Page 39 of The Interstellar Rake's Irresistible Kiss
And who else might be part of them.
He cleared his throat. “Talk to Raz,” he said, slightly more curtly than he intended. “I know he’ll do whatever he can for you.”
She nodded. “Maybe you could go with me, explain the resort idea. It sounded less crazy when you said it.”
Considering she’d snickered, that wasn’t exactly a ringing endorsement. But he mumbled some sort of agreement while he tried to imagine describing hedonism andfreedom to his uptight, stalwart half-brother.
Restlessly, Trixie pushed to her feet and paced a few steps away from him. With a sharp gust of breath, she pivoted on her heel and lifted her face to the black hole looming above them. The luminous glow reflected in her eyes, giving his innocent mishkeet a mysterious sheen.
“You don’t get to steal my dreams,” she told it. “Everything else, maybe,but not that.”
The savage edge to her voice sharpened the pulse of his blood. She really was magnificent.
“Come here,” he called to her in a husky voice.
She wheeled toward him. “Did you get a call…?” When she met his half-lidded gaze, her eyes narrowed. “Oh,Isee what’s going on. It’s a booty call.”
He didn’t know what that was, probably something like perving and manspreading, which heapparently did instinctively and which she didn’t approve of. He was almost getting the impression she didn’t approve ofhim. Except for one thing, maybe… “Since we’re waiting for our next task, you might as well show that big black eye that you’re not afraid of it.”
She tucked her chin. “How? By kissing you?”
“We could start there,” he purred.
This time he got an eye roll from her. “You aresuch a manwhore.”
That term his translator could figure out. “I was. That was how I bought my way off the first ship where I was indentured to scrape the larfs off ships’ hulls. Larfs are the worst. If they aren’t scraped off, they’ll bore right through a bulkhead, so you can imagine how fast they’ll chew through an exosuit.”
With a wince, she stepped toward him, reaching out one hand. “Oh,Nor. I’m sorry. I didn’t mean—”
He laced his fingers through hers and reeled her closer. “Don’t feel sorry for me. I survived. As you survived.” He pointed at the singularity above them. “The sucking void didn’t get us. I say we kiss where it can stare at us and seethe.”
She leaned toward him, balancing her weight against his knees. Her gaze was serious. “Girls died in there, Nor.”
He nodded.“The black hole isn’t just death. It’s a reminder that we are trapped and alone and hopeless, with no force in the universe to save us. And yet…”
“Yet some of us were saved,” she whispered. “I was.”
“We fight.” He tightened his grip on hers. “We rage against the light sliding away. We hold onto every moment of life.”
“Strange how you know poetry when you want to get into my pants,” she murmured.
“Technically, those are my pants.” He parted his knees and let her fall toward him.
She did, gracefully, as if the only gravity left was between them, her hands bracing on his shoulders, her lips centered on his.
He wanted to tell her he’d kiss her until the singularity gave up its ghosts, but in his heart, he knew he’d want her longer than that.
