Page 38 of The Intergalactic Duke's Inconvenient Engagement

She didn’t have thepower to laugh at his arrogance, not when his lightest touch was so close to sending her over the edge. But she would tease him unmercifully when it was her turn…

She skimmed her hands lower, past the drawstring of his pants—the ridiculous rock on her finger catching there too—and clamped her fingers on his haunches. His hips bucked toward her, and the long, thick, hard shaft of his erectionjutted against her belly. Oh, he would fill her in ways no man ever had. Maybe because he wasn’t just a man.

With a masterful heave, he lifted and turned her, laying her back on the rug with the astro fireplace at her head casting its dazzling glow into her eyes. Though it was nothing compared to the dazzle of him suspended above her. Now she would see what this arrogant alien duke was made of,besides starlight and ego.

But instead of getting naked as she so dearly desired, he nudged back the edges of her robe and resumed his potent stroking.

She arched up into him, with a whine of dismay and desire. “Raz, fuck me.”

“I’ll give you what you need,” he growled, and the intensity in his voice was a promise, an oath. “Look at me,” he demanded. “I want to see everything I am in your eyes.”

Dazed by the ferocity of his command, she parted her lashes wide and uncertain. What did he mean, all that he was? Above her head, the astro fireplace spun with a now familiar solar system of a star and planets and moons and an asteroid belt, all his, as her body yearned to be his.

Oh God, he was sooooo arrogant, thinking he could claim a solar system and her with one touch. Then his finger sankinside her and crooked with a come-hither gesture that nailed the secret heart of her pleasure just as his other hand clamped around her tight, aching nipple and his mouth came down on hers with unerring, irresistible grace.

She spasmed around his hand with a shocked cry that would’ve woken Earthers back on her distant planet if not for his mouth shielding hers. His groan of satisfaction trembledthrough her, igniting another spasm and then another as he pressed the heel of his palm to her still pulsing clit. “Rayna,” he chanted in a rough voice. “My lady Ray. Mine…”

His… Her deepest inner core convulsed around his claiming hand, as if he had the right to possess her very pleasure. But when she reached for him to reclaim some of that control, he brought his mouth down for a demandingkiss and she forgot anything she wanted that wasn’t him.

As their breaths calmed and they sank back onto the rug, he stretched her out beside him and curved her into the shelter of his body.

“Raz,” she murmured with the first prickle of returning awareness.

He hushed her, brushing his lips over the sweaty, tangled hair at her temple. “Just lie here a moment,” he said, “and be with me.”

Shepetted the hard curve of his pecs and rested her chin on his shoulder so she could admire the sparkling rock. “What is a honey-bird?”

“A small avian creature, common on Azthronos. It’s the only pollinator for one of our major exports, a flower that is processed into a psychotropic drug and a popular ethanol-based beverage called ghost-mead.” He tucked a stray lock of hair behind her ear. “Thenectar produced by the honey-bird is exactly the color of your hair.”

She grinned. “You’re calling me a hummingbird?”

“Do your hummingbirds defend their carnivorous flower fields to the death?”

Carnivorous flowers and ghostly booze… With a sleepy blink, she fisted her ringed hand under her chin. “Actually, I’ve heard they are rather fierce for their size.”

“Honey-birds are much prized on Azthronos.”He tightened his embrace.

Maybe it was unfair of her, but it was his own fault for making her so sated that she fell asleep.

Some time later, she made a soft noise of protest when he lifted her and she realized he was carrying her back to the bedroom. “Stay,” she whispered.

With the light of his solar system fading to some deep-space darkness, his eyes were shadowed. “Sleep,” he said and kissedher gently.

She couldn’t keep her eyes open but she said sleepily, “On Earth, the fairytales end with the rich, handsome, titled dude kissing the girl awake.”

“Duke, not dude,” he corrected. “Also, you’re not on Earth anymore.”

With that line—half amused, half menacing—ringing in her ears, she fell asleep.