Page 22 of The Intergalactic Duke's Inconvenient Engagement
Wait wait wait. She was not saying, thinking, or even subconsciously considering sleeping with him. And anyway, he just meant she couldn’tfallasleep, right? Because alien or not, no noble duke in shining armor was going to sleep with a soon-to-be brain-wiped Earth girl, no matter how easy she was.
She dragged her focus back to the moment. “Yes. That. Couldn’t sleep.” She grimaced.“I slept long enough in Blackworm’s coffin. Maybe I’ll just never sleep again.”
“Never is a long time,” he said softly.
“That’s why there’s coffee.”
He studied her. “Come with me.”
“Where?” Despite the suspicious word, she found her slippery slippers moving toward him as if they were lubed.
Well, shit. Why had she thought about lube?
“I want to show you something.” He held one arm behindher, as if he was ushering her. “This way.”
“Won’t I just have to forget it?”
“Maybe.” His tone was diffident. “But then it won’t matter anyway, will it?”
She wasn’t sure what to make of his fatalism, but her curiosity was piqued, and she fell into step beside him.
“I don’t even know what time it is,” she told him, apropos of nothing.
He nodded, as if he understood her non sequitur. “Becauseit’s all times, somewhere.”
“That’s…not helpful at all,” she noted.
“TheGrandiloquencekeeps the same insolation/eclipse hours as the ducal seat on Azthronos,” he said. “But that’s arbitrary…and, I suppose, also not that helpful to you.” He smiled down at her.
He might be an alien and a duke, but she was charmed by him nonetheless. Maybe that wasbecausehe was an alien duke?
She frownedand skipped a step ahead of him so she could look back at him more straight-on. “How can you be an alien and a duke?”
He tilted his head. “I’m not actually an alien. I’m just alien to you. To me,youare the alien. As for the title, that is the closest approximation in English, according to my universal translator. I am Duke of Azthronos because my father was Duke of Azthronos before me and Iinherited from him when he died. That was…” He frowned. “That was three lunar cycles ago.”
Her stomach clenched at the shadow that crossed his face and she stumbled to a halt. “Your father died three months ago? Oh, Raz, I’m sorry for your loss.”
“Loss?” He stared past her. “Technically, it was a gain of the position and the planets.”
The hollowness in his tone struck her hard, and she couldn’tstop herself from reaching out to touch his hand. “Then should I call you Your Grace instead of Raz?”
His gaze refocused on her, and his lips quirked in a faint smile. “Thatwouldbe my loss.” He threaded his fingers through hers and tugged her along again. “And so far, the gains have been more trouble than they are worth. Literally.”
So when he’d said life was always trouble and she’d mockedhim about being a duke… She winced. “I didn’t mean to tease you about being a poor little rich boy.”
He shrugged, and the dismissive gesture rippled through to her arm. “I’ve heard it before. I was sent away to…the term in your language is boarding school. The civilized galaxies have a functionally endless array of social constructs—political, economic, legal, and cultural, including many likethe monarchial peerage of the Thorkonos Galaxy solar systems—but somehow boarding school bullies always find a way to make yours the worst.”
She snorted. “I just really can’t picture anyone picking on you. You must’ve been…kinda cute as a little boy.”
He blinked at her, and then that charming grin flashed at her. “Yes, I think I was.”
Oh fuck. He could wreck her with that smile. Imagining himas a little boy somehow seemed even more dangerous to her peace of mind than all the wicked things she’d contemplated before. It was one thing to want to feel up a sexy male—alien or not—but to feelforhim? That was more trouble than all the stars hiding in the daytime sky.
“The Thorkonos Galaxy has a primitive, war-like history,” he said. That wry grin again. “I suppose that’s true of manysentient races. We came together to fight against a common enemy. Military forces from each world were led by a powerful warlord—a blood champion. The strongest of those—or the ones that survived the ancient battles, anyway—eventually formed system-wide duchies by divine right—I’m the avatar of a god, I’ll have you know.”
“How nice for you, having a god backing you up.” She said it with a grinso he’d know she was teasing in a nice way, not a boarding school bully way.
He nodded. “We’re much more civilized now, but I wanted to explain Thorkonos history so you’ll understand why I have theGrandiloquence”—he waved one hand in a gesture to encompass the ship—“a dreadnaught-class warship that is a larfing nightmare expense, when really I am mostly a very agreeable, diplomatic duke withhardly any proposals for conquest or dynastic expansion.” He gave her a guileless, wide-eyed smile that wasn’t anything like his usual fleeting grin…and made her suspect that he hadn’t been entirely innocent of schoolyard antics himself.