Page 58 of The Interstellar Rake's Irresistible Kiss
For a heartbeat, she was silent then she growled, “No. I refuse to let him win.”
Her ferocity a strange balm for the chill within him, Nor pushed back in his seat. “I can’t take back command of our course. But…I still have helm control for speed.”
With a frown, she shook her head uncertainly. “So Blackworm can get to Azthronos faster?”
“On our currentcourse, if I lock in the speed, theGrandiloquencewill approach the event horizon too fast to escape the singularity’s gravitational pull.”
She brought both hands together, a prayerful pose if not for the two pistols in the way. “We’d be…”
“Theshipwould be sucked in,” he said. “We can still make a run for the exosuit, but… I won’t lie to you. It will be close.”
She stared at him. “This shipis everything you wanted.”
“I wanted…” He exhaled brutally. “To be taken in. By someone. I bought my way in, which seemed good enough.” He smiled at her. “I’ll be a Thorkon hero.”
“You’re already my hero.” She kissed him, hard and fast. “Do it.”
“I can give you a head start to the suit.”
“I’m not going anywhere without you.”
Her savage kiss still stinging on his lips, he sent the accelerationcommand and finished locking the sequence. When the larfing mercenary woke, he’d be horrified.
Nor sprang out of the chair—for the last time—and grabbed Trixie’s wrist. “I can’t risk the whole Azthronos system, but…I set a short delay to giveusa little extra chance.”
“First one to the exosuit gets the controls.” Her hazel eyes glinted.
“Run, little mishkeet. I’ll be right beside you.”
Theytook the main corridors. It was a risk, but it was faster. And at this point, everything was a risk.
Through the bulkheads, he sensed the rising tremor as theGrandypushed to unsustainable speeds, falling toward the singularity’s embrace. They were nearly to the hull access corridors when an angry hiss of yellow plasma spun him around.
He slammed into the wall, the heavy armor protecting himbut too unwieldy to let him catch himself. The concussion grenade on the space station had sent a chunk of shrapnel through his side. The med kit Trixie had left with him had patched the worst of the damage—temporarily.
Now, the trickle of blood that had found a way out to his boot was more like a river. Like the river of stars swirling around his head…
He shook himself briskly, trying to straighten.At least he’d blocked the shot from Trixie…
She fired over his armored head with a yell that made his ears ring. The cascade of killing orange light said she wasn’t being good anymore.
“Go,” he growled.
“No.” She kept firing, each shot draining the weapon even as it forced the intruders to stay hunkered down.
“Trixie. I’ve taken too many hits.”
She spared him one wild glare. “Don’t makeme shoot you too. I’ll stun you and drag you out.” She slapped at the forearm of his armor, yanking him toward the dubious protection of a doorway. “You said this suit practically walks itself. Just tell it to follow me.”
His head spun as if the gravity was failing. Wait, shouldn’t it be getting stronger as they approached the singularity…? No, he was the one failing. The river of stars constraininghis vision was turning as dark as his blood, the light closing down around him.
“I shouldn’t have waited,” he muttered as his fingers spasmed on the armor controls.
“We deserved that chance,” she said.
“Shouldn’t have waited to approach my father. Tell Raz…he’s my brother.” He concentrated the last narrowing gap in his vision at the controls, locked in the programming—for all the good thathad done him so far—and looked up at her. When had he fallen? “Shouldn’t have waited to tell you.”
She set her blaster to auto-fire and laid it on the decking to spew aimlessly down the hall. It would take a few seconds to exhaust itself, unless Blackworm’s crew hazarded a peek around their corner. She tugged him to his feet. “Tell me what?”
“That you…” His focus shrank to just her face. “Havesuch pretty eyes.”
The hazel widened, like a mud puddle that would’ve been utterly irresistible to even a proper little Thorkon boy, and he fell right in.
