Chapter Eight

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Never one to sulk, despite having a lifetime of reason to, it turned out she had an aptitude for it, staying in her room the rest of the day, brooding over Jaylin’s behavior, and replaying their ugly scene in her head. The only realization Dani came to, when disappointment felt this devastating, it deserved a good pout.

She refused Malik’s invitation for dinner, leaving the tray he brought in untouched. Jaylin obviously didn’t care whether she passed out from starvation, because she didn’t see the first sign of him by the time she crawled into bed. She did so with a bruised heart. Tossing fitfully, it took a long time before she could relax enough to drift off.

It was dark when her eyes popped open again, except for two floor lights bracketing the bathroom and the main door to her quarters. Wide awake, she didn’t feel at all rested. She could have been asleep minutes, or hours, on board ship it was hard to tell because day and night ran together. She rolled to the side in search of a clock, but didn’t get far due to the heavy weight around her middle.

Glancing down, she saw long, broad fingers, neatly trimmed nails, attached to a masculine hand and thick wrist. Following it up a sinewy forearm to biceps which bulged despite his relaxed state. Wanting him after what he’d said and done would be crazy. Next, she tried to imagine why Jaylin thought he would be welcome in her bed.

Steaming with unspent anger, she lifted the heavy arm, made weightier from sleep, and eased out from underneath it. On her feet, she stared down at her nemesis, again struck by how beautiful he truly was. Features softened by sleep, he looked like the man she had developed a fondness for. She’d let him kiss her and take more liberties than any man, ever. But he had morphed into some arrogant, autocratic monster earlier today—or was it yesterday?—and, on top of it, hadn’t so much as blinked when he told Malik he’d plotted a course for Earth and her even more autocratic father.

His motto seemed to be get laid, get paid, and forget both the job and the woman once he was done.

“Big jerk,” she hissed, clapping a hand over her mouth when he stirred.

Holding her breath, she waited for those long lashes to flutter open and his unforgettable silver-eyed gaze to catch her standing over him. Seconds passed and he didn’t move. She counted to ten, then to twenty, before she relaxed, and dropped her hand.

In the silence of her room, on a ship in the middle of the galaxy, she came to a decision. She wasn’t going back, not until she could be free and clear of her father’s control, and all other self-important patronizing men and their authority—like Jaylin Sin-Naysir.

She bent and picked up her shoes, leaving the room before she smacked him for being such a dumbass, and a big fat heartbreaking disappointment as well.

As she crept down the hall, she tiptoed by Malik’s open door. She could see his still form on his bed. She stared at him a moment, watching him breathe, his dark wavy hair mussed and falling over his forehead. He looked so human in sleep. This was something else she found interesting, expecting him to be plugged in, or in some sort of recharging chamber overnight. But she guessed she’d watched too many sci-fi shows.

Shrugging if off, she moved to the lift, abruptly bypassing it when she decided it would make too much noise and wake them. She knotted her shoe strings together, then hung them over her shoulder and quietly climbed the ladder to the upper level.

With the lights from the control console blinking green, yellow and red, and flickering on a host of other equipment lining the perimeter of the circular room, she had plenty of light to explore the bridge level, really taking it in for the first time.

Not as big as the lower floor, windows made up a quarter of the walls of the room, and revealed hundreds of stars in the pervasive blackness. She stared at the view, surprised to see the nebulae they had edged around all afternoon was gone. Searching for something other than stars, she saw nothing. Taking a seat in one of the four flight chairs on the edges of the room, she put on her half boots and laced them tight.

She didn’t know what she was doing up here, except than to be far away from Jaylin.

Dani eyed the control console. What she knew about operating a ship of this kind could fit on the head of a pin. She’d ridden in shuttles and gliders countless times back home, and sat beside the pilot more often than not. Always inquisitive, she’d asked about every button and switch and panel, though she didn’t expect a star cruiser like this would be quite the same.

She stood and walked to the bank of maps on the far wall. All lit in a series of blue, green, and red. Earth was the center point of the first screen, and red dots delineated their flight path, the flashing one about midway representing their current position, or so she guessed. Out of curiosity, she touched the screen, and it shifted, zooming in slightly. Like with any other touch screen, she could use two fingers to expand and shrink the view.

After doing this several times, a window opened. With the same flashing red dot in the center, this view brought planets and moons and other large bodies into focus. And, unlike the smaller view, they had labels. Leaning in, she read the names. Only one or two sounded familiar, though didn’t job her memory enough to recall anything particular about those worlds.

As she continued to scroll and shift the screen, a line of yellow dots popped up, then some in green. Unsure what it meant, she looked for a legend, but didn’t find one. She zoomed in on one good-sized planet. When she had it enlarged to double, a text box appeared.

“Nusapphra,” she murmured. “I’ve read something about this one.”

She scrolled past the lengthy physical and scientific descriptions to the section on the inhabitants and culture. There she paused and began reading aloud.

“Settled in 2217, nearly ten thousand refugees from the war-torn planet Sapphra formed an all-female colony. Rich in natural resources the population eschewed fossil fuels in lieu of plant-based energies to establish their fuel-efficient, energy-independent colony.”

Intrigued, she continued. At the end of the summary, she grinned. “Woman president...all female Army...city-state league of governors—all women. Now we’re talking.”

Enlarging it further made a blue box with coordinates pop up. They meant nothing to her, although, underneath was something of interest—a button labeled Travel Time to Destination. She clicked it and read: 12 hours, 35 minutes. She searched for a clock—almost 2 am.

If she changed course now, they would be halfway there before they finished breakfast. She clicked the next button that read Plot Course. A new screen came up with some bulleted details—speed, nearby conflicts, restricted areas, and threats. All in green, the last bullet labeled Warnings was marked None.

A red button located below the box said in bold print, Set New Course.

From a map? No, this was too easy. Her finger itched to press it. Did she dare?

If Jaylin had been angry before, she could imagine what he would be like when he found out she’d changed their course. She laughed softly, picturing the big bad captain of the Renegade dealing with an all-female government who wouldn’t be swayed by his high-handed ways and his arrogance.

Her anger, which had never dissipated, bubbled over. Use her like a loose woman only to toss her away. Screw him. It would serve him right.

She moved her hand over the screen, index finger extended, but she hesitated, hovering over the red triangle that could very well engage the new course. She closed her eyes, wishing she had the nerve, but even she wasn’t so foolish.

A beeping sound made her open her eyes. On the screen in big bold letters appeared “New Course Engaged.” Suddenly a progress bar popped up.

“No! I didn’t press it,” she cried softly. She whirled, staring with dread at the bridge and the two dozen or so more blinking, flashing lights which hadn’t been blinking and flashing moments ago.

“Crap,” she cursed. Spinning back to the map, she looked for an abort button, an arrow back, or an undo... something. There was nothing.

She raced to the command console, stopping beside the pilot’s chair. She searched the panels, slide bars, and buttons for something that appeared to be able to take her back to five minutes ago, but she didn’t recognize anything remotely similar to the shuttles she’d been on.

Looking up at the view screen, she picked out a star, a red one, and watched it. Nothing happened, which gave her hope she hadn’t actually changed course. It was at a map, after all.

She heard a beep, followed by a series of buzzes, and the star began to move—though she knew it was the Renegade doing the actual moving. She’d expected it to happen slowly, which would give her time to go get Malik to undo whatever she had done, but the star shifted and seemed to race across the screen. She felt the rotation of the ship beneath her feet, which she hadn’t before, not in the days she’d been aboard.

Shit! What had she done?

When the controls started to hum, and the floor vibrated, she ran for the lift.

“Shit! Shit! Shit!”

Waking Malik became her prime objective.

The vessel jerked suddenly almost knocking her off her feet. She looked back, expecting to see smoke and flames. All seemed normal, except for the buzzing and flashing lights. Finding the red star took a moment because it now twinkled on the far side of the screen—opposite to where it had started. Her heart leapt into her throat.

“We’ve come around too fast,” she whispered in horror.

An alarm began to scream, and a red button lit up below the control panel. It was on a slide-out drawer all by itself with a plastic cover over it, as if to keep it from being accidentally pushed. It had some strange marking on it.

“Dammit. Isn’t this just my luck when everything else is in AUL?”

Alliance Universal Language was used on all thirty-seven planets. Taught in school, it’s how she could communicate with Jaylin and Malik without a translator, although they both knew a good deal of English—Jaylin’s command of Earth slang and swear words particularly impressive. The intent of AUL, to standardize language across all Alliance planets, to promote communication between worlds and their people, and most important, for use during space travel to prevent barriers in emergency situations like this.

Okay, the last bit was mostly bullshit. Never had it been intended to help an Earth girl who’d accidentally changed course on her rescuer’s alien ship.

Staring at the red light, her throat closed around her heart, still wedged firmly in place. All the shuttles at home had a similar button, an emergency shutdown in case of an engine fire. Did she risk the assumption alien ships were equipped the same way? If she hit it, and it worked, she could run and fetch Malik.

Except what if she gambled, and lost?

She moved forward, her hand extended, hovered over it for a second then she snatched it back, vacillating whether to do it or not.

Do it, a little voice told her. If you don’t correct what you started, Angry Alpha Captain is going to be up here in ten seconds, ready to beat your ass.

The decision was made for her when something hissed and a little ribbon of smoke started rolling up from the center panel. Figuring her fate had been sealed either way, she flipped up the plastic cover, squinched her eyes tight and, while holding her breath, pushed it. Then she prayed.

Before she uttered the words Dear God, her ass hit the floor. Shocked, she could only stare at the spot where she had stood and the thick cloud of smoke now billowing out of one of the seams around a screen with a shower of sparks.

“Mother of God, help me,” she whispered. Rolling to her stomach and onto her hands and knees, she scanned for a way to extinguish the fire. After a moment, and coming up with nothing, she screamed in frustration, “How can they not have a fire extinguisher?”

With the alarm still shrieking, the ship began to shimmy, and emitted a loud ka-thunk. Climbing to her feet, she spied one of the men’s jackets draped over one of the chairs. Snatching it, she swatted at the flames, hoping she hadn’t signed their death warrants with her stupidity.

As she tried to contain the fire, the auto-lift behind her creaked. She couldn’t abandon the fire, and take the time to see who it was.

Please, please, please, let it be Malik.

Her luck—always bad since the day she’d come into the world—failed her again.

“Daniella!” Jaylin’s roar eclipsed the pounding of his boots and all the alarms combined. “What the fuck have you done to my ship?”

“Does it matter, right now? We’re on fire,” she screeched.

But his question, apparently rhetorical, didn’t require an answer. His hands encircled her waist and he lifted her, bodily moving her out of his way. Then he hit a yellow button on the wall which made the lights dim and the console blink off. Next, he bent and retrieved a fire extinguisher from a low cupboard nearby—one she hadn’t seen. He aimed it at the console, and, after dispensing a cloud of an orange powdery substance, the fire was out.

For a moment, he stood still, his shoulders back, and his spine rigid as if forged in steel.

“You better run and hide if you know what’s good for you,” Malik whispered in her ear.

She jumped, not having heard him come up in the commotion. Taking his advice, she whirled, following a direct path to the lift. The only trouble, Jaylin had finished perusing the mess she’d made. His glare hit her like daggers piercing her skin. With a sudden change of plans, she veered right, toward the ladder.

Four feet from the round hole in the floor, and ready to dive head first through it, his roar stopped her in her tracks.

“Don’t you dare take another step,” he bellowed.

She chanced a glance back and saw his utterly livid face, eyes glittering with fury, nostrils flared. His mouth a thin slash in his bearded face—something new from the day before—and his jaw was held so tight she thought it might break.

“I’m so sorry,” she whispered.

His hand came up, palm out. Wisely, she remained silent.

When he spoke again, long moments later, his voice held an icy chill. “I’m too furious to even ask what the hell you were doing up here in the middle of the night. But it doesn’t matter. There is no excuse for this.” He swept his arm toward the destruction.

“I—”

“Silence,” he ordered tersely. “This cannot go unpunished.”

She sucked in a ragged breath, and nodded. Whatever he decreed: keelhauled, boiled in oil, strung up by her toes, she deserved. His sentence, however, stunned her.

“Malik, take her downstairs, put her in her room, and lock the door. And, before you leave her to think about what she’s done, that she may not have merely crippled the ship with this stunt, but could have very well stranded us in the middle of nowhere vulnerable to whatever lowlife parasites might happen across our path—”

“Jaylin, please let me explain,” she cried in desperation, but he continued as if she hadn’t spoken.

“Spank her mischievous little ass, and make every swat count. Fifty should do for a start.”

“Fifty!” she squealed at the same time Malik shouted, “Spank Dani?”

Then, they replied in unison, “No way!”

He ignored them both and went right on issuing orders. “Once you’re done, send her to a corner to wait for me. I’ll join you to give her the rest when I get this cleaned up and fix whatever components she has fried. And,” he added further, “I want her hands on her head, her spanked ass on display when I walk in.”

“I can’t spank her. You know how I feel about that. I’m sure this was all a mistake.”

“How can this be a fucking mistake, Malik? She crawled out of bed in the middle of the night and sabotaged our ship.”

“Not with intention,” she cut in weakly.

His eyes burned into her with such fury, she jumped back, as if they might scorch her skin.

“You”—he pointed at Malik—“will follow orders. My word is law on the Renegade, and I stand as judge and jury. Her carelessness has threatened not only our livelihood, but our very lives if I can’t do the repairs and pirates happen upon us.”

“Wait until after, then you can carry out your own damn sentence and spank her yourself.”

They squared off, nose to nose, two large, angry men, light versus dark, captain against first mate. Shame filled Dani as the ripples of her colossal blunder widened and engulfed everything and everyone around her.

“Stop!” she cried out, unable to stand by and watch them argue. And she couldn’t allow Malik to get in trouble for disobeying his captain when this was all her fault. “I’m the one who screwed up. Don’t be angry at him because of me. I’ll take the punishment.”

Two sets of angry eyes flicked her way. Silence reigned for a moment. Malik’s face relaxed as he gazed at her, his body visibly releasing its tension.

Not so with Jaylin, who still stood rigid, still humming with rage.

“She realizes this is warranted, and you have your orders,” he said in a deadly tone. “Take her below, now, before I do something I will regret!”

Malik’s long fingers curled around her upper arm, guiding her to the auto-lift.

“He’ll calm down, Dani. He just needs time alone to do so.”

“I don’t think so. I saw murder in his eyes.”

“He isn’t going to kill you,” he reassured her as he closed the gate.

When they began to descend, she caught a last glimpse of Jaylin, head bent, hand wrapped around the back of his neck, body vibrating with anger as he stood alone amidst the shambles of his bridge.

***

Like a death row inmate taking the last long walk before execution, she moved forward, her feet dragging.

“I’ve never been spanked before,” she told him when they came to a stop in the open doorway to her quarters. The navy comforter was thrown back, the linens mussed, and the thick pillows indented from where she and Jaylin had lain not thirty minutes before. Oh, why hadn’t she stayed in bed beside him? He’d been resting so peacefully, his arm around her, as though protecting her while she slept, much better than having the full force of his fury aimed at her in condemnation.

“I’m not surprised,” Malik replied. “You seem like a good girl, Dani. What were you thinking?”

“I wasn’t, obviously.” She glanced up at him, though stopped at his chin, stubbled like Jaylin’s with a scruff of beard. She couldn’t meet his gaze and doubted she ever would again. Not after this. “I’m sorry you have to do this.”

“It won’t be the first time.”

Proven wrong, just like that, she looked him in the eyes and asked in surprise. “You’ve done this before?”

“Plenty of times.”

“On Jaylin’s orders?”

“Sometimes. Other times on my own account.”

“To who? Other passengers?”

“Once before, but also on Trilor. It is a common punishment.”

“Oh.”

He guided her inside, coming to a stop by the bed.

“Will it hurt?”

“Yes, it’s meant to be a punishment. Except you won’t be harmed. It will sting, and your bottom will be sore, though nothing long-lasting. I promise.”

“But fifty is so many.”

“I’ll be careful with you, Dani. And though I disagree and think Jaylin should do this himself, you’ve earned every swat. You should have come for one of us right away, not tried to fix it on your own, or cover up your mistake.”

“I know,” she whispered, looking away.

He turned her to face him. Like Jaylin often did, he nudged her chin up to his, searching her face for the truth. “Tell me the reason you went upstairs in the middle of the night.”

“After the scene with Jaylin yesterday, when I awoke with him beside me...”

“I didn’t know he went to your bed.”

She nodded. “Still angry, I got up to get away and think. I didn’t want to wake either of you and went up to the bridge. It was innocent at first, then I started exploring. Your maps are really too easy to use.”

He blew out a breath. “That explains it. There is something wrong with the interface. We don’t set course from there because of it. It sends us into hyperdrive. The sudden increase in speed and to such a high rate always overheats the engines.”

She blinked. “If you know it’s a problem, why don’t you deactivate it?”

“We could, but saw no need since Jaylin and I know of the defect.” His fingers tightened, and lines around his mouth made him look angry. “We didn’t expect anyone else to change course from the maps, especially a guest we rescued, who wandered up where she didn’t belong while we slept.”

She flushed. Guilty as charged. “Please, can we get this over with before I dig a bigger hole for myself?”

“Smart idea.” He sat on the edge of her bed and patted his thighs. “I want you facedown, right here, Dani.”

“Can I ask a favor first?”

“What’s that?”

“After, can you, um...well, erase this from your memory? Because this is really embarrassing.”

He stared at her a moment, his expression puzzled, then his lips flattened into a hard line. “Is that why you’re going along with this so easily? Because you see me as a cyborg, rather than a man?”

“Oh, please, don’t be offended. But Jaylin, if he did this, I don’t think I’d be able to face him ever again. If I wanted to, that is. He deserved to be angry tonight, but I’m not over yesterday.”

“Good, don’t let him off the hook, just yet.”

“So, will you?”

“Erase your spanking from my memory banks?” He stared at her, and for a moment she thought he might erupt, but this was Malik, not Jaylin. His features relaxed, the glimpse of anger she thought she’d seen gone, his usual impassive expression in its place. “I’ll see what I can do.”

She breathed out slowly. “Thank you.”

“Let’s get these tights down and see this punishment done.” His fingers dipped beneath the hem of her tunic, and into her waistband. He pulled the stretchy fabric over her hips, hooking her panties with them, and tugged both down to her knees. Before she could blush at being so exposed, he upended her over his lap.

“This is a lesson, Dani. I want you to remember it well so you never repeat such a reckless act again.”

“I’ve learned my lesson, Malik. I promise.”

“Unfortunately, that’s not quite true, however, it will be soon enough.”

She couldn’t speak any more, because the spanking began.

His large hand came down swiftly on the fullest part of her cheek. When the flat of his palm met bare skin, the loud crack resonated in the small room. It stung, a lot, much more than she’d expected. The intensity built with each successive swat as one after another fell on the exact same spot. She counted to five before he moved to the other cheek, and repeated the process.

For the next set of five his hand moved lower, swinging in an upward motion which made her fleshy bottom jiggle. Mortified, a whimper escaped when she hadn’t made a sound over the sting. Five more repeated in similar fashion on the other side then he switched it up, applying one smarting spank at a time, back and forth on each cheek.

She’d lost count by the time he paused. “Halfway there.”

Twenty-five more to reach Jaylin’s decreed sentence and already her bottom burned and stung. Tomorrow she wouldn’t find sitting easy.

When Malik’s hand returned, it was to rub lightly over her hot skin.

“Your skin is very fair,” he murmured, his voice so soft she wondered if he was talking to her, or merely making an observation. On the verge of telling him to get on with it, so she could begin trying to forget, his fingertips grazed the seam between her cheeks, near her thighs. She sucked in a breath as a tingling spark shot straight through to her clit. She knew what would come next, a surge of wetness.

Mortification consumed her. Here she lay getting a bare-bottom spanking from a cyborg—pretty much a machine—and she was becoming aroused. The only thing keeping her from groaning in utter humiliation, the unexpected yelp she let out when he shifted. She rocked on his thighs, which tipped her head down toward the floor. Gripping his leg, her other hand flew out reaching for the floor, hoping to catch herself before she landed on her head.

Maybe she’d be knocked unconscious and get a case of situational amnesia.

“I won’t let you fall, Dani. I’m simply broadening my canvas.”

She noticed, although she dangled close enough for her hair to touch the floor, he held her securely with an inflexible arm around her waist.

His comment about a broad canvas penetrated as the spanking resumed. Two by two, he peppered her lowermost curves catching her upper thighs in the process. Knowing he would see her wetness, and guess what it meant, she clamped her legs together. Unfortunately, this made her butt cheeks clench too, and being spanked while tense hurt twice as much. Who knew?

“Relax, tightening up will only make it worse.”

Okay, Malik knew. But then he’d done this before, as he’d said.

“Just get it over with,” she told him, her voice breaking on the last word.

“Not until you unclench your muscles. You’ll bruise.”

“I don’t care,” she sobbed.

“I do. Spread your legs, a bit. It will help with the final ten.” When his hand slid between her knees and began moving higher, she couldn’t bear any more.

“Stop!” she shrieked, while kicking and squirming, no longer willing to take what she knew she deserved, not if Malik would see it aroused her.

“Dani, stop this, now,” he said sternly, “before you get hurt.”

“Like you care. You’re spanking me, remember? Isn’t that your intent?”

He shifted her again, dropping one of his legs over both of her own to keep her still.

“My intent is you learn to never do something so foolish again. My intent is also for you do what you’re told. Now stop this nonsense. You have ten more swats, afterward, we’ll talk.”

“No. I won’t stop. I hate this, and I hate you, and I hate this fucking ship.”

“What in the name of the Creators is going on in here? I could hear the commotion above. I said spank her, man, not kill her.”

Great, now Jaylin is here to witness my shame.

“I was going easy, I swear. Out of nowhere, she went wild. I’ve never had a woman react this way before.”

“Let me up,” she demanded, while pounding her fist against his leg. “I said, let... me... up!”

His hands fell away, while others slid under her arms and pulled her upright. Before she could blink, she stood on her feet, her hair in disarray over her face. She tossed her head, sending it flying then all she could see was Jaylin’s shocked expression.

“What’s come over you?”

“He was spanking me, that’s what.”

“I know, I told him to, but I’ve never heard such carrying on from a few little swats.”

“Little swats! Obviously, you’ve never been spanked by a cyborg.

“This is really starting to get old,” Malik grumbled behind her.

Jaylin spun her around and bent her over his arm. “Baby, you’re barely pink.”

“I told you I was going easy. She acts like I took a strap to her.”

His big hand stroked over her tingling skin, like Malik had. Moisture flooded her pussy, so much a little trickle meandered down to her thigh. She clamped her legs together again.

Neither man had noticed yet. When they did, she’d have no choice except to launch herself into space down the refuse chute. No way could she spend the coming days with them knowing she became aroused by having her bottom bared and smacked.

Jaylin picked her up and sat beside Malik on the bed, with her perched upright on his thighs instead of over them. She squinched her eyes shut. It was only a matter of time before her wetness transferred to his trousers, and her embarrassment would be complete.

She tried to remember if she’d seen the trash receptacle. It had to be in the galley, or close by. Maybe she’d use the air lock in the cargo hold and eject herself into the nothingness of space, it couldn’t be worse than this.

A tear escaped and rolled down her face. Great. Now they’d see she was also a big cry baby. Would her humiliation never cease?

Tenderly, one of them wiped the wetness from her cheek, and a warm hand brushed back her hair. She didn’t dare look to see which of them—or if both—were responsible for the comforting touches, she couldn’t.

“Dani, sweetness, are you really in such discomfort?”

“I’ve never hurt a woman, Jaylin. You know that.”

She couldn’t let him go on thinking he’d done her harm. She shook her head, still not looking at either one of them. “It wasn’t you, Malik. I mean it stung, but more so my pride than my bottom.”

The bed shifted, as did she, and she found herself in Malik’s arms which held her tight against his chest. “Then what happened?” His hand stroked up from her knee to her hip, the gentle touch so close to where she ached it made her need burn stronger.

“Uh, Mal. I think I know.”

She cracked an eyelid and, as she feared, Jaylin stared at the wet spot on his buff-colored pants where she had been sitting.

With another mortified whimper, she tried to sprint from Malik’s arms, but he anticipated it and held her fast. “Becoming aroused by a spanking is nothing to be ashamed of. Many women react the same way.”

Unable to run, she decided to hide, burying her face against his chest. “Can we not talk about this, please? As in ever, again?”

“I’m sure Malik can tell you the physiological response behind it.” Jaylin went right on dissecting things as if she hadn’t said a word. “Proximity to a lot of other nerve endings, and then there’s the carnality of it all, and, to some, being dominated, stripped naked, and made to submit is very arousing.”

“Not the technical terms I would have used, but he’s right, Dani.”

“I find it hot.”

Hearing the grin in his voice, she peeped at him with one eye, the other and most of her face still hidden against Malik. “What?”

“You’re drenched, Dani. Your bottom is pink, not to mention bare.” He inhaled. “And you smell fucking fantastic.”

“I thought you were furious with me for damaging your ship.”

His face went taut, and she regretted bringing it up, since he had appeared to have mellowed with all the sex talk. “You made a damn mess, that’s true. But I put out the fire before any of the vital parts went up in flames. I replaced a few components, and we’re back online. I have a few more tweaks to do, and there is the orange residue on everything to deal with.” His head tilted as he contemplated her. “You, sweet Dani, have a mop and bucket in your future.”

She sat up, feeling a glimmer of hope well up in her chest. “Can I swab the deck instead of taking the other swats?”

“Absolutely not.”

She scowled at him, feeling her lower lip curl down and stick out. He leaned in and kissed her. “Finish up, Malik. When you’re done, send her on up with the mop.” Once he stood, he looked down at her, his thumb gliding over her pouting lips. “Afterward, we’ll take care of your wet spot.”

Her jaw dropped open and a soft gasp escaped.

He didn’t say more, only winked at her, before striding out the door. After she stared long and hard at where she’d last seen him, she turned and asked Malik, “Any chance we can pretend you gave me the rest?”

“No.” His answer came with a tilt to the corners of his mouth.

“You two are cut from the same cloth.”

He choked on a laugh, which surprised her.

“What’s funny?”

“You’ll find out soon enough.” He firmly guided her back over his knee and without further delay, delivered the last ten swats. His broad hand and rapid pace reheated her skin, and the sting resurged as though she hadn’t had a reprieve at all. It only took four smacks before she pleaded for forgiveness, and by the time he stopped, she’d promised to never set foot on the bridge again.

When he set her on her feet, he helped set her clothes to rights, including pulling up her tights. The heat coming off her singed behind got trapped in the clingy fabric making the discomfort worse. She rubbed, except it was tender and only made it hotter.

She didn’t suppose she could go around with her bright-red, steaming butt taking the air, and she certainly didn’t plan to ask. He didn’t give her time to anyhow because he took her hand and led the way to the storage area where they kept the cleaning supplies.

“You’ll have to make at least one more appearance on the bridge, sweetheart, in a command performance by the captain.”

“It just keeps getting better,” she muttered.

Then, with a bucket in one hand, and an old-fashioned rag mop in the other, he put her on the lift with a light pat on the ass. When she twisted, and looked back, she was stunned to see the twitch of his lips and the amused glint in his amazing eyes. Both remained in place as he watched her ascend to face the rest of her penance up top.