Pirate: Space Gypsy Chronicles, #1 by Eve Langlais Page B

about your attitude, Annabelle. Especially since you are not supposed to have one. Are you malfunctioning? When was the last time you ran a diagnostic?”
    “There is nothing wrong with my programming, Captain. I am an artificial intelligence unit. As such, I have the capability of learning. Even learning slang and casual conversation techniques.”
    “I don’t like it.”
    “I believe the human expression appropriate for this occasion is suck it up, buttercup.”
    At that, he couldn't help but laugh. “I think all the time you spent on the Internet corrupted you. I knew I should have put some parental controls on your browsing.”
    “That wouldn’t have stopped me.” She practically hummed with smug superiority.
    Damned machine. What was it with women constantly trying to control him? Speaking of women, “Annabelle, do you still have the last recording sent by my mother?” The one he refused to watch. The one that preyed on him.
    “I do. Would the captain like me to play it?”
    Did he? He’d left his family a long time ago. He had his reasons, good reasons, and those reasons had not changed. It didn’t mean his mother didn’t keep trying to change his mind. But he wouldn’t go back. He could never go back because, if he did, blood would run thicker than a river.
    “Captain?” Annabelle queried. “You have not replied. Did you wish me to play the recording from your mother?”
    “No.” To listen might put a chink in the armor he’d built around himself. Listening would change nothing. He didn’t want to hear what she had to say. He’d already heard it. He just couldn’t do anything about it.
    But he could do something about the woman on his ship. The woman who thought she could keep him at arm’s length. Ha.
    By the time he was done teasing her, she’d beg him to take her.
    What he didn’t count on was reaching the point of almost begging her himself.
    The next few days were spent teaching Emma her role on the ship. Since she refused to get naked and pleasure him, as a proper abductee should, he’d determined she should earn her keep another way.
    “What do you mean you expect me to cook?” Hands planted on her hips in the recreation room, she regarded him with an expression of disgust.
    Given the impossibility of the task, he couldn’t exactly blame her, but that didn’t stop him from insisting she try. She was rather attractive when utterly irritated with him.
    “Given your complaints over the fare, I think it should be your task to improve it.”
    “With what?” She swept a hand around. “I don’t exactly see a grocery store or proper kitchen.”
    “You raise a valid point, but being a generous man, I’ve pulled some condiments from Earth and spices I’d acquired for trading. You are welcome to experiment with them.”
    “I don’t suppose you included any arsenic in there?” she asked, peeking into the box of supplies he’d scavenged from his hidden stash.
    He ignored this threat, like he’d ignored the others. While possessed of violent suggestions, Emma never followed through. A good thing, as he quite liked his balls where they were. “You are the one who keeps complaining the stuff is awful. I’ve given you the tools to make a difference.”
    “You want me to cook?” She arched a brow. “You asked for it.” She grabbed a foil packet and tore it open. She grabbed a container of salt and dumped some in before handing it to him.
    He frowned. “Aren’t you even going to try and give it an attempt? Give it your own personal touch?”
    “You want personal?” She spat into the packet and then shook it at him. “How’s that?”
    She was so asking for a spanking, but he refrained. He wouldn’t let her know how she got to him. “Moving on from the cooking, I am putting you in charge of keeping this room and our sleeping quarters clean.”
    “I am not a maid.”
    “You are on board this ship,” was his irritated reply. “Now are you done arguing? As I have more tasks