Total pages in book: 137
Estimated words: 130317 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 652(@200wpm)___ 521(@250wpm)___ 434(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 130317 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 652(@200wpm)___ 521(@250wpm)___ 434(@300wpm)
Sev was so used to all the fuss and confusion his appearance caused, that the blasé look on his new partner’s lovely face had nearly unnerved him. Later she had grudgingly admitted that their first meeting had startled her, but she had what she called “an excellent poke-her face” so she’d been able to hide her reaction.
Since Mia had taught him how to play the human game of poke-her—(which was in fact a card game, and not some kind of strange diversion where you took turns actually poking a female)—Sev could attest that this was true. His partner could look perfectly calm and serious on the outside, no matter what might be going on inside—which made her damned hard to read sometimes.
Though at the moment, it was fairly obvious that she was feeling some concern about their upcoming meeting with Commander Sylvan.
He flew the shuttle through the transparent atmosphere membrane and landed neatly in the Docking Bay at the end of a row of sleek silver shuttles almost identical to his own. Then he got out on his side and went around to open the door for Mia.
“Wow…” His partner looked around with wide eyes. “This place is huge.”
“The Mother Ship is about a fourth the size of your Earth’s moon,” Sev told her. “This is your first time seeing it, right?”
“Uh-huh.” She nodded, still looking around the vast, echoing Docking Bay.
“Come on,” Sev told her. “There’s more to it than just the Docking Bay, you know. You want a hand down?” The shuttle, which was usually in car mode down on Earth, was in flight mode now—which meant the drop from the passenger side door to the floor below was a good meter.
Sev’s hands itched to wrap around his diminutive partner’s waist and lift her down, but he had learned early on not to assume that Mia needed help. She tended to get irritated if he took the upper hand without asking. Which was why he waited patiently for her answer instead of just picking her up and setting her down on the ground.
“Hmm? Oh yes—I guess that would be all right. Thanks, Sev.”
Mia held out her arms for him and Sev felt like his heart might burst as he lifted her carefully, feeling her small hands resting lightly on his shoulders. He secretly wished he could cradle her in his arms, but he knew Mia didn’t think of him that way. As far as he could tell, she didn’t think of any male that way—not even her ex-husband, whom she was currently in the process of divorcing.
So though he wished he could prolong the process, he set her gently on the polished metal floor of the Docking Bay instead.
“Now which way—do you know?” Mia asked, looking up at him as she straightened her navy-blue pantsuit and ran a hand over her sleek French braid.
She always dressed like a male, Sev thought—but he didn’t blame her. With her lovely face and cute, curvy-petite figure, his partner would never have been taken seriously by the human males she had to work and live among if she hadn’t taken pains to masculinize her appearance.
This was the fault of her culture—for some reason, human males refused to see females as their equals and often treated them as inferior beings. This effect was multiplied when the female in question was small or cute or extra feminine. Mia simply did everything she could to be taken seriously.
In fact, it was because of the way that human males treated their females that it had taken Sev so long to get his partner to trust him. She seemed to think at first that he would be twice as bad as a human male to get along with, just because he was so large.
“It’s always the biggest guys who are the biggest assholes,” she’d told him, once the ice between them had finally thawed. “I’m sorry if I judged you wrong, Sev—you’re okay.”
Those words had done wonders for their partnership and the fact that Mia now felt comfortable enough around him to show him what she was really feeling—and to accept help from him—meant a hell of a lot to Sev. Mia was what the humans called “a tough nut to crack”—meaning it was difficult to get past her shell and really know the person within. But he considered her worth the effort—more than worth it.
They’d had few misunderstandings at the start—mostly when he tried to protect her from aggressive perps when Mia didn’t feel like she needed protection. After all, she wore a gun on her hip, the same as him, as she’d pointed out to him several times.
It was hard to hold back and not step in front of her during a confrontation—she was so tiny and fragile and his natural instinct as a Kindred warrior was always to protect any female he perceived to be in danger. And that instinct doubled in intensity when the female in question was one he cared about, like Mia.