Free Not the Man She Thought by Paige Tyler

offense.”
    The other woman laughed. “None taken. So, if you were back
on Tellune, what would you be doing right now?”
    Laken propped her chin on her hand and thought a moment.
“Hmmm...something relaxing. Like getting a spa treatment or soaking in a nice
hot tub.”
    Dev grinned. “I can’t help with the spa treatment, but I
think I might be able to help you with the tub.”
    Laken blinked. Since coming on board, she’d had to use the
strange waterless, sonic shower that was in her cabin, and she couldn’t stand
it. Relaxing in a hot bath was something she’d been dreaming about ever since
coming back from Seguu. “Are you saying you have a real, honest-to-goodness tub
on board?”
    The dark-haired woman nodded. “You’re welcome to use it, if
you want.”
    Laken chewed on her lower lip. “Are you sure the rest of the
crew won’t mind?”
    Dev waved her hand. “They won’t care.” She pushed back her
chair and got to her feet. “Most of them never use it anyway. They think it’s a
waste of water. Come on, I’ll show you where it is.”
    Still unable to believe there was actually a tub on board,
Laken followed Dev out of the mess and down a few sets of stairs to a hallway
she hadn’t seen before. At the far end, was a frosted glass door. Dev opened it
to reveal a small bathroom with a free-standing tub.
    “The captain had it installed to entice me to join the crew.
I would have done it even without the tub, but it was a nice gesture,” Dev
explained. “I have some bubble bath you can use if you’d like.”
    Laken couldn’t help but smile. She wouldn’t have thought Dev
was the bubble bath type. She gave the other woman a smile.
    “I’d love it,” she said. “Dev, this is perfect.”
    Dev smiled and opened up a small wall locker. “The bubble
bath is in here, and there are some towels up there, too,” she said, pointing
at another locker. “Take as long as you want.”
    As Laken sunk down into the tub several minutes later, she
wondered if Dev had realized just how much she’d needed this. Sinking down even
further into the bubbles, she rested her head back and closed her eyes. After
four days on the ship and three run-ins with its ill-mannered captain, she
wanted nothing more than to forget about everything else and focus on Mallin.
She let herself relax into the water, fantasizing about her fiancé leading her through
one of the complex dance steps back on Tellune, playing with the idea of how he
would grab her hand in the middle of it and run off somewhere private with her.
Then he would lean in to kiss her and...
    Suddenly, Mallin’s face was replaced by Rade’s. She frowned
and replayed the scene in her head, but to her annoyance, every time she got to
the part where Mallin kissed her, Rade’s image intruded.
       Laken
groaned in frustration. Dammit, she couldn’t even get through something as
pleasurable as a bath without thinking of that arrogant bastard.
     
    * * * * *
     
    Rade strode down the passageway to find his crew gathered
around the door to the bath. The only other time he’d seen them like that had
been shortly after Dev had come aboard. She’d been soaking in the tub,
oblivious to the male members of the crew watching her. When she had found out
about it afterward, she’d given them such hell that none of them had ever dared
done it again. So, why were they hanging around the bath now? Then he knew, and
his mouth tightened.
    “What the hell are you doing?” he demanded sharply.
    At the sound of his deep voice, Keir, Jorn, Vance, Finn and
Kamran all turned around. To a man, they flushed, obviously embarrassed at
being caught spying.
    They all began to babble at once, until Kam cleared his
throat, silencing the others. “Captain. We were...just checking to make sure
that everything was okay...” he began, but Rade’s hard look silence him.
    “Don’t you have any work to do?” he asked, his gaze going
from one man to the next. “If not, I can find some.