“I got an address off the earpiece,” Ixy declared the next day.

Jenna and Crimp sat in their hotel room. They had planned to go find Vinia first thing that day, but Ixy’s news changed that. 

“Where is it?”

“It’s four blocks away. It’s a men’s boxing gym and club, meaning athletes stay there when they’re training.”

“Okay,” Jenna said, putting the information together into something useful. “So Ryatt is staying there. If Sardius is staying with him, he’d certainly be able to transmit to the earpiece from there. So, let’s hunt up Ryatt and see what he has to say.”

Jenna said all that and she said it confidently, but she didn’t really want to do any of that. Not only did she find Ryatt weirdly attractive, but all that had become more real to her since he’d kissed her. Sardius said he was just that kind of guy, implying it didn’t mean anything, and she shouldn’t get bent out of shape about it… but she’d really liked it. How long had it been since she’d made out with anyone? If she pushed away the cobwebs of her mind, she knew she’d made out with Armen right before she’d been stolen away, but she didn’t remember it being that exciting. Her disgust with his behavior blackening any fun she’d had with him until it resembled mold. Thinking further back, she hadn’t let herself enjoy the guys she dated back on Earth because she was afraid of complications with her crown. Now a strange, otherworldly boxer had set her on fire. 

She liked it even more when she thought it over. He had won his fight, he’d called her out of everyone and handled her like she was his prize. She shouldn’t have liked it. Well, even if she did, she was completely certain she didn’t like the idea of spending the day going to look for him. Surely if she talked to Ryatt and he showed himself to be the same kind of creep Armen was, another fine memory would be ruined.

Except wasn’t she looking for Sardius? Didn’t she want to meet him more than anything? She buckled up, hoping that one thing might lead to another. Maybe Sardius was at the same gym Ryatt was staying at and he just didn’t want to see her because he was insecure about his looks. He’d said as much over the earpiece when they’d talked about it.

She paused in her thinking. Sardius hadn’t seemed bothered by Ryatt making moves on her. Just how insecure was he? Was he there? What if he wasn’t there? What if he only acted like Ryatt kissing her didn’t bother him? What if he was really bothered, but decided to allow it because he could never measure up to a man like Ryatt? Or what if it all meant that Sardius didn’t really care for her romantically?

Jenna needed to calm down, breathe, and adopt an octopus state of mind… the one where you could be in love with eight people at once without jealousy.

Jenna let out her breath. She was a human and she didn’t think it was possible for her to have an eight-sided heart. 

She got dressed and looked as cute as a button, but her mind was a mess as she stood by the door. 

She put on her hat. 

Crimp put on her hat.

They were ready to go.

The gym was called The Clube, like someone had decided that putting an unnecessary e on the end of the word made it better.

“Clube?” Jenna sampled the word. It made her mouth feel dirty like someone had tricked her into saying ‘lube’ for their entertainment.

Crimp giggled next to her. “I can’t believe you’re all paying me for this,” she chuckled as she opened the door for Jenna.

Inside, it was almost empty. Probably most of the athletes were sleeping off whatever partying they’d done the night before, but since there was no one at the reception desk, Jenna and Crimp wandered around. The majority of the main floor was dedicated to boxing training and they found six boxing rings set up with mats and punching bags leading the way to where a handful of guys were training in the back.

Ryatt was in the ring, but he wasn’t fighting. He was training someone younger with huge pads on his arms for the kid to hit. 

“Looks like you’ve got company, Crabman,” someone shouted when the cluster recognized Jenna as the woman he kissed in the ring the night before.

Ryatt stopped the boy from hitting and pulled the straps off his arms. “That’s Boneman to you,” he called playfully to whoever was heckling him. He dropped himself out of the ring and came toward Jenna like she was his long-lost love. “I knew you couldn’t stay away,” he said before he pulled her into his arms for another kiss.

Jenna had not been prepared for a greeting like that, regardless of what Sardius had told her and he completely swept her away. Okay, she admitted within herself, love without touching was crap.

Jenna pulled him closer, breathing him in and feeling his warmth after the chill rain outside.

She didn’t regain her senses before Crimp had a poisoned finger to Ryatt’s throat. “You were cooler last night,” she said snarkily. 

He let go of Jenna.

Her senses reeled. She straightened her clothes, fixed her hat, and corrected the expression on her face. It took her a whole thirty seconds for her to reclaim her senses. “I want to talk to you,” she said evenly when she was calm.

Crimp took her bare finger away from Ryatt’s neck and resumed her position beside Jenna, apparently satisfied that he’d received a proper warning.

Ryatt smiled at Jenna and turned to the guys with him, “Well, I’ll just take my lady friend to the back to ‘talk’.” He air-quoted the word. “Keep that kid punching while I’m gone.”

Crimp followed Jenna and Ryatt into the far back and kept her distance so they could hiss whatever conversation they needed to have in relative privacy and she could still make sure Jenna stayed safe.

“How do you know Sardius?” Jenna whispered urgently.

“We have a certain amount in common,” he answered evasively.

“Where is he?” she demanded, urgency in her voice.

Ryatt’s mouth hung open. “Uh… He’s around. He escaped the jail during the riot. He fought his way to the offices and took one of the dimensional portals that brought him this system.”

“Is he here?” Jenna demanded.

Ryatt leaned forward, taking a heavy hand in their conversation. “Look, I’m not his dad. All I know is that he asked me to deliver that earpiece to you and I invited you to my match because I wanted to meet you.” His gray/brown eyes were like twilight on the muddiest night of the year. Somehow, they still had stars.

Jenna felt her inner turmoil crash in her chest. How could this guy be so cute? “You signed his name for him when you sent me the invitations?”

“Yeah, well, you know him and you don’t know me. I know for a fact, he didn’t mind. He wanted me to get you the earpiece. He wasn’t overly concerned over how.”

Jenna huffed a breath of impatience. “Can you give me a ballpark direction where I could look for him?”

Ryatt clicked his tongue. “Pirates don’t advertise where they sail. At least one that wants to stay alive doesn’t.”

Jenna’s shoulders fell and her back curved like she was a little shrimp. “Is there nothing you can tell me?”

He put his hands in his pockets. “Nothing is coming to mind, but there’s something you could tell me.”

“What?”

“Sardius hinted you might have a job for me doing security. I was hoping you could thank me for delivering you the earpiece and perhaps you could offer me a job.”

Sardius had mentioned that the night before, but Jenna was still uncertain. She held back her reply while Ryatt continued.

“I mean, I get a few paid fights and I’m teaching kids so I get by, but working as your bodyguard would be a vastly superior gig. What does she get paid?” he asked, pointing to Crimp.

“You wanted to ask me for a job and you began all this by making out with me… twice?” Jenna asked in confusion.

He leaned his hips toward her in a boyish fashion. “I like to put on a good show.”

“That would work well for what went on in the ring last night. Likewise, kissing me like that in front of your friends probably makes you look like a stallion, but for a person on my level, given your intentions, that kind of thing is really unprofessional,” Jenna remarked, straightening her back and steeling herself against his charms.

“If you hire me, I’ll be professional,” he promised with a smile that lacked some of the bravado he’d already exhibited.

“Perhaps now would be a good time for you to tell me what information Sardius gave you about me,” Jenna prompted.

“Just that you’re Jenna Fairchild, Chair of the Octavian/Adamis Diplomatic Council,” Ryatt said evenly. “There wasn’t anything else he needed to tell me. You’re all over the news, on everyone’s lips, on everyone’s minds… everywhere. Sardius said he worked for you and he’d put in a good word for me through the earpiece he prepared for you if I managed to get it to you.” 

Ixy cut in over Jenna’s pearl earpiece. “I think you should hire him. I’ve been researching him. His background is very clean and if he’s making deliveries for Sardius then he has your precious lover boy’s swamp of approval… Stamp,” Ixy corrected. “I meant to say stamp. Besides, having another set of hands on the ground would be very helpful.”

Jenna looked at Crimp who could hear everything they were saying. She was leaning against a wall with a Cheshire Cat grin across her face.

Because of her conversation with Sardius the night before, Jenna had been aware that this was in the works, but she had planned to let his recommendation slide. If she were choosing staff herself (and she spent the majority of her time reviewing resumes) she would have chosen someone like Vash to be in charge of security.

Vash was enormous with rocky muscles everywhere. Even having him as a butler freaked most people out a little, which Jenna liked. Vash also had no romantic interest in her whatsoever. She knew he spent most of his free time working out or speaking to his relatives over the communicator. Though he didn’t look it, he was quite young and he hadn’t been away from home for very long. Either that or the hazing given him by the AAMC messed him up so bad that he relied on his family back home to help him feel normal, like what they did to him hadn’t happened. 

He missed his family. 

Ryatt didn’t look anywhere near as honorable and his physique didn’t look as threatening as Vash’s. He had fought in the mid-weight class and that seemed appropriate. He was taller than Jenna but not taller than Vash. He was a fighter, but his appearance was more debonair than menacing.

The problem was that if she gave him the job, Ryatt would be in her palace all the time. She didn’t know how that would work for her. Yes, kissing him had been a thrill, but what would he be like all the time? Would he be leering at her while he ‘protected’ her? Would he be the kind of skirt-chaser who caused more problems than he solved by hopping into every available bed? Would he have to prove that he was tougher than Vash and end up fighting him because he honestly could not think of any other way to fill the time other than boxing?

“Is there somewhere we could go to talk about this more?” Jenna asked quietly.