Page 54 of The Interstellar Rake's Irresistible Kiss
The mantid alien jumped aside, and she stumbled and would’ve fallen if not for armor boy who hauled her upright.
Blackworm snarled. “Since you are so brave, you can go awake and aware before the gods. Perhaps your screams will move them where your sisters’ sleepy whimpers did not.” He jerked his head at the two guards. “Prepare her and meet me at the launch bay.”
She strained against the armored hand over her bruise. “Don’t do this,” she implored. Then, hating the sound of her own desperation and suspectingBlackworm wouldn’t care anyway, she added, “You shouldn’t be wasting time with me. The captain of theGrandiloquenceis on his way, I know that too, and he will destroy you for taking…his ship.” To cover her hesitation—why would she even think Nor would be angrier about her than theGrandy?—she soldiered on, “And the Duke of Azthronos will be right behind him.”
With a sneer, Blackworm half turnedaside again. “I stole that half-blood captain’s ship right out from under his nose, didn’t I? And as for the Duke of Azthronos… His father was the one who forbade me from marrying my consort. Said it reflected poorly on his noblemen.”
“So take it up with the old duke,” she urged. “He’s dead too.”
Armor boy yanked so hard on her arm she thought he might dislocate it. He frog-marched her towardthe exit, and she only had one last chance to yell back. “When I find your consort, I’m going to tell her you’re a larfing monster and she’s better off without you—mff!”
She grunted in frustration when armor boy clamped his gloved hand over her mouth again and dragged her backward, her heels bumping helplessly over the deck.
Her last glimpse of Blackworm, he was standing again in the spectralmaelstrom of the black hole, his whole body yearning toward the vortex, the ethereal lights caressing his black clothes and hair like ghostly fingers drawing him down.
She managed to get her feet underneath her before armor boy pulled her right over. The mantid alien clacked something that sounded annoyed, and to her surprise, armor boy answered in English, the metal mask making him sound asif he was talking into a tin can. “If you think she smells funny, I’ll get her ready while you go prep the pod.”
Trixie grimaced at the spindly alien. Oh sure,shesmelled funny but at least she didn’t look like a bug. She twisted away from armor boy, swinging a kick at the mantid, but he caught her easily.
The mantid clattered another reply, but armor boy shook his head. “Nah,” he drawled.“I got her. She’s just excited about having me alone where she can see what’s in my pants besides this illegal blaster.” He laid his palm over the grip of the weapon at his thigh, and inadvertently she glanced down.
And froze.
The top buckle of the lower half of his armor wasn’t quite fastened, as if the heavy plating was just a little too small for him, not quite fitting. Her gaze slid to theblaster. Not the snub-nosed pistol that armor boy had shot her with on the space station. This weapon was larger, the kind of gun a swaggering pirate might carry.
Or an ex-pirate who wasn’t quite ready to forget where he’d come from.
She’d gone so still, armor boy took the opportunity to haul her down the corridor. The mantid made a creepy sibilant clash, like a garbage disposal chuckling, andarmor boy called back over his shoulder, “Yeah, that’s me, just a pervy manwhore.”
She waited until they were halfway down the corridor from the other alien before she murmured, “Pervy manwhore?”
The masked face peered down at her. “Too obvious?”
The rush of giddy relief and inappropriate amusement and sheer joy at his presence nearly made her knees buckle. She clamped her hand over his forearm,holding herself up. “Nor…”
He shook his head in warning. “We’re not out of this yet.”
She nodded her understanding, but she wondered if he realized what his arrival meant to her. Not just hope for rescue, but hope for something more. A future.
A future with him.
She squelched the surge of yearning. He was duty-bound to rescue her, and he had a personal grudge at Blackworm for stealing theGrandy. And still…
Blackworm had been right about one thing. She wanted to find the love she’d always longed for, even if it meant facing the God of Death himself.
But Nor was also right—first they had to survive.
“I assume you have a plan,” she said as they hustled down the hallway.
He shrugged one shoulder. “Probably more than you. Unless you consider antagonizing Blackworm a plan.”
“WhileI waited for you, I was going to talk him to death.”
“He seemed to have that part covered all on his own.”
She grinned. “Right? Like he wanted my consent before killing me.”
“What a gentleman.”
