Chapter 1
In the darkest hour of the alien night, Trixie Boudreaux crept through the Azthronos ducal estate. She counted the turns carefully, not missing a one despite the deep, quiet shadows. She better not miss one; she’d been down these hallways a dozen times since being rescued from the space station. With each step, she reminded herself she wasn’t still orbiting the singularity where Blackwormhad imprisoned her and a handful of other Earth women.
The Black Hole Brides.
How she despised that name. It sounded…romantic. Everyone loved brides. And while black holes were scientifically kind of scary, they were nerdy cool, right?
But she wasn’t any of those things, never had been, never would be. Not scary, not nerdy, not cool. Definitely never a bride. She knew what happened to womenwho let themselves be sucked into those starry-eyed fantasies of white, and lace, and forevermore.
Speaking of stars… She stopped at the beautiful arched doorway that was the closest escape from her bedroom. If she went outside, under those stars, she knew she’d find herself on a beautiful balcony overlooking the estate’s beautiful side courtyard. A beautiful decorative trellis framed the balcony,providing support for a beautiful alien flower. Everything here was beautiful—well, everything except her; she was so totally plain it made no sense that Blackworm had taken her when he had all this—but she was mostly interested in how the trellis reached all the way to the ground three stories below.
Of course, if she had to run, she’d still be stuck on this alien world, but it helped her sleepat night to know her escape route was clear. Counting all the ways she could get away worked better than any bedtime prayer.
The nightmare on Blackworm’s derelict space station was over. Sometimes, though, she still feared she’d look up at the dark sky and, rather than the friendly flicker of starlight, she’d find the baleful eye of the black hole staring back at her. If there were only stars,she’d know she was safe for another night.
Now, just to confirm that the door hadn’t locked her in, and then she could go back to bed.
She pushed the beautiful—of course—carved latch and peeked out to catch a glimpse of the stars.
And saw a full moon instead.
Tight, muscled buttocks revealed by dark pants still in the process of dropping.
With a gasp, she recoiled in shock, yanking the doorclosed with a bang.
Someone was about to get banged…
She backpedaled hastily down the hallway she’d been so carefully charting. If she missed a turn this time, she probably wouldn’t even notice, what with that strong, pale butt burned into her brain.
Sheeeped again in alarm when the door slammed open and a large, dark shape strode through.
At least he was fastening his trousers. Otherwiseshe’d be getting an eyeful…
“Were you spying on me, Earth girl?”
She froze in place, recognizing the voice. Her heart, already racing, zoomed ahead as if rocket-boosted. “N-no.”
A tall, sleek, silver-haired woman glided through the doorway, a narrow bottle dangling from her fingertips. “Thank you, Captain Nor,” she said. “Your explanation was illuminating. When resupply is complete, I willsee you back on theGrandiloquence.”
“That you will, Commander Illya,” the captain drawled. “A lot more.”
He smirked as the woman passed him, and though she didn’t smile back, her black eyes gleamed.
Trixie would’ve taken the opportunity to run while they were making googly eyes at each other, but she never turned her back on a threat.
Not because she was brave, but because she was terrified.
Terror must explain the frantic churning of her pulse as she faced Rokal Nor irThorkonos, captain of the dreadnaught flagship of the Azthronos duchy, theGrandiloquence.
She’d already decided that the Thorkons, despite their mostly standard human appearance, were just…too much. And the captain was definitelytootoo much. He was too tall, his shoulders too broad. Though the corridor was spaciousand the doorway to her escaperight there, she found she couldn’t catch her breath when she peeked at him. Especially in the black military uniform of the dreadnaught senior officers, he was intimidating. The thick, honey-brown waves of his hair were usually curtailed into a tidy club at his nape, but now it all hung loose, just long enough to brush past those too-broad shoulders. But the casualtousling didn’t soften his edges; if anything, he looked less like a disciplined captain and more like a dissolute bad boy.
And the very top tab of his trousers was still open…
The captain had been present for the rescue at Blackworm Station, but from the first moment she’d seen him, she suspected he was just a different sort of villain. Catching him loitering with theGrandiloquence’s chiefengineering officer only reinforced her suspicions.
“Little lost Earther.” His drawl and his smirk were the exact same as he’d given the commander. “What are you doing wandering the halls this time of night?”
“Nothing wrong.” She glowered at him. “Unlike you.”
