Talson Temptations 1: Talson's Wait by Marie Harte

Chapter One
    Port Watch, Earth 2109
     
    A swell of summer wind breathed life into Jamison Kendrik. She plucked at the thin cotton of her sweat-soaked shirt, aware she wasn’t the only one wishing for cooler weather. The men on the docks moving boxes and operating the heavy lift equipment around her fared the same. Like her, they looked exhausted, beyond hot, and annoyed with the black-haired dictator issuing orders left and right in the middle of the dock.
    Protected from the noon sun under the overhang of the warehouse roof, she continued to go through the manifest, making sure she hadn’t overlooked anything going offworld on today’s schedule.
    Talson Shipping had earned the reputation as being the best of the best. They stuck to Department of Transportation shipping regulations and always delivered on time. Employees worked their asses off for better-than-average wages, which was saying something in this economic crisis. And Talson Shipping rewarded hard work with benefits and bonuses other companies couldn’t touch. Despite the fact their owner wasn’t human.
    Here on the West Coast, prejudice against the alien Otra wasn’t as rife as it was in other parts of the country. Business ruled out here, where the population had dwindled in the last few centuries after the last great war before the Otra had arrived. It probably helped that Roarke Talson had never shown himself as anything other than a chauvinistic human asshole. And from what she’d learned about him since he’d bought her contract, he was worth too much alive to care about his background. She grudgingly admitted that he treated everyone fairly. Everyone but her.
    She often wondered if the rumors about him being part Otra were true. Something about him seemed so much… more . Not sure if it was his massive build, the sharp, unforgiving planes of his face, or the unswerving command he held over himself and all those who worked for him, he seemed larger than life. Those dark brown eyes of his could turn fathomless black in an instant, sucking the breath out of Jamie without even trying. Which was why she spent much of her time avoiding the big guy.
    “Kendrik, get your ass over here, now.”
    Dammit, when had he doubled back around the pallets? She thought she’d been safe working out of sight. A glance over her shoulder showed her boss glaring at her from just beyond the warehouse.
    Resisting the urge to snap back at him, she reluctantly joined him by the last shipping crate of the day. “Yes?”
    “That’s ‘Yes sir,’” he corrected, then straightened to his imposing six and a half foot frame, looming like a dark cloud.
    Her basic reaction to the man was equal parts rebellious and disturbing. One part of her wanted to tell him to go to hell, while the other begged for his approval, his attention, his touch… Used to ignoring the feeling, she shoved her unease behind intense dislike and did her best not to show the autocratic jackass how much she longed to put him in his place.
    “Pay attention, Kendrik,” he practically snarled. She wished she could call his voice grating, but the gravelly pitch always put her in mind of hot sex. He pointed to a laminated sheet attached to the outside of the metal box. “This manifest doesn’t match the box’s actual weight according to DOT’s scale.” He stabbed the paper he held in his hand with his finger. “What the hell else is in here besides the bundles of cotton and barrels of dye?”
    As if she didn’t have enough to worry about just finishing her indentured contract. She should have her head examined for pulling this stunt. Icy cold shivered down her spine, and Jamie fought the urge to confess and get it over with. Only the image of her sister’s tearstained face hardened her resolve. No, she’d made Susanna a promise, and she never reneged on a promise. Besides, she’d come too far to back down now. If she opened the crate, both hers and Gregory’s lives were forfeit. With any luck,