Page 26 of Smuggler's Beauty

“Well, my life story is available on the data servers. There are entire webpages devoted to analyzing my poor battle tactics. You can look up anything you want to know about me.”

“That’s cheating,” he said, knowing full well that he’d done just that.

“I thought your sticky note looked a little sparse.”

Aiden felt his ears heat.Busted. May as well lean into it.He gave her a wink and sipped his drink. “I prefer collecting my intel the old fashioned way. Observation’s a hell of a tool if you’re patient enough to use it.”

“Well, I’ve observed that you’re a. . . thirty-ish? Let’s say thirty-five-year-old man who lives with his parents and steals things for a living.”

Aiden nearly choked on his drink. He coughed, put the drink down on the table before he spilled it.

“I don’t live with my parents! I happen to work in the family business, a lucrative one that requires a lot of travel. I have a condo on Earth.”

“Oh? Where at?” She plucked another cocktail cherry from the jar.

“Orlando,” he muttered.

She stared at him for five solid seconds. “You’re telling me I was kidnapped by Florida man?”

“I like the roller coasters!” he said, wincing at how defensive he sounded. “It sounds way worse than it is.”

She grinned at him. “No wonder you like to pretty things up. And does Mrs. Florida Man have anything to say about this career choice? Or is there a Mr. Florida Man?”

Aiden made a show of looking at his bare left hand to conceal the grin. She was definitely interested.

“Don’t have one of those. Honestly, Evelyn. I’m not a scoundrel.”

“Just a smuggler,” she said with a smirk. Aiden liked the way her eyes shined when she teased him.

“Exactly.”

She put the cherries back on the table and resumed her position with her head on his shoulder. Not wanting to disturb her, he brought his drink back to his hand with a slow stream of telekinetic focus.

“Just checking,” she said. “How did you wind up in such an exciting career field anyway?”

“The moms have always been. . . talented. Specialized skill sets. They were planning to retire and go straight. That’s why we bought theDawnin the first place. But Tariel was going through a really nasty divorce and needed to make some quick money for the settlement. His husband had learned a few too many of his tricks and had forged a bunch of documents. He was in pretty deep.”

Aiden stroked his hand over Evelyn’s head, then succumbed to the urge to twist a lock of her hair between his fingers. Thesilky strands were more pleasing to play with than any small objects he could telekinetically juggle.

“Rude.”

“Yeah, we never liked him. Anyway, I had started out on my own with Cairn and Veselko. Cairn had just gotten serious with Veronique. We sort of just. . . merged plans, I guess. Met Nannette a few months later.” Aiden realized that had been five years ago.

“Are your moms sad they didn’t get to go full boutique hoteliers?”

“Nah. I think they know they’d get bored with it eventually. We run a half dozen legit party cruises a year, and it scratches the itch for them.”

“Sounds nice.”

He nodded and took another sip of his drink.

“I guess the red flags are pretty small, Orlando,” she said. She nudged him with her shoulder and grinned.

Aiden smirked, stretched his legs out, and crossed them at the ankles. Three days ago, his biggest concern was telling his moms that he wanted to leave theDawn, and now you wouldn’t be able to pay him enough to leave the observation deck. They stayed silent for hours, watching the stars stream by, lost in their own thoughts.

CHAPTER TWELVE

Evelyn woke,once again, in her cabin. She had nodded off with her head on Aiden’s shoulder. No doubt he had floated her body back down to a more comfortable resting place while she slept. Or would that be too hard a task given his level of telekinetic ability?