Destin's Hold (The Alliance #5)(46)

“You smell like you had a good time,” Trig muttered with a sigh.

“Keep your damn nose out of my business,” Destin retorted dryly.

“That’s a little hard to do when you have a sense of smell like we do,” Trig replied, glancing at Destin with a pained expression. “We are also in an enclosed space and I have to tell you it has been a long time since I’ve been with a female, so you ‘rubbing it in my face’, as Jordan would say, isn’t helping matters.”

“Breathe through your mouth,” Destin suggested, straightening when the lift slowed to a stop.

“Great, then I get to taste it as well as smell it,” Trig muttered under his breath. “That doesn’t help, Destin.”

If he wasn’t feeling so good, he might have been annoyed. At the moment, though, he was feeling good and he wasn’t going to allow some sex-deprived Trivator get under his skin. In fact, the more he thought about it, the more the image of the fierce alien having a set of blue-balls, if they had them, amused him.

“You don’t know what you are missing, Trig,” Destin replied with a deep, satisfied sigh.

“Something tells me you are going to enjoy rubbing in that fact,” Trig muttered, following Destin when he pushed open the door to the office area three floors below his apartment.

“If it drives you nuts – yep!” Destin chuckled before he grew serious when he saw the group waiting for them.

“They don’t look too happy to see you,” Trig murmured under his breath.

“I’m sure you being here isn’t helping,” Destin replied before stepping forward with a serious expression. “Let’s go to the conference room – assuming there is one – and deal with your concerns.”

“Is the alien coming, too?” Jason asked with a hint of a sneer in his voice.

“What’s with the alien glued to your ass, Destin? Since when have they been privy to our meetings?” Richard asked with a frown.

“Yeah, you never let that other one interfere with what we are doing,” Troy added, shifting uncomfortably when he glanced between Destin and Trig.

Destin studied each face intently, trying to determine which one of them might support him. Out of the seven men standing in front of him, none of them looked like they were on the fence about this particular issue.

“Come on, guys. Get your panties out of the crack of your ass. I thought only us women wore them that way. It’s good to see you back, Destin,” a cheerful voice commented from behind Tim. “Move your ass, Tim, before I put my foot up it as well.”

“You’d better watch your mouth, Beth, or I’ll be telling Mary on you,” Mike warned, half-serious, half-joking.

“If you do, you’d better plan to never sleep again, Mikey,” Beth laughed, squeezing past Tim and walking up to Destin. She stared up at him for a moment before she threw her arms around his neck and hugged him. “Grandma said to give you a hug when you got back,” she whispered near his ear before releasing him and stepping back. “How’s Kali doing?”

Destin smiled down at Beth Clark’s glowing face. She had filled out over the last few months. He had known Beth since she came home from the hospital twenty years ago. She was the granddaughter of Mary, one of his most staunch supporters. Mary and Beth had lived in the apartment under them. A few months after the Trivators appeared they had come out of hiding and found him and Kali.

“She’s doing great. She wanted me to tell you and Mary hello. I’ll show you some pictures of her and Ami later,” Destin replied.

Beth shoved her hands into the back pockets of her faded jeans. The movement pulled her pink T-shirt tight across her breasts. She glanced with amusement at the alien standing next to Destin when he smothered what sounded like a muted grunt or groan. Tilting her head to the side, her dark brown eyes twinkling with mischief. The long rows of tiny black braids fell to the side.

“Hi, I’m Bethany Clark, but everyone calls me Beth,” Beth said, sticking her hand out.

“No, we all call you Pain-in-the-Ass,” Justin snorted under his breath loud enough to be heard.

Beth glanced over her shoulder and glared at Justin. “You’re just jealous because I can make it through the patrol without getting winded, old man,” she said, tossing her mane of dark braids over her shoulder and looking back at Trig. “Ignore the sour pusses, most of them are just mad that Destin took some time off and didn’t bring Kali back.”

Destin watched Trig’s reaction to Beth with a raised eyebrow. Trig looked like she had thrown a right hook instead of trying to shake his hand. The Trivator’s gaze was frozen on Beth’s warm, dark brown face. Beth used to tease Kali and him when she was little, saying she was the chocolate filling between two vanilla cookies. In other words, the delicious part. Right now, Trig looked like he would love to be the one eating Beth up.

“Uh, I think it is time we moved into the conference room. There is a lot going on and some possible new threats that I would like to discuss with everyone. I’d also like to know what has been happening since I’ve been gone,” Destin said, turning to look pointedly at Tim. “Tim, you can start the briefing.”

The group slowly turned and filed through the door behind them. They continued down the hall and into a large room. In the center was a table with a few modern features. It reminded Destin of the conference rooms he had been in on the Star Raider.