Read Online Damage Control (Valiant Knox) by Jess Anastasi - Free Book Online

them in the medbay had never happened. His hands clasped between his knees and he stared off across the gym, his features tense.
    The aloof expression should have warned her away, but instead it widened that crack in her defenses she’d been trying to ignore. It shouldn’t matter to her if he was lonely or what kind of life he lived outside of his role as her CO. But for some idiotic reason she did care—or maybe curious was a better word. Whatever it was, she was invested way too much, considering their respective positions.
    Ever since the shuttle had been attacked on route from the Farr Zero , she felt like she’d been in a tailspin, unable to find her breath or gain perspective. She needed some time and distance. Maybe this whole thing with Captain Alphin didn’t mean anything. Maybe it was some kind of deferred gratitude for the fact that he’d been the one to pull her out of the damaged transport. With a good night’s sleep in a bed that wasn’t a hospital gurney, she’d probably regain her common sense and then be totally mortified that for even half a second, she’d thought she’d started to like him a little too much.
    Pushing to her feet, she grabbed on to the sanity of that resolve, stepping back to put some distance between them—physical and mental.
    “Thanks for the drink and the energy bar. I really should be getting back to the dorm.”
    He stood with a fluid movement, clasping his hands behind his back as he straightened.
    “Let me escort you.” Said in a tone that expected no argument. Yet the need to get away from him was swiftly building within her.
    “That’s not necessary.” She took another step back, even though she couldn’t leave until he’d dismissed her or at least given an indication that she was free to go.
    One side of his lips quirked upward for a brief second in an expression that was more cynical than amused. “As one of the recruits assigned to my training program, consider that it is necessary.”
    Well, darn, she couldn’t argue with that, not unless she wanted to risk getting booted from said training program before it officially started.
    Despite the weird, unsettled sensations creeping under her skin, she nodded and turned, grip twisting around the energy drink as she headed out of the gym with Captain Alphin on her heels.
    The silence stretched between them as they waited for the transit-porter. And of course the transit was empty when the doors opened. They stepped inside and Captain Alphin put in the destination of the recruit dorms. She focused her attention on the display that showed the transit as a red dot moving through a map of the ship, too aware of the man standing silent and impassive next to her.
    The doors opened to several recruits waiting to board the transit, and she ducked her head as she stepped out, unable to decide if she was relieved that they were no longer alone or embarrassed that some of her fellow recruits had seen her escorted around the ship by their CO.
    Quickening her steps, she headed along the corridor, concentrating on finding her assigned dorm. When she reached the hatchway, she turned. Captain Alphin had lagged several steps behind her, obviously not in as much of a hurry as she was. The few recruits who’d been loitering in the passageway disappeared in wake of Captain Alphin, leaving them alone yet again.
    “Sir, thank you for the escort, sir.” She clasped her hands in a formal stance, hoping her get lost hadn’t been too obvious.
    He stopped in front of her, glancing at the hatchway to her dorm room before his gaze settled on her.
    “Trying to get rid of me, Wolfe?” he murmured in a low tone.
    Her heart bumped against the inside of her chest. “Sir, no, sir.”
    He leaned in a little closer. “You know, I think I’m starting to get a good picture of you. You’re smart, maybe smarter than most recruits who come through here. Smart enough to know when to follow the rules to the letter and smart enough to know when you