Page 31 of The Interstellar Rake's Irresistible Kiss
Chapter 9
Trixie knew he’d gone, but she kept her eyes closed and her breathing deep until total silence had filled the suite. Only then did she let out a shuddering breath.
Not a sob. She hadn’t cried since she walked out of her mother’s house for the last time after finally realizing that no one changed unless they wanted to. Even getting caught with incriminating photos or a blood alcohollevel above the legal limit didn’t really change people. If she didn’t want to be the same sad, hopeless victim as her mother, she’d known she had to leave.
Which got her as far as Sunset Falls where she’d been abducted by aliens, so… So much for wanting to change her life for the better. Maybe even wanting wasn’t enough.
It certainly hadn’t been enough to keep the captain around.
With anotherbreath—a snort of derision this time—she flounced out of bed and into the sonic shower.
She wasn’t going to get all mopey about Nor. It had been a fun, sexy time, that was all. That was how bad boys were: fun, sexy, gone.
And she had to give him credit. She hadn’t had any nightmares last night.
Mostly because she hadn’t slept, but still.
The brisk, waterless shower left her skin flushed andtingling, like invisible all-over whisker burn. One more breath—a wistful one—and she shook off any lingering effects from the night previous. She couldn’t mope about NororBlackworm if she was going to take control of her life. And she was going to start by deciding what she wanted from the universe.
As she padded back into the bedroom, she had to step over the black ships fatigues Nor hadleft behind. She frowned to herself. Was he running around the estate nude? That seemed a little irresponsible even for a rakish bad boy ex-pirate. Had he been in that much of a hurry to escape from her?
With a sniff—that wasn’t moping; that was disapproving—she tossed his clothes into the shower. It would be his own fault if they shrank.
While she had breakfast (washed down with coffee becauseshe wasn’t going to acknowledge the remnants of pixberry tea she found at the counter) she sent a message to Doctor Boshil about scheduling a translator implantation. The kind medic had overseen the allegedly minor surgeries for Rayna and Lishelle, and nothing bad had happened to them.
Well, nothing bad since getting abducted anyway.
Sipping her coffee, Trixie wandered to the sitting room window.From this angle, her view showed the estate valley sloping up toward the high hills in the distance, which was left slightly more natural than the precisely sculpted gardens nearer the house. But it was nothing like the wilderness around Sunset Falls. She’d never really appreciated the forested mountains, badlands, and broad prairies of Big Sky Country; she’d been so focused on getting awaythat she’d forgotten about looking around at where she’d gotten awayto. Now she wished she’d gone out a little farther, at least hiked to the abandoned observatory that was a popular hookup spot for Sunset Falls lovers. She could’ve looked up at the stars and wondered…
But she would’ve never, in any of her wildest, star-struck fantasies, believed she’d be where she was now.
No more prayingor hiding in her suite, no more counting steps along her escape route, no more waiting for a new life to shoot across her sky like a meteor.
Gulping down the last of her coffee—of all the things aliens had stolen from Earth, she supposed coffee was the one she appreciated most—she marched back to the bedroom, shedding the plush Thorkon robe that on her was a big, soft embrace. She needed somethingmore impressive than a robe or even a gown.
Her head swiveled toward the sonic shower. She opened the door and looked down at Nor’s left-behind fatigues.
A few minutes later, she marched out of her suite, feeling maybe not like a bad boy but definitely badass, all in sleek black. Sure, she had to roll up the cuffs on the pants and the sleeves, but the responsive space-age fabric that had compressedto snug on Nor’s big body was just slightly loose on hers. No one would mistake her for an alien warrior, but she didn’t look like a lacey white bride either.
She arrived a little later than usual at the dining room so most of the staff and guests had already eaten, but she gave a firm, friendly nod to the few lingering over their cups of coffee and pixberry tea while she filled her plate withall the weirdest dishes from the sideboard. If she was going to be a hundred percent on board with this adventure that she hadn’t actually chosen, then breakfast was the most important meal of the day.
She took her tray and ambled over to one of the remaining small groups. From their simple, charcoal uniforms, she guessed they were junior crew on leave from the dockedGrandiloquence. “Mind ifI join you?”
They eyed her not-quite-fitting officer’s fatigues and then each other with a certain consternation before one nodded hesitantly and nudged back an empty chair.
“I’m Amanu, third-year ensign.” She grinned. “From Azthronos’s fourth planet, and inconveniently eighth in line for inheriting the family farm.” The others in the group grumbled sympathetically.
Trixie set her tray onthe table and slid into the seat. “My name is Trixie,” she said with a little wave. “Earther, and somehow equally inconveniently a part-owner of a space station in the middle of nowhere space. Were you all on theGrandywhen the station was found?”
They’d all been on the dreadnaught, and they were all eager to talk about it. After an awkward moment of dancing around the subject, when it was clearthey weren’t sure how traumatized she was, they asked about Earth and told her about their own experiences on the flagship. Most of them, it turned out, were younger children of noble families, looking to make their way minus the advantages of their eldest siblings. Trixie was surprised to find how much she had in common with them. She asked about the schooling they’d needed to sign on as juniorofficers. She hadn’t gone to college, couldn’t have spent the time or money, but suddenly she saw the appeal of a group of like-minded individuals striving to better themselves. They were just finishing telling her about which of them had puked on their first experiences with zero gravity when their dat-pads chimed in unison. They all jumped to their feet, coming to stiff attention.
She blinkedin surprise but then stiffened herself when Nor strode through the doorway.
His pale blue gaze landed on the group and then arrowed to her. He stalked toward them, his hands anchored at the small of his back.
She’d never seen him actually looking like a dreadnaught captain before. It was kind of intimidating. Kind of…sexy, actually. Darn him.
With what seemed to her like deliberate effort,he shifted his piercing eyes from her to the junior crew. “You’ve just received new orders,” he told them. “Meet at landing pad four at eight chronos.”
