Page 35 of The Interstellar Rake's Irresistible Kiss
“Other encounters unlike anything I’ve ever experienced…” He held up one hand, a finger raised. “That time a Dnorbian bolk jumped out of my soup into my mouth.” He raised another finger. “When a velocious-class scouter full of mercenaries beat me to a buried stashof aquari crystals.” Another finger. “And once—”
She groaned and thumped the back of her skull against her seat a couple times. “Stop. I get it. I’m terrible.” She rotated her head to glare at him. “Why are you even sitting next to me then?”
“Because you wouldn’t stay on Azthronos,” he replied honestly.
But not completely truthfully. He could’ve gone up to the cockpit and evicted one of thepilots to take control of the shuttle himself in order to avoid her. He could’ve at least kept circulating among the crew, keeping himself busy—and away from her—with officious command duties. But no, he’d taken the seat next to her like it was the captain’s chair on theGrandiloquencethe first day after he’d paid his commission.
“Well, I’m not some bolk that’s going to jump into your mouth.”She grimaced. “Wait… I meant… Anyway, I’m not going to steal any treasure out from underneath you either. So you don’t have to keep staring at me like I’m your worst enemy.”
“I got rid of my worst enemies,” he muttered, sidetracked by the idea of her in his mouth, sweeter and hotter than ghost-mead.
But he didn’t think she was an enemy. She was quite a bit more dangerous than that.
Ignoringhis mumbling, she clenched her hands in her lap. “Maybe what happened between you and me makes things awkward, but searching the station is more important than our…moment. What happened to those other women could’ve—almost—happened to me. Whatever I can do to remember them, I’m going to do it, even if it means feeling awkward.” She fixed him with a clear, steady gaze. “Or terrified enough to runback for my room right now, holding my breath all the way through empty space.”
He looked at her for a long moment, grudgingly captured by the resolute, righteous set of her lovely lips when all he really wanted to do was ravage her again. And why wasn’t he just doing that? Pirates—and even dreadnaught captains—had the force to take what they wanted. But somehow this little mishkeet had lefthim daunted.
Whatever she’d done to him, he wasn’t sure he liked it.
A chirp from the comm interrupted his brooding. “Approaching the space station,” the pilot announced. “Captain, Jinn’s map suggests the closest port was most often used, so I wonder if we should dock elsewhere to preserve any evidence.”
“I’ll be right up,” Nor said. He resisted the urge to look at Trixie. It wasn’t as ifhe needed her permission.
But as he rose, he glanced down at her anyway. “Will you…?” He wasn’t sure what he wanted to ask.
Her hands twisted in her lap once, but then she splayed her fingers over her knees. “I’m not going to freak out,” she said. “Find us the best place to dock.”
Reluctantly, he made his way up to the cockpit and checked the updated map from the neural gel. They identifieda seemingly unused resupply port near the secondary life support system and carefully snugged the shuttle up against the hatch. When the link between the two ships was sealed, the crew moved out, dat-pads and collection kits in hand.
Trixie was the last through, with one of theGrandy’s young ensigns beside her.
“Thanks, Amanu,” she said quietly. “Catch up with your partner and get those samples.That’s all we can do now.”
Nor waited impatiently for the young ensign to sidle past him with an eager, wary glance. He gave her and the older lieutenant a nod before they headed off to their appointed area along with the other teams fanning out through the station.
Trixie looked up at him. “I don’t have a partner.”
“I assigned everyone already.” That was true. Mostly.
She huffed out a breath.“I’m not actually useless, you know. I can—”
He slapped a collection bag into her hand and then added the special scanner attachment to the dat-pad strapped to his wrist. “Let’s go.”
She fell into step beside him with another soft grumble.
The station had been in near total shutdown mode when theGrandyhad first come upon it and Raz had retrieved Rayna and the others. The women had freed themselvesfrom the stasis chambers where Blackworm had left them while he’d gone off to procure more victims only to be captured himself when he went after the wrong females. Since Raz and Rayna were now touring the Azthronos system and settling on a business plan for the station once it was refurbished, it had been left in hibernation. That meant the gravity was supplied only by the physical spinof the station, atmosphere was maintained at bare minimum, and the corridor lighting was emergency level only.
The fading echo of footsteps ahead of them sounded eerie and indistinct in the abandoned station, and Trixie shifted half a step closer to him with a shiver. The temperature was low, part of the hibernation setting, but Nor shrugged out of his heavier outer layer and draped it aroundher shoulders.
She looked up at him, her eyes darkened and wide in the low light. “I’d like to say I don’t need it and it’s too big for me, but…thank you.”
He nodded. “I run warmer than you anyway.”
“I’ve noticed.” She threaded her arms through the sleeves and hugged the edges tight around her body. “Where’d everybody go?”
“It’s a big place, and we have a lot of ground to cover.” He put hishand on her shoulder. “You scared to be alone with me?”
As he intended, she scowled up at him. “I have my blaster,” she warned.
