Free Handsome Devil by Ava Argent Page A

to frenemies,” I decide, getting groggier.  
    M'anu frowns. “What?”
    “ Not friends but not enemies. Or friendly enemies. I can't remember. Frenemies.” I am having the hardest time keeping my eyes open.
    No big surprise when M'anu stays silent.
    It is a surprise when he leans forward and sniffs my temple. Hair, I could see, but my temple? Who buries their nose in the skin there and takes a long whiff? “I smell or something?”
    He rumbles noncommittally, then moves down to my neck.
    I shy away. “That tickles. Leave me alone.”
    He settles back. Boy, someone looks disgruntled. Ferissians are weird. “Tell me about where you're from,” I prompt. I'm dog tired and want to sleep. M'anu's voice should get me there in no time. To tell the truth, I just want to hear him talk without feeling like I'm pulling conversation from him.
    “ Ferissia?”
    “ Mm.”
    “ You have never been there.”
    I shake my head, snuggling deeper into the bedding. I'm so comfortable I can't even put forth the effort to speak anymore.
    A big hand settles on my hip. He's not touching any other part of my body, not even brushing a knee against mine. Why do I feel like the gesture is significant?
    “ Ferissa is a small planet that is lush and green. There are ice tundras in the south and more arid climes in the north, but mostly Ferissia is a jungle. It is rich in resources, with oceans and rivers, hills and valleys.” His fingers absently trace my hip bone. “It is not so varied as Earth, but it is beautiful.”
    I sigh. The picture in my head resembles South America or Africa, not that I've been to either.
    “ I have heard that some parts of Earth experience extremes in light and darkness. Is this true?”
    “ Mhm.” Finland. Alaska. A few other places I can't think of riht now.
    “ It is the same on Ferissia.”
    I crack open an eye. Something about the way he says it... “Seasonally?”
    “ No. Days and nights are protracted. A night lasts around 92 standard hours.”
    Whoa. No wonder he has night vision. He's adapted for darkness.
    Explaining the teeth would probably take a lot more effort
    M'anu has the perfect voice for bedtime stories. I could listen to him read the phone book to me. Jenner, Judith A. I wasn't expecting this side of him. I've seen M'anu annoyed, smug, seductive, predatory, and flat out pissed off. This is the first time I've ever seen him relaxed. Almost mellow, like me.  
    Must be the ebb in the tide. The second the drugs wear off he'll go back to being the macho-yet-intelligent lunkhead just begging me to whack him over the noggin.
    With a two-by-four.
    But that's later. A lot later. I'm going to enjoy the truce while I can keep my eyes open. As he talks, though, that gets harder and harder...
    I wake up alone, but not without a plan.
    It's a bitch to get the wrapping off one handed, but after a little bit of struggling I manage it. The whole time I go over the bullet points of what I want to say. I flex my arm to test it for problems. Thanks to space medicine, there are none, and I'm free to hunt down M'anu.
    He is on the bridge. I throw myself into a folding chair with as much grace as someone can into a clap chair. He doesn't turn, a head perk the only indicator that he knows I'm in the room. Well, at least he gives me that much. I prop my elbows on my knees and level my most serious expression at the back of his skull. “Let's get real. You're up to your eyeballs in trouble. The bounty has to go. That means contacting your brother.”
    “ He doesn't have Bethina yet.”
    And he won't, but M'anu doesn't know that. “He won't have her if my sorry butt gets kidnapped every five minutes either.”
    “ You would eventually end up with Feruz.”
    “ Oh yeah? Then why not let me go last night? Yesterday? Whenever that was?” What day is it, anyway?
    He pauses, turning his profile my way. “You started that, if you will recall.”
    He's technically right, but as that doesn't serve my purpose, I blow