Page 11 of The Intergalactic Duke's Inconvenient Engagement
Chapter 4
Though her stomach churned from fear and confusion—she wanted to blame the rough jostling of the forced march through the atriums, but the man/alien/Raz/whatever he was carried her smoothly, even gently—Rayna forced herself to keep her eyes open. She stared at every turn of the space station. She marveled at the black hole and the spaceship overhead. She studied the beings who hadrescued them. And—confession time—she ogled Raz.
He seemed very humanoid, with all the requisite limbs and features, except taller, stronger, and faster. It wasn’t her fault she was ogling. Hewasthe first alien she’d ever seen. That she remembered, anyway, since technically Blackworm must’ve been the first. Maybe the evil Blackworm would’ve been more obviously alien, with rows of fangs or drippinggoo or at least a tail or something.
Although maybe this Raz had a tail tucked into the pants of his vaguely militaristic black uniform. There seemed to besomething sizeable down there, something very masculine…
The thought made her blush and squirm. Which was unfortunate because he was carrying her and he must be wondering what was wrong with her.
Whatwaswrong with her? Other than beingabducted by aliens, of course, and then saved by aliens and now taken away by aliens again.
But Raz promised he was freeing her and the others. Her throat tightened with the memory of her screams. What choice did she have but to believe him? She was at a loss what else to do and she couldn’t stand the women waiting for her cue—Trixie and Lishelle, Carmen and Anne.
She didn’t usually trust randomstrangers, not because she was suspicious but because it was stupid. And even friends and family… Not that she didn’t love them, but she was always the strong one, always the one making sure plans were formulated and lunches were served.
Hanging helplessly in Raz’s arms felt almost…too good.
How fucked up was that?
Just because he was stronger than her? There were plenty of hard-bodied adventurersand strapping cowboys in Big Sky Country, even if Raz was in a class of his own. With the strength in his broad shoulders, he carried her easily, but his lean hips would fit even more easily between her thighs… Wait,what? No. She’d never gone for the gym rat guys who were always more interested in the appearance of their bodies than the needs of hers.
She was going to excuse herself for thislapse, for now. She was just momentarily overwhelmed by her rescuer’s gallantry. As soon as she got her feet back under her, she’d be her old self again: secure, independent, free.
Once she made that promise to herself, it didn’t seem so weak to rest her head on Raz’s heavy shoulder. Just for a moment.
“It’s not far,” he murmured, almost as if he heard her hazy thoughts. “Just hold on.”
Shedidn’t even have to hold him really, not when his arms were rock solid with muscle that she felt even through the thin body armor encasing him. She never liked being caged like this. Those macho dudes were more trouble than they were worth, not that she’d found them to be worth that much anyway. It was always easy enough to swipe right if she had the need, and a B.O.B.—battery-operated boyfriend—whonever let her down could be had for the price of a few AA batteries along with a fifth of good tequila she didn’t even have to share.
But damn, his embrace was tempting. She rested her hand on the arcane array of insignia emblazoned on the chest of his uniform.
As they marched through the space (!) station and through an airlock (!!) to the space shuttle (!!!) that had brought the aliens (!!!!)from their spaceship (!!!!!), she found herself more intrigued with Raz than the unbelievable realities surrounding her. Maybe she was just burned out and he was all her swirling brain could handle right now.
Or maybe it was becausehewas handling her. He cradled her tenderly while still clipping out orders that the other aliens obeyed without question. He had an effortless command that sherecognized from her military father and her sister who had also served. She herself had never wanted to commandorbe ordered around like that, but she appreciated how efficiently he had everyone ensconced in their seats and communications relayed to the waiting ship.
As their transport shuttle disconnected from the airlock and spun away from the space station (!!!!!!!), she caught her breath.They really were leaving. From the seat behind her, Lishelle hissed a string of curses.
“Fuck you and good riddance,” she ended.
“Amen,” Trixie added, and the other two women murmured their agreement.
But Rayna watched the space station spin out of sight. It was actually sort of beautiful, the atriums rounding out like glassy bubbles from between sharp nacelles bristling in all directions,like a sea urchin floating in space. Space!
Something like a giggle leaked between her lips, and the other women stared at her with expressions of suspicion and horror. She tried to choke down the inappropriate laughter but it turned into a snort instead.
Then Trixie snickered and it was all over.
The alien crew stared at them bemusedly as they doubled over, laughing, gasping, snorting somemore. And then Trixie was crying, which made Carmen and Anne cry, which made Lishelle swear some more, which made Rayna laugh even harder.
Long fingers closed around her shoulder and she glanced up to meet Raz’s steady stare. His eyes were a pure royal blue, deep set behind austere cheekbones. The light tan of his skin made the black of his hair, bound in a queue at his nape, seem even darker.But a strange halo of light seemed to surround him, and she realized suddenly she was welling up too, the smudge of unshed tears giving a soft-focus cast to the noble edges of his face, like a black velvet painting of an avenging angel.
Although she’d stopped believing in angels after her mother—who she’d loved, of course, as so beautiful and good—had walked out of the house one day and lefther in charge. She’d figured out then that praying did no good, and anything she wanted done, she had to do herself.
“Calm yourself,” he said softly, too low for the others to hear. “You might not want to be their leader, but they look to you for guidance.”
She swiped at her eyes and peered at him resentfully. “Calm this.” She raised her middle finger at him. Since his big body was blockingthe way, she didn’t have to worry about Trixie seeing it. And Lishelle would probably approve.
He narrowed his gaze at the gesture. “What does that mean?”