Destiny's Song (The Fixers, book #1: A KarmaCorp Novel) by Audrey Faye

into the carpet. Not all that different from the mud I’d run around in as a kid. My stomach hadn’t ever been this well courted back then, though—whatever else I might think about my hosts, a quick glance said they knew how to feed people. Platters were laid out as far as the eye could see, loaded with solid, stomach-sticking food, and all of it real. I hadn’t spied soy anything since I’d stepped off the transpo ferry. Backwater planets had some upsides.
    I picked up a plate and surveyed my choices. I’d missed dinner last night out of sheer cowardice, and my appetite was fierce.
    “The eggs are good.”
    My plate nearly embedded itself in Devan Lovatt’s skull. “Dammit, do you always sneak up on people that way?”
    He grinned and took a plate of his own. “Nope. Mom says I make more noise than a herd of space elephants.”
    Space elephants walking on four-centimeter-thick carpet, maybe. Belatedly, I realized that he might not have the foggiest clue who I was. I held up a hand in the universal galactic sign of greeting—given the jangles he’d set off all over my body, it seemed safer than touching. “Lakisha Drinkwater.”
    “I know who you are.” Devan was already reaching out and forking things onto his plate. He dropped a slice of long, skinny meat that smelled like nirvana onto mine. “Ever tried bacon? Food of the gods, right there.”
    I was still feeling prickly from his sneaky arrival and the all-too-obvious effect he was having on my hormones. Parts of me were waking up way too fast. “No. Mining rocks don’t tend to run to meat.”
    He raised an eyebrow at my tone. “Sorry. Didn’t mean to bring up bad memories.”
    He hadn’t, and I was being a first-class bitch. “No, the apology’s mine. I woke up cranky and apparently I haven’t fixed it yet.”
    He smiled. “Try the bacon. It fixes pretty much everything.”
    Like Janelle, he wasn’t putting out any hostile vibes at all, which was entirely weird. Neither of them were acting very damn concerned about my presence. However, that was a problem I would worry about after I had consumed copious amounts of bacon. I reached for a spoon of something red and spicy and put a small pile of it in the middle of my plate. It smelled like something Raven would love.
    “That’s salsa—it’s supposed to go on top of your eggs. Here.” Devan neatly switched my plate for his very full one. “I’ll give you a tour of the food after we eat some. I’m starving.”
    I wanted to kick him in the shins for treating me like a two-year-old, but that would just prove his point. I also knew that sitting at a table with him was going to push hard on my dubious self-control, and that was a really dumb thing to try hungry. “I just came to load up a plate. I have to get back to my room.” To do what, I had no bloody idea—but the next time I encountered Devan Lovatt, I intended to have my game face on, shoes on my feet, and food in my belly.
    “Sure.” He tossed a soft bun that landed on top of the rest of my food. “There will be a full table here all day if you get hungry again. Travel lag can be hell on meal schedules.”
    Apparently, he’d been off planet—that was really unusual for colonists. The Federation tended to keep them solidly on local terra firma, especially those who would one day rule. Avoiding contamination.
    I stopped in the doorway, suddenly loath to leave. “You did a really nice thing with that kid yesterday—the one who ran into the girl and broke his toy.”
    “I did what anyone would do.” He kept efficiently loading the plate in his hand.
    “You didn’t. You saw his heart, not the damage he caused. It matters.”
    He looked at me a moment. “Run into a few people in your time, have you?”
    A lot more than a few. “You showed him kindness—he won’t forget.”
    Devan set his plate down on the table and walked slowly over to join me. Every step he took increased the turbulence in the pit of my belly and the