Free Creed of Pleasure; the Space Miner's Concubine (The LodeStar Series) by Cathryn Cade Page B

braced against the weight of rejection and fear.
    “Okay,” the pilot called around a mouthful of eggs. “Twenty minutes?”
    Taara nodded without looking back.  
    Back in the room she’d been given for the night, she quickly repacked her bag and set it by the door. Then she stood in the middle and looked around her. The bed was still mussed, the covers trailing on the floor. Well, quarked if she would straighten it. Let him clean up after her. Or his housekeeper, anyway.
    Then the end of the covers trailing on the floor twitched.  
    Taara froze. Who knew what kind of creatures roamed this planet? There were birds of prey, which meant there were other creatures. Of course there were, this was a temperate planet with plenty of food, water and clean air.  
    She took a cautious step toward the bed. If it was a serpent of some kind, she was fine with that. Another good thing about being from a planet with reptiles of all kinds, she feared only a few. Doubtful that there were hiss vipers here.
    The covers twitched again. She froze. The fabric tented outward, toward her. A dark, hairy appendage appeared, behind it the shadow of a form. Two slitted eyes glittered up at her.  
    A yelp of sheer terror burst from her throat. She bolted backward toward the door, and tripped on the edge of the woven rug. As she hit the door frame, the creature sprang.  
    She screamed.

Chapter Six
    Creed drained his coffee mug and set it on the table.  
    The pilot had just gone out to power up her cruiser, after thanking him politely for the bed and breakfast. Her carefully neutral expression told him volumes—she thought he was a fool for sending the blonde away and a hard-ass for upsetting her.  
    Or maybe he was imagining this. Quarked if he knew.
    What he did know was, his fine breakfast was a knot in his gut and his skin felt tight, as if some impending battle loomed. The way he got before diving in with his Zhen brethren to scour out a nest of thieves or slavers. Only this time it was caused by one small, pretty woman, whom he could subdue with one arm tied behind his back and not break a sweat.  
    Except that conversely, it felt like all she had to do was crook one of those dainty fingers and he’d be on his knees, begging for anything she would give him.
    Sweat did break out on his skin at this, and he shuddered, digging his fingers into the cerametal frame of his chair. He would never beg for anything again—not for freedom, and certainly not for affection. She’d be gone soon, and he’d be at peace, if lonely.
    Then a high, shrill scream cut through the quiet air, and he vaulted for the open door and dashed through the house to get to her, grabbing a laser from the wall as he went. She was in danger. Had pirates snuck into the compound somehow? Did a Mau have a cutter at her throat even now? Had a young gyre hawk dived in through an open window? That had happened once when they were first raising the house.
    She met him in the passageway outside her room. Her green eyes were wide with fear, her face pale as soy creamer. Dashing toward him full-tilt, she climbed him like a tree, wrapping her arm around his neck, her legs around his waist while she twisted to peer back over her shoulder.
    She was trembling, her breath coming in quick shuddering gasps. “It’s in my room,” she gasped. “Don’t go in there. It has big, sharp teeth, and—and fangs. Oh, it’s horrible. It jumped out at me. It tried to get on me .”
    Half his mind reeling with the sensation of having an armful of soft, lithe, fragrant woman, Creed did what he had to and set this aside. He thrust the laser in the back of his belt—no lasers in the house, as long as the threat wasn’t pirates, because they cut through furnishings and destroyed walls just as efficiently as flesh—palmed his blade and side-stepped until he could see into her room. She was light enough he could move fast if he needed to.
    “How big?” he asked, his mind cataloguing the