Iron Seas 03 - Riveted

you believe she saw a troll?”
    The first mate’s disbelief fired more color into Annika’s cheeks. That specific story was a lie, but she’d been familiar with the machines her entire life. And blast it all, she didn’t like his suggestion that she was too stupid to know the difference between a bear and an enormous, lumbering troll.
    “She obviously saw something.” Dooley smiled. “Unless she’s having her fun with us.”
    “I’m not.” None of this was fun anymore. “And I’m sorry to leave you, but I must prepare for my watch.”
    Annika stood and dared a glance at Kentewess. He was studying her; she suspected that he’d never taken his focus from her theentire time she’d been speaking. She didn’t see any doubt in that searching gaze now, only pointed speculation.
    He still wasn’t done with her, she realized. He still wanted something from her. She couldn’t imagine what it would be.
    Now she wasn’t sure that she wanted to know.

Chapter Four
    When describing his friend to Annika Fridasdottor, David had forgotten to mention how loudly Dooley snored. The man’s sawing drowned out the noise from Phatéon ’s engines, which had fired up not long after she’d left the wardroom. Finally untethered and under way, the airship no longer bucked against the wind, but despite the calm, David couldn’t find sleep.
    He couldn’t blame Dooley for that. Months spent sharing a tent had accustomed him to the man’s snores. A half hour spent with a pretty engineer was responsible, instead.
    Annika Fridasdottor was more of a mystery to him now than when he hadn’t known her name, and one David desperately wanted to unravel. Sitting with her, speaking with her had been like taking a deep breath at the top of a mountain after a month spent choking down the air in a port city.
    Every word they’d shared echoed in his head. He couldn’t stop picturing her smile, her laugh. Her worry when he’d told her about the survey. Her tension when she’d recounted her story of the troll.
    Her unwavering stare when she’d asked if David wanted her in his bed.
    God.
    David did want her. But he’d have to be a fool to hope for anything of the sort. Twice, he’d paid to be with a woman. Both times had been disasters—the first awkward and uncomfortable until she’d poured oil onto his erection, telling him any woman bedding a man who was part machine would always need extra help, and flinching when she felt his steel hand. He’d gone to the England for the second, where the prosthetics wouldn’t matter. She’d needed help, too. She hadn’t flinched when he’d touched her, but she’d turned her gaze away from his face, her teeth clenched as she bore his body’s advance.
    He hadn’t been able to finish with either of them. He’d quickly left—for a time, feeling more grotesque than he’d felt since the prosthetics were first grafted on. That, because of the reaction of two women whose names he’d never learned. He’d rather not know how it would feel to have someone like Annika cringe away from him and grit her teeth when he entered her.
    Abandoning sleep, David sat up. His photomultiplying lens clicked into place over his left eye. Though still dark, the cabin appeared illuminated with a cool blue light. Dooley lay on his back, his mouth open and blanket shoved to his hips in the heated room, his chest covered by a thin nightshirt. David reached for his trousers, then tugged his boots on over the thick cotton that padded his steel prosthetics and prevented them from slipping around inside footwear designed for people with flesh over their bones.
    A glance at his pocket watch told him that it was almost midnight. Annika’s shift would be over in a few minutes…but he wouldn’t seek her out. Her intention to spend every moment of this journey with him probably didn’t include the moments in the middle of the night.
    If it did, however, he’d gladly alter his schedule to fit hers. Atthis hour, they’d have the wardroom to themselves. She wouldn’t lie with a man without love, but by God, she didn’t have to lie with him. Her company, given freely, had already proved more pleasurable than those earlier encounters had been. For a few hours of privacy with her, he’d happily sacrifice the sleep.
    He pulled on his jacket and left the cabin. The airship’s main deck would be cold, windy—perfect for clearing his mind and cooling down the rest of him.
    His mind cleared halfway up the