully. “I wonder. Would Laken’s
accusations have bothered you this much if you weren’t so attracted to her?”
    Rade frowned. “What are you talking about? I’m not attracted
to her.”
    Kellen shrugged. “If you say so.”
    Rade opened his mouth to reply, but Kellen was already out
the door. Rade walked over to the sideboard and poured himself a drink. He
stared down at the glass, thinking about what his first officer had said.
Usually, the old man was dead on, but in this case, he couldn’t be more wrong.
Rade would agree that Laken was attractive, but that wasn’t the same thing as
being attracted to her. The idea was ludicrous.
       His hand
tightened on the glass. Kellen may not be right about that, but he was correct
about one thing. He had been too hard on Laken. He’d just been so damn on edge
after that ambush by the Federation. He and the crew had barely gotten out of
there with their lives. If it hadn’t been for that, Laken’s insults probably
wouldn’t have pissed him off quite so much.
    What was done was done, though, and trying to apologize to
her would probably only make matters worse. The best thing he could do was keep
some distance between them the rest of the time she was on the ship.
Unfortunately, they weren’t due on Marlon Prime for close to a week, so
avoiding her might be difficult. Although, after the spanking he’d just given
her, she was probably going to be on her best behavior. He supposed he should
be grateful for that.
    Realizing he hadn’t heard anything from the med-bay yet, he
put down is glass untouched and headed for the door.
     
     
    * * * * *
     
     
    Laken was lying in bed on her stomach, wondering if soaking
in the tub would help her throbbing bottom when someone knocked on the door of
her cabin. She ignored it, hoping they would go away, but whoever it was only
knocked again.
    “Laken, it’s Dev. Can I come in?”
    Laken groaned. She didn’t want to see the other woman, or
any of the crew, for that matter. She opened her mouth to tell Dev to go away,
but changed her mind. She couldn’t ignore the other woman forever.
    She rolled onto her side and she sat up, letting out a
little, “Ouch,” when her sore bottom touched the bed. “Come in.”
    The door slid open and Dev hesitantly stepped into the room.
She chewed nervously on her lower lip. “I came to apologize. I didn’t mean to
take advantage of you. I assumed you knew we skirted the law on some of the
jobs we did. This time, we needed the code to get past the Federation’s
sensors, and I couldn’t get it to work. I wouldn’t have accepted your help if I
knew it was going to upset you.”
    Laken didn’t say anything. Whatever else she was, Dev was
still her friend. “I just wish you would have told me. I don’t know if I would
have helped you, but at least I wouldn’t have felt like you were trying to
trick me.”
    “I’m sorry,” Dev