Page 13 of The Interstellar Rake's Irresistible Kiss
“Someone rejected you, didn’t they? That’s why you push, even when you shouldn’t.” In the clear daylight, her mud-puddle eyes gleamed with more green, hinting at some deeper current running underneath her mishkeet exterior. “I haven’thad the universal translator implanted, so I haven’t done as much reading as Lishelle, but I know the irThorkonos in your name means you are half noble.”
He lifted his chin. “And not the good half.”
When she tilted her head, the blonde strands of her hair shifting over her shoulders, he thought uneasily that the gesture looked less like pensiveness and more like an assassin lining up a deadlyshot.
“Who was it?” she mused. “Who gave you half your noble blood and none of the nobility?”
He launched to his feet, his boots slamming up a puff of grass turned to ash by the hovercar’s exhaust. “Get your blaster. We’re done here.”
He thought at first she would refuse, and his heartbeat thudded as hard as his boots, wondering how he would force her. If he even could after her withering commentshad made him out to be a—what had she called him?—a perv and a brute.
But she rose, grabbed another pastry before he banged the bin closed, and then sauntered over to the range to collect and case her weapon. The day gown swayed gently around her hips, a mocking counterpoint to the chaos churning in his blood. All because of her sudden, unerring counterattack.
That crazed Blackworm had no ideawhat he’d be up against if he tried to return.
They were airborne, swooping back toward the estate, when she cleared her throat.
“The Duke of Azthronos,” she said.
Nor tightened his grip on the throttle. “What about him?”
“Not Raz. Raz’s father, the old duke. That’s who refused to claim you.” She twisted in her seat to face him.
He knew it was coming, saw the inbound strike, and still ithit hard enough that the hovercar bucked in the spasm of his clenching fist.
Trixie didn’t even flinch as the craft canted sideways, her sharp eyes pinning him in place, as if there was no hovercar or privateer cruiser or flagship dreadnaught fast enough to take him away from her. “You’re the bastard son of the Duke of Azthronos.”
***
She hadn’t meant that to sound quite so gloating.She’d just been trying to figure it out, another confusing mystery in her new universe of strangeness and bewilderment.
The way he stiffened, though, made her realize it wasn’t an idle curiosity to him.
So, Captain Rokal Nor irThorkonos wasn’t the shallow, swaggering, charming, rakish ex-pirate he pretended to be.
Or at least notjustthat.
He’d righted the hovercar before she had a chanceto holler at him, and now his jaw was clenching so hard on whatever it washewanted to holler atherthat she rather feared his head would pop off.
“Whatever you think you’ve guessed—” he started.
“Don’t deny it,” she warned. “I’ve watched more soap operas than you, and this secret baby space opera is one of my favorite stories.”
She stared, fascinated, as the scrunching in his jaw moved downthe cords of his neck into his trapezoids, the muscles standing out in sharp relief. He was going to need a serious massage later. She harrumphed to herself—probably the vrykoly engineer would be glad of the extra social instruction.
He cast a sidelong glance at her, his narrowed eyes icy. “I would ask you not to spread that around.”
“Youwouldask me? Or youareasking me?” Oh, she was bad,taking entirely too much gleeful delight in tormenting him.
“I am asking,” he said, surprisingly not chipping off any of his tight-clamped teeth.
“Like when I asked you to get out of my doorway?” she asked sweetly. He deserved worse, much worse, for questioning her, looming over her,kissingher.
Okay, the kissing part hadn’t been all bad, even if it had kept her awake, squirming in her beautifulThorkon bed.
He peered at her, his jaw cranked to one side in irritation. “You are enjoying this.”
She curled her lips inward, partly to stop herself from laughing, partly to erase the memory of his mouth on hers. “A little,” she admitted. “You really were being pretty insufferable.”
