Page 7 of Found Treasure Bride

A tap on the hull let me know my company had arrived. I opened the hatch after making sure it was indeed who I had been waiting for. I was probably being paranoid, but better safe than sorry, hey!

I plastered a friendly smile on my face, “Hi! Come on in!”

6

Jakrah

The entire way to her ship, I was trying not to scratch my damned arm.

“Hrunghrhhh?”

What’s wrong, he asks? How to tell him that she smells delicious and now my arm is itching?

“I don’t know. Okay, well, maybe I do, but I’m probably wrong, alright?”

“Ghrurkrhl hrokl hrnghhh?”

Do I need to hang you upside down and shake it out of me?

Great, I’m making him even more pissed off with me. I rolled my sleeve up. “She smelled really enticing to me, and then this happened.”

A low rumble of understanding came from the Frellian.

“It could totally be coincidental,” I protested. “Sure, the mate thing came to mind first, but what the hell are the odds of that? I’m not even full Paethian! Yeah, the rash pattern kind of looks like a mate mark pattern would if there was one, but I wasn’t born with one. It was probably just her perfume that smelled good, and my skin is reacting badly to having to wear this damned shirt.”

He let out a sympathetic sort of keen then, plucking disconsolately at his own clothing.

“Yeah, I can’t wait to get out of these either, buddy.”

We reached the designated berth, and she hadn’t been kidding. Her ship the dock around it were pretty banged up. We carefully picked our way to her hatch by using the temporary gangway the engineers had placed. Grorsch rapped on the hull next to the hatch. As always, I was impressed with his show of restraint. The big lug was amazingly delicate and deft with his movements, which made him both an excellent ship engineer and co-pilot. He was also a crack shot with a blast pistol.

Now there was an idea. We could save her a fair few sols if she paid Grorsch to repair her ship instead of the station. Rando would charge her exorbitant fees for both the parts and labor, plus additional storage fees on top of her regular docking fees. He was a greedy sonovabitch, for sure, and if there was a way to make some money, he did it. Always just on this side of the law, too. He loved him some legal technicalities!

Though with this venture he wants to hire us for, I fear he’s slid right on over to the wrong side.

I quickly schooled the frown off of my face as the hatch opened, and my mate’s beautiful face smiled out at us.

“Come on in,” she said, gesturing for us to enter.

Grorsch gave me a sidelong look as I surreptitiously sniffed as we walked past. It didn’t smell artificial, and while I wasn’t an expert on perfumes, I knew some used entirely natural ingredients. But I doubted very many of them would use the scent of freshly turned toil and old paper as the desired result. No, this was all her, and from the quirk of Grorsch’s lips, it was something only I could smell.

Shit. That means it’s the mating scent, probably.

“Would you gentlemen like something to drink?” she asked us.

I shook my head no, and Grorsch let me speak for both of us. I needed a clear head for this, or my errant cocks would talk me into agreeing to do a job we couldn’t complete just because someone I thought might be my mate asked it of us. Maybe Grorsch did smell it, but it was just how she smelled, and my brain was only taking note of it because my libido liked her a lot. The rash on my arm could be psychosomatic, even!

That has to be it, I decided. A mate just isn’t on the cards. Well, maybe if she was good with ships and navigation, maybe. Someone who would slot right in as crew.

“Right, then,” she said, pinking as she looked at me from under her lashes.

So, she’s attracted to me, too. Perhaps once we let her down gently over this job, we can still get together for a bit of fun. Unlike a full Paethian, I can give a non-mate a damned fine fucking they won’t soon forget.

My dicks perked up at the thought of that. Oh, it would be a beautiful thing, seeing her lithe body writhing under me as we got tangled up in the sheets.

“I suppose I’d better show you,” she continued, leading us to a stasis locker held in a small cargo area in the back of her runabout. She opened it and pulled out a memory crystal, which she placed in a nearby console. “I took these images from the city I was scouting for my expedition. As you can see, the dome is completely intact. There was still power, and the maintenance bots still fully functioning. It’s as if they just all got up and walked out just yesterday.”

I stared wordlessly at the images. Oh, yeah, a place like that would be a treasure trove for collectors, legitimate or otherwise.