“Wrong?” He chuckled. “Oh, you mean getting caught with my pants down?” He ambled toward her, somehow making the smooth, loose-jointedwalk a thing of menace. Sexy menace, maybe, but she wasn’t fooled. “Trust me, little Earther, what you’ll find behind the seal of my fatigues is not nefarious, but—dare I say?—grandiose, just like my ship.”
She tucked her chin. “Seriously?”
His beautiful, thin lips—really, was there nothing on Azthronos that wasn’t beautiful?—curved in a seductive smile. “Want to try me?”
She managed not tosnort, but it was a close thing. “Like everyone else has?”
Some fleeting shadow she couldn’t quite decipher flashed through his pale eyes—okay, that stare wasonething that wasn’t beautiful. Too eerie, the pale blue narrowly ringed with a darker hue. “Not everyone,” he said curtly. “Thanks to your interruption. But there’s enough to go around.”
“Riiiiight. Well, I was just taking a stroll beforebed.” She sidled sideways, making sure not to turn her back. “I’ll be going now.”
“By yourself?” Whatever deeper emotion had flickered in him submerged again when he arched one eyebrow rakishly.
“By myself.” This time she couldn’t hold back the sarcastic reply. “Unlikesomealiens.”
He flicked one finger dismissively. “Commander Illya is vrykoly,” he said. “The vrykoly are masters of intellectualpursuits, but they tend to have difficulties in matters of interpersonal relations between colleagues. Since she is gunning for a captaincy of her own, she asked me for…private instruction.”
This time she just had to snort, and loud. “Because she wanted to be…illuminated. What, do you have a penlight in your pants?”
A short bark of laughter jolted from him. “Ho, the mishkeet shows her littleteeth.”
She tucked her back against the wall, giving him plenty of room to go around. If he would justgo. But curiosity got the better of her and she found herself asking, “What’s a mishkeet?”
He peered at her, his pale blue eyes narrowing. “Haven’t you had a universal translator implanted? I thought you and the other Earther girl decided not to get the memory wipes.”
Although the estate wasalways beautifully temperature controlled, she shivered. As if she’d willingly let anyone into her brain when that was her only sure refuge. “Lishelle and I decided not to have our memories altered to go back to Earth, and she got the translator. I…like my head with no extra holes. Besides, even with the technology, not every word translates, you know.”
He grunted. “Every world has mishkeets.”His eyes narrowed ever further, a look she recognized from watching Lishelle try to force the translator into coughing up difficult concepts. “Cat-rat,” he muttered, a slight frown making him seem momentarily more…human. “Do you have cat-rats?”
She wrinkled her nose, offended. “Those are two different things. Cats and rats. Yes, we have them, and no, I am not that.”
He flicked that rude fingeragain, a gesture she wanted to break off at the third joint, before reaching into his pants… Oh wait, he was just rummaging around in his pocket. “Never heard of cats or rats, but youarea mishkeet.” He removed a small wrapped package—not a condom, she hoped! “Glittery little eyes always watching, sneaking around in the dark—”
“Ihave normal hazel eyes,” she said defensively, realizing shewas watching him much too closely. “And I wasn’tsneaking. Rayna’s duke said we can go anywhere we want in the estate and its grounds.”
“Ah, yes, the beloved new Duke of Azthronos, who commands the fleet and me with it.” Nor stared past her as his fingers deftly undid the little package, his eyes unfocused again, but in a different way than accessing his universal translator. “So generous toyou closed-worlders, choosing a Black Hole Bride for his own.”
Something about his acid tone—not to mention that stupid name—made her bristle. “I am not just one of Blackworm’s victims.” She opened her mouth to keep venting…and then realized it didn’t matter. She’d been plenty of people’s victim, and if shewassomething more than that, no one cared. She slid her spine along the wall, uncomfortablyaware of the silky nightgown under the heavy Thorkon robe. “Never mind. I have to go.”
“Just like a mishkeet,” he said with an aggrieved sigh, tossing back his honey-brown hair with a shake of his head. “Bite and run.” He popped the little object he’d unwrapped into his mouth and strode toward her, seemingly oblivious to how she cringed away. “I’ll escort you to your room.”
“Not afraid I’llbite more?” She clamped her own teeth on her tongue, unable to believe she’d asked that. Was she trying to bite him—er, bait him?
He gave her a toothy smile. “Not afraid at all. Since you don’t have a translator, you might not know that the closest thing to vrykoly in your language is vampire.”
Jaw slackening, Trixie stared at him. The engineering officer was a vampire? Had Commander Illya bittenhis… Her gaze flittered down to that open tab on his pants.
Since she was distracted, she forgot to flinch away when he clamped a hand above her elbow and peeled her away from the wall. “Let’s go.”
Without the support at her back, she stiffened. “I know the way.” She’d memorized every turn and straightaway to safety, ticking them off like a rosary in her brain. “I don’t need you.”
“I’m sureyou don’t.” He marched her forward, his long fingers a ruthless manacle around her bicep. “But you left me with no better way to spend my time tonight than to play the good Azthronos gentleman.”
She hissed out a disbelieving breath. “You are no gentleman.”
He cut a sidelong glance at her, blue eyes half lidded. At this close range, the paler striations in his irises glittered like icicles. “Youwound me with those teeth, mishkeet.”
“Liar,” she snapped back, trying to yank her elbow from his grip. And trying to yank back a little spurt of attraction too. He really was beautiful… “You aren’t hurt any more than you’re a gentleman.”
