by Elsa Jade
Rayna snorted. “In my defense, I thought you were a bad guy.”
He looked down at their linked hands. “I’m not,” he said softly.
Flustered, she let him go and knotted her grip in the robe instead. “I want to talk to Vaughn.”
“You will, soon, but she and her partner have already started the long jumps to bring them here and they will be out of communication range for awhile.”
“Her partner?” Rayna shook her head. “Vaughn was never a team player. I guess things have changed.”
He gazed at her steadily. “Probably because you were gone for one of your Earth Sol years.”
She reeled again. “What?” She almost shrieked the question. “A year?”
With one hand on her shoulder, he steadied her. “Blackworm kept you that long in stasis. Your sister had tracked you as far as the Intergalactic Dating Agency outpost in a place called Sunset Falls—”
“Intergalactic…Dating Agency?” She couldn’t help that her voice was getting even shriller with every outrage. Soon she’d be chirping in the ultrasonic range. “My sister was dating intergalactically?”
“I couldn’t tell you that. But apparently her partner, who runs an independent data recovery operation, had tracked Blackworm, who was using data from the IDA systems to capture Earther brides—”
She interrupted again. “Not brides. I can tell you I wasn’t dating intergalactically, much less marrying.”
“Ooo-kay,” he drawled.
Hearing him reflect her Earther-ism back at her only riled Rayna more. “I wasn’t even having one-night stands,” she railed. “You say closed worlds are backward, but Sunset Falls was so small it routinely ran out of condoms on Friday nights.”
He narrowed his eyes. “Maybe because the Intergalactic Dating Agency outpost was there and they needed to test cross-species compatibility.”
“Cross-species…” She boggled at him. “Are you saying I couldn’t have gotten laid even if I wanted to because alien fuckers took all the cock-blockers?”
He winced, and she realized she’d reached her upper registers. “That IDA outpost was closed because of Blackworm’s corruption, but your sister and her partner were able to extract enough data to eventually help track back to the hidden space station. And you.” He eyed her. “So I guess you could get laid now.”
She let out a breath that was half laugh, half sob. “This is all so…crazy.”
“Which is why I wanted to show you this.” He nudged her slightly to face the slowly spinning stars. “I wanted you to see that it’s not all bad, not all Blackworms and black holes. There’s beauty here too, yes?”
The map—not to mention the room and everything she thought she knew—wheeled endlessly, and the seat seemed to vanish under her butt. Only the warmth of Raz’s thigh against her knee and the rock-hard muscle of his shoulder against hers kept her grounded at all.
“Okay, okay,” she whispered. “My sister is coming, and she’s bringing a spaceship and her boyfriend—”
“Dejo Jinn is a hivre, and they aren’t male/female binary in quite the sense you mean, although your language lacks the nuance to—”
She put her fingertips over his mouth. “Shut up, Your Grace.”
His blue eyes glittered over her hand, and the hot gust of his exhalation feathered across her knuckles.
“I’m not going to be alone,” she said slowly.
He nodded, brushing his lips against her fingers. The touch was velvety smooth and roused something in her that had nothing to do with the practicalities of condoms or the emotional existentialism of being alone in a vast universe. No, it was just…finally accepting that she was alive, awake, not alone, her heart pounding like an animal freed from her cage. Freed by this man.
She let her fingertips slip lower to the swell of his bottom lip. “I didn’t ask for any of this to happen.”
“The universe doesn’t really have much use for words, in any language.”
“But I’m not Blackworm’s abducted bride.”
“Not a victim,” he agreed. “I’ve seen you as a fighter, a temptation in a white dress, a leader even though you didn’t want to be. Extraordinary, and I say that as a being who has been around a few galaxies.” His lashes dropped, hiding the spark in his eyes. “And as beautiful as all of Azthronos.”
She wasn’t beautiful, she didn’t delude herself, but with the silent dance of planets behind him, she felt the starlight glow on her face and it seemed to sink into that empty place inside her.
For the first time, she understood—in a way that she hadn’t quite grasped, even standing under the Big Sky in Sunset Falls, Montana, by herself after the saloon’s last call—that the darkness was endlessly, infinitely vast and empty…and yet the light hurtled onward, undaunted, to find her.
When she let her hand slip away from his mouth, he took a short, sharp breath, his brow furrowing, as if the release had pained him, but she leaned forward. Her shadow blocked the shine of the projections, and she was staring into the abyss of his celestial eyes.
Until her lips touched his.
Chapter 7
The touch of her mouth went through Raz like fractured laser light: no heavier than a photon and equally, incoherently devastating.
Her hand slipped down his chest to brace over his heart, and he was excruciatingly aware of the erratic pounding of his pulse, thrilling to her inadvertent caress. It had been too long…
Maybe for her too, judging by her soft moan and the almost desperate way her fingers fisted in his tunic, drawing the tight fabric up over his belly. Desire seared along the pathways of his nerves, igniting infinite bright pinpoints of excitement, as if all the stars of the universe were rushing back together to their first moment of existence.
If he wasn’t careful, the Big Bang would come too soon and so would he.
Needing to slow down, he cupped her cheek, angling her head slightly to take control of the kiss. The sonic-smoothed silk of her hair tickled his knuckles, sending another flare of sensation cascading through his hungry body.
With a hunger of her own, she opened her mouth under his and traced her tongue across his lips.
The slick, wet heat stunned him to the core, and he gasped, inhaling the taste of her, a hint of pixberry and coffee and, under that, pure lust. So much for taking control!
She must’ve felt his shock—or maybe that startled gasp had given him away—because she pulled back, her dark eyes wide. In the glow of the astro chart, hectic color played over her cheeks. “Do alien dukes not kiss?”
“Ouch,” he murmured wryly. His little honey-bird had a sharp peck.
“Oh!” She patted both hands on his chest, as if soothing him. “Did I hurt you? It was just a kiss. I’m so sorry. Us Earth girls like it, and I was just… I don’t know what I… Oh fuck. You save me from Blackworm and then I jump you like—”
He brought his mouth crashing down on hers, anything to muffle her apologies.
It was her turn to make a startled noise. Plunging his fingers into her hair to hold her in place, he slanted his lips across hers, delving for more of that elusive flavor of lust. Sweet and tart like the berries, dark and energizing like the coffee, he thought hazily, and he would never get enough of it. He shifted his grip to the back of her neck, bending her to his mouth, bending her whole body backward into the crook of his arm so that she was half sprawled on the bench, their bodies nearly parallel, just a few precarious degrees from falling. With a wordless moan, she grasped at his backside, maybe to stop herself from tilting off the bench.
Maybe to fall faster…
But he angled his hips sideways, not quite ready for that final descent, even if the swirl of lights behind his closed eyes felt like the whole known universe urging him onward.
When they were both breathless, he raised his head. Her lips were soft and swollen, still parted. Irresistible. He brushed a gentler kiss across plumped flesh, reveling in the sensitive quiver as she exhaled on a sigh.
Her eyes were dazed when he looked down at her with satisfaction. “Sooo…alien dukes do kiss?”
Releasing his grip on her nape, he brushed his knuckles over her flushed cheekbone. “Now I understand why the Intergalactic Dating Agency had a wait list.”
Her brow furrowed charmingly. “Are you implying Earth girls are easy?”
“And alien dukes are hard.” With a leer, he shifted his hips against her belly.
Her dark eyes flared wide. “Ooh, promises, promises, Your Grace…”
He laughed. “I am the avatar of the God of Oaths.” With effortless strength, he lifted her and spun her around to lounge across him. Yes, he was showing off; he was delighted he’d just finished his exercises when the message from the Earther envoy about her sister had arrived from his mother so his physique was in fine form, not to mention a form-fitting tunic.
Although he could’ve done without his mother’s critique of said physique and the value—rounded down to the nearest galactic credit—of its likely effect on females. Eesh.
He banished the thought as Rayna reached up to feather her fingers through his hair.
She combed into the long strands. “What does it mean to be the avatar of a god? Besides longer, harder erections, I mean.”
He grinned and turned his head to brush a kiss across her inner wrist, relishing the rush of satisfaction when she shivered. “Mostly it means boring ceremonies and various other onerous duties, the more esoteric burdens of bodily symbolizing a divine entity, plus the extra syllables to my title, of course.”
“But the longer, harder erections too,” she said with a solemn nod.
“That is one of the burdens,” he agreed with equal seriousness.
She laughed aloud, her eyes sparkling up at him.
He told himself it was just the reflected starlight—staring at a sun could be blinding—that dazzled him.
Her touch drifted down to his chest, over his heart. “I kissed you because I’m happy to be alive.”
“I kissed you back because I’m happy you’re alive.”
She gazed at him. “And that’s enough for you?”
It wasn’t, not even close. “Of course,” he said easily. “I’m the Duke of Azthronos. I must already have everything, yes?”
After a moment, she nodded hesitantly. “Would it be all right if…”
He put his hand over hers, pressing it closer. “Yes?”
“Could you take me back to the suites?” She must’ve felt the sudden beat of his heart because she added hurriedly, “I don’t mean… Raz, I don’t want to sleep with you tonight. I just woke up after one alien caught me. I think I should take at least one night to myself before I fall for another one.”
Her words pierced him. Disappointment at her rejection, and worse, anger at the comparison. Carefully, he eased her upright, away from him. “I am not Blackworm,” he said stiffly. “I didn’t steal you from your closed world or keep you in stasis against your will. If you don’t wish to do more than kiss, you needn’t say more than that.”
“Raz…” She reached out for him but he stood, avoiding her touch. “This has nothing to do with you—”
But if only she knew—he was stealing from her, not that she or the other Earther females had any use for a space station. And he was definitely keeping her ignorant while he maneuvered to make use of her. Whatever Blackworm had wanted with the Black Hole Brides, Raz knew he himself had no right to feel superior to that criminal.
He cut her off. “Please don’t think you need to enlighten me or owe me anything at all. As a fellow sentient being, your reason and sentiments are sacrosanct and your own, beholden to none.”
Unlike dukes of failing solar systems, who were beholden to eleven billion souls and one credit-counting dowager.
She jumped to her feet when he stepped back and gestured toward the exit. “Raz. I didn’t mean you were like Blackworm.” Her mouth twisted in distress. “I can’t even tell you what it means to me that someone—you—were there to help us.” She lowered her gaze. “To save me.”
Considering her obvious discomfort at admitting she’d needed anyone, Raz realized he should’ve chosen the acquiescent little Trixie as his future duchess. “Answering such rescue calls is one of my many duties,” he said, squelching the bitterness she didn’t deserve. “And actually, I have other tasks yet to attend to tonight. But I will gladly escort you back to your rooms.”
His rooms, of course.
She bit her lip—the one he had so recently tasted. “That would be for the best.”
He nodded curtly. He too was doing what was for the best, for his people. And he wondered if she would appreciate that.
Because he certainly didn’t.
***
After returning Rayna to the suites and leaving her there once she stepped inside—she’d turned to say something to him but he’d closed the panel on her so as not to take any more blows to his already tenderized ego—Raz stalked off to the stateroom adjacent the bridge. He’d just have to sleep on the couch there.
The bridge was on night watch, so he was mildly horrified to find Captain Nor lingering at the center console. The dowager’s suggestion that he discuss seduction techniques for consummating an engagement rang humiliatingly in his head.
He could do without any more humiliations.
The captain glanced up at his arrival and nodded once but continued his low conversation with the engineering officer hovering at his elbow.
Raz nodded back and continued toward the stateroom. He glanced back as he slipped inside, noting that the engineering officer was a stunningly silver-haired vrykoly. Female, judging by the sleek curves of the ships fatigues. He winced when Nor gave the eng-off a slow, wide, seductive smile.
That was not the smile of a commanding officer. Besides, everyone knew vrykoly weren’t responsive to emotional stimuli, including seduction. But the dowager had said Nor was previously a pirate. Obviously, the disreputable captain was also a glutton for rejection.
Just as well no one was seeking his advice.
Raz slammed the stateroom door. Or would have if the mechanism would’ve allowed for slamming. The quiet shush as it closed was more of a disapproving hiss. Once he got the finances for Azthronos in order, there would be no need to hire beguiling brigands.
Instead, the illustrious Duchy of Azthronos would only be championed by a thief, a liar, a failed libertine.
Since he couldn’t slam doors, he threw himself onto the informal round couch across from the control center.
An inquiring chime from the door made him growl. “What?”
The door opened and Nor strode in, casting one more of those annoyingly charismatic smiles over his shoulder before turning to face Raz. “Your Grace,” he said smoothly, letting the door close on the wrong side of him.
Raz eyed the captain rudely. “I said what, not come in.”
Nor shrugged. “I have overrides on every door on this ship.”
“I own every door on this ship,” Raz countered.
“Not for long, if things don’t change.” The captain sauntered to the far curve of the couch and looked across at Raz. “If rumors are to be believed.”
“They aren’t,” Raz snapped.
Nor raised an eyebrow. “Really?”
“Usually,” Raz conceded with great reluctance. “Did you want something in particular?”
“Captaincy of the Grandiloquence. But I have that.” Nor sat.
Raz restrained a groan. “Why are you here then?”
“I’d like to keep the ship. And I won’t if you end up losing it.” The captain’s pale eyes narrowed. “Your sire’s mistakes could ruin everything.”
Raz pushed himself upright, tensing. “I’ll give you one chance to walk back that slur and then I am coming across this not particularly comfortable couch that is apparently now my bed to show you the painful consequences of your mistake.”
Nor blinked slowly and leaned back into the cushions. He opened his mouth, then close
d it. His jaw shifted to one side and back, and then he said, “I shouldn’t speak poorly of the dead who have no chance to absolve their sins.”
Raz kept his narrowed gaze on the other male until Nor tensed.
“Sorry,” he finally muttered.
Raz relaxed back too, suddenly weary and glad he didn’t have to beat the captain.
Since Nor wasn’t entirely wrong. Blasphemous, maybe, but not wrong.
Glowering, Raz studied the other male. “I assume you are the spy on this ship reporting to the dowager since she is the one who assigned you the captain’s chair.” He lifted one eyebrow. “Are you her paramour as well?”
Nor recoiled. “What?” His response was almost a shriek—a manly, ex-pirate shriek, but a shriek nonetheless. “No!”
Raz smirked. “Now you are insulting my mother.”
After a moment, with a sputter that wasn’t quite a laugh, Nor leaned back. “She is quite a woman.”
Raz dropped the smirk. “Larf with her and I’ll kill you.”
Nor nodded. “Fair enough. You’ll probably kill me anyway since she asked me to remind you to larf the Earther girl.”
“Did she say which one?”
“She was none too particular. I think she wants the space station more than grandchildren.”
Raz sighed. “For the moment. But she won’t be satisfied.”
“Your father did leave her with quite the mess.” Nor held up one hand when Raz snarled. “Don’t blame me.”
Raz slouched with his head dangling between his hunched shoulders. “You’ve been on this tour of the system with me,” he said finally. “What are your suggestions for salvaging the system’s economic woes?”
Nor blinked. “I…thought I was just tasked with telling you how to get the Earther girl into a compromising position.”
“I need to get Azthronos out of its compromised position,” Raz said through gritted teeth.
Rubbing one hand over the back of his unsuitably shaggy head, Nor shrugged. “Never had to think so big.”
“Not even as a privateer?”
Another shrug. “Thought even smaller then: find a mark, hit it fast, stay alive.”
