him in the meantime wouldn’t be a hardship.

The wall of storage stumped her until she brushed her fingers over it and a drawer slid out. She hoped he wouldn’t mind if she borrowed his stuff. She searched for clothes, not digging into his personal items until she found what appeared to be shirts. She took one off the top of the folded pile, pulled it down her body, and smiled at how it fell to mid-thigh. She rolled the sleeves to find her hands.

My cyborg is a pretty big guy.

She instantly chastised herself. “He’s not mine,” she muttered. “At least not for keeps.”

She’d left Earth to live with her new husband, had hoped to find a happy life with the guy. Instead she’d ended up with a deceitful troll.

Deviant’s smiling face flashed through her mind and longing hit. Why couldn’t he have been the one who’d answered her ad?

Another idea struck and she chewed on her lip. Women from his planet didn’t find him attractive. She’d overheard him say he had given up on having a family, but she wasn’t blind. The idea of staying with him and possibly having little cyborgs wasn’t an unpleasant thought. She’d always dreamed about having a few kids if she ever found the right man.

Maybe Deviant would decide to keep her. She really liked him, at least so far, and it could be the answer to both of them getting what they wanted. Of course, convincing him of that might take some time. And she had nothing but while she paid off her debt to the sexy cyborg. Perhaps he’d start to feel for her, the way she was already beginning to feel for him.

A hundred unanswered questions filled her mind but she tried to push them back. Why did the women cyborgs find Deviant unattractive? What kind of place did he call home?

She glanced around the room, hoping he didn’t live on the ship most of his life. He’d mentioned a home world. That meant a planet that Earth wouldn’t know about, so it had to be far from the solar system she’d been born in. Otherwise Earth would have tried to colonize it.

She made herself comfortable by dropping one of his pillows over her legs to keep them warm as she sat cross-legged on the bed. The plan of convincing Deviant to keep her for good played through her mind over and over. She liked it a lot. He could be an ass but she doubted it. They had time to get to know each other better.

Don’t fall in love, she warned, afraid he might not return the feeling. That would be a bad scenario if she lost her heart to him, and he only saw her as a way to get some sexual experience.

She wasn’t even certain he could fall in love. Did cyborgs feel those kinds of emotions?

* * * * *

Deviant stood in line with a tray. The crew had taken a break right before he’d entered the food services area and most of them seemed to be there. He linked with the onboard computer while he waited his turn, to leave a message for his father.

“I’m in my quarters. I need to privately speak to you when you return. Hail me but don’t go there.”

He cut the connection as the male in front of him walked away with his meal. He quickly filled one plate to capacity. The male behind him raised his eyebrows.

“Hungry?”

“It was too difficult to eat when I visited the station.”

“The head coverings.” Maze nodded. “I can relate.”

He spun away and left before anyone else could question him about the amount of food he’d taken.

His father would smooth over the rules he’d broken by bringing Venice onboard the ship without permission. He knew it was procedure to contact the council first to get approval. She would have been located by the station owner before the council even answered, in that were the case. And more than likely, the council would have said no. Deviant wasn’t willing to take that chance.

It was done now, Venice already aboard the cyborg shuttle, and he’d face whatever consequences were meted out to him as punishment. Venice had been a temptation he couldn’t resist. A real female had asked for his help, offered herself to him, and they’d made a verbal agreement that she’d belong to him. It was a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity he refused to pass up.

She was on the small side, her skin tone pale enough to appear striking