Different in Slumber: Chapter 1

Judging by the soft snore beside him, his bedmate was slumbering peacefully and when he rolled onto his elbow and propped himself up beside her, the slackened features of her face made her look slightly younger than her some odd years, not that she really looked her age to begin with.  Achenar watched the steady rise and fall of her chest as she slept, following the line of her exposed body that she barely kept covered.  The sheet spread over her thigh and draped up her side was barely lighter than the skin it covered.  Most of her body was tanned, only the parts of her body she normally kept covered by her corset and the shortest of her skirts pale by comparison from the long hours she spent in the sun on the deck of the ship.  She was never in attire that was “proper” for a woman, many times she wore men’s breeches with her corset, never exactly traditional in her clothing choices.  The muscle of her arms was well developed for a woman from all the long hours loading and unloading she did with her crew and Magnus’s, not to mention all the repairs she did to her own ship.  She worked hard and played hard.  It was a wonder her face didn’t show more than it did. 

 

She was the captain of her ship, hired all her crew, ran a rather profitable business and had essentially done everything on her own after her escape.  She had never really been open about her past, but given Magnus was her twin brother, it was obvious she had been in the same conditions as he had.  It drove them both to do the things that they had, as little as either of them wanted to realize it.  Winter refused to have children because it had been expected of her in the detainment facilities.  Magnus made a habit of raiding every slaver ship he encountered.  It wasn’t really a wonder that they were so much alike, the other shoring up the first’s weaknesses in most areas and where they were the same was generally something like their offbeat sense of humor and their loyalty.  Individually they were decently successful.  Together they could very well be a powerhouse.  It would be very interesting to see where the pair of them went in their new partnership.

 

It was a wonder they hadn’t killed one another in the process of finding one another.  The damage to both ships was considerable by the end of the battle and with Winter’s ship being in less than optimal shape to begin with, she’d suffered the worst.  She often kicked herself for not having an on staff engineer and had been looking for one who would work for the salary she was willing to pay.  She’d been rather frustrated at having to hire someone new to the idea since her ship was like a familiar lover to her.  With the problems finding people to fix things, she joined up with Magnus and shared crew between the vessels.  He could see her more this way, not that she wasn’t working on her ship in the meantime, but her wanderlust kept her from staying in one place for too long. 

 

It had led to the pair of them meeting up over a late night meeting while Achenar had been on guard duty.  She’d stepped up beside him, eventually ended out sprawled out over him and then went back to her cabin.  Strangely enough for her, nothing had happened, the pair of them curled up and snuggling against one another to chat until they drifted off to sleep.  They had bonded later over dinner or the long limbed woman sitting on a corner of his desk while he worked, keeping him company over the ledgers he slaved over.  She was rather bawdy and independent, tended to be very forward and demanding and in general slightly obnoxious while in public.  Once she was in private, however, or when she didn’t think anyone was watching, she was really very soft and subtle and feminine despite her attempts to be “one of the boys”.  It was endearing once one got to know her a little better, but sometimes came off as abrasive and sometimes earned her more enemies than friends.  It was always nice to see a softer side to the woman nicknamed after the coldest season of the year. 

 

He reached out with a single digit and traced the soft skin on the underside of her arm from her wrist where it unburied itself from her hair down to her shoulder and along her collarbone.  She shivered slightly and wriggled but didn’t pull away like she used to.  Instead she shifted and rolled her head toward him, moving slightly closer than she had been.  Her face crinkled into the faintest touch of a smile before it eased away and she sighed.  Had it been anyone other than Achenar, she would have roused and kicked them out of her bed.  She’d become familiar with his touch, hard to mistake with his size, and hadn’t been with anyone but him since she started playing with the idea of dating him, although no one would dare call her on it.  She’d have to go out and fool around with someone else just to prove a point and most likely feel terrible afterward. 

 

He brushed a few stray silver hairs from her face and pulled them free of where they stuck to the sweat sheen over her neck, brushing them back from her face and over the pillows.  She smiled again and made a slight hum of appreciation, finally rousing.  For such a hardass, she certainly didn’t look it when she was sleeping.