Page 49 of Smuggler's Beauty

Veronique laughed. “You are so gone. Let’s go.”

The drive to the ship was uneventful. Aiden had programmed the car to drive them back on autopilot. Partially because he was not super familiar with the area, partially so he could seamlessly sneak peaks of Evelyn in the rearview mirror. Win win.

The moment they parked, Evelyn got out of the car and squinted at the ship’s faux designation. She cackled as she read it.

“This is the ship of a killer, Aiden.”

He gave her a blank stare. She sighed.

“You have so much homework to do.”

“And I shall be very diligent with my assignments,” he said. He nodded at the box she was carrying. “From what I understand, you do too. Anything I can help with?”

The smile fell from her face in an instant and her shoulders slumped. Aiden wanted to kick himself. She clearly wasn’t thrilled with the idea of exploring her abilities, whatever they were.

“Probably not, but I appreciate the sentiment.”

Open mouth, insert foot.

Aiden grabbed a box from the trunk and followed her onto the ship, determined to help her however she’d let him.

It tooka few trips to unload Bankers Boxes, and by then the scent of grilled meat was drifting into the lobby from the kitchen. Evelyn could practically hear her stomach rumbling. Following their noses, they found the rest of the crew getting ready for a late lunch.

“Perfect timing!” Lillian gestured to the platters on the table. Towers of soft, warm pita, a pile of grilled chicken, thick slices of tomato and onions, and puddles of hummus and tzatziki made Evelyn’s mouth water. “Make a plate, and we’ll talk logistics.”

They settled into eat and discuss their next moves. Evelyn was ravenous, eating her lunch with gusto. Each bite was a different combination of texture and flavor.

“So,” she said, taking a break to sip her iced tea. “I admittedly zoned out back there. Where are we going now?”

“We, lass, are going to continue to hide you in plain sight,” Cairn said. “We’re taking a contract or two that will head us in the right direction for Tanalia while that Vinnie of yours gets things ready for us.”

“Please, no more poodles,” Veselko said around a mouth full of hummus.

“Your anti-poodle sentiment is noted,” Aiden said.

“And hopefully will be ignored,” Veronique said. “I love poodle duty.”

“We’re meeting a contact near a satellite colony on the way back toward 14 And. Then, we take that shipment on in the direction of Tanalia, and so on,” Elenor said, shifting in her seat. “Gives us all time to get our parts of the plan in order. Veronique, Tariel, and Lillian need to work out their video clips and how best to hack them into the Tanalian data streams. Veselko and I are going to be making connections with various . . . dealers we know.”

Evelyn was charmed that she’d tried to avoid mentioning weapons trafficking.

Aiden must get the impulse to pretty things up from her.

“Aiden and Cairn are mostly logistics and support for now. Depending on how long Vinnie takes to get her house in order, we may have to take on some cruise gigs we have scheduled, but I doubt we will. We’ll have to find a spot for you in the crew cabins in that case,” Elenor finished.

Evelyn swallowed a mouthful of pita. “That’s fine. I can sleep anywhere.”

Evelyn knew where she wanted to sleep, but she absolutely was not bringing that up at lunch. The first principle of not coming across as a clingy, desperate weirdo was to absolutely, under no circumstances, offer to bunk with someone’s gorgeous, funny, thoughtful, unattached child at lunch.

No matter how good of a kisser they were.

She was suddenly very glad she’d listened to Veronique about uninstalling her shower nozzle before they left the house. Her guest cabin had a very luxurious rain head fixture that wouldn’t do at all in an orgasm emergency situation. Evelyn hadn’t thought she’d be grateful that she hadn’t pounced on Aiden like a feral bobcat the night before, but their lives were about to become a lot more complicated.

He may want to step back entirely from this. . . thing.

“I do need a quiet-ish place to practice my. . . stuff.”

That was nicely vague. Not at all suspicious. Good job.