“Fuck you,” she translated helpfully.
“I was under the impression that most Earther mating customs reserved that privilege for intimate partnership,” he said. “But if fucking would help you calm yourself, I would be willing to oblige.”
“Willing to…” She hissed out an angry breath. “No, it means you don’t get to control my emotions right now.” Leaning forward to keep her voice low, she reminded him, “I was kidnapped, held unconscious for who knows how long, for who knows what purpose, and now I’m flying through space, and you tell me to calm myself? No.Fuckyou.”
“Ah. You mean larf you.” He nodded once. “I understand your fury—”
“Oh, you don’t,” she snarled. “You really, really don’t. And you don’t understand fucking if you think that’s what I wanted.”
Except…maybe he wasn’t wrong about her not being in control of her emotions either.
He slid his steadying grasp gently down from her shoulder to take her hands in both of his. His clear blue gaze locked on hers. “Iknowyour fury,” he said again, his tone pitched intoa deeper register she almost felt more than heard. “But it won’t get you what you want, not unless you channel it to something…appropriate.”
She stared at him hard. He sounded like he knew what he was talking about, and it struck a chord somewhere inside her. “Like when my mother left and everybody told me I had to be strong and couldn’t cry or yell at God and I needed to take care of my littlesister and make sure my dad didn’t mind going back to war to keep our country safe even though I was scared and lonely and had to miss summer camp?”
He squinted slightly, as if he was having trouble keeping up with the flood of words as much as he seemed uncomfortable with the flood of tears. But then he nodded slowly. “Yes, that,” he said at last. “Exactly.”
“Fuck you,” she told him.
He rearedback, releasing her hands. When he did so, she could see the other women watching sidelong, wary and quiet.
But calm, their seesawing emotions purged for the moment.
Really, fuck him. But apparently he’d been right to break up their breakdown. She sat back in the seat that was a bit too large for her, obviously sized for his kind.
“You made your point,” she said. “You can go now.”
He watchedher for another moment then, with an arch of his eyebrow, he backed away.
But even after he left, she found her gaze reluctantly tracking him. Though the others were seated, he walked among them like it was his right, like the ship was his. The alien who had grabbed Trixie and was now flying the shuttle had called him Your Grace. And what had he called himself? Duke of something, a championof some sort. So he was like royalty? And he’d said he was an avatar of a god.
No wonder he was so full of himself.
She kept up the mental grumbling. It was good distraction from the uncertainties ahead, including the big spaceship getting bigger out the cockpit window. He was big, strong, fast, strangely handsome in an alien way—no, okay, sexy even in an entirely male way. And apparently aduke. But that didn’t give him the right to try to control her.
At least…shedidn’t think he had the right. Who knew what rules he was playing by.
But she was done with being a victim.
As if to mock her determination and show her just how little recourse she had, their shuttle was swallowed up by the bigger spaceship in one gulp. The crew bustled into motion and she listened closely, tryingto make sense of the clipped orders, some from Raz, some from the shuttle pilot, some coming from the voice over the ship’s radio, or whatever signal they used for communications. The shuttle was secured, she figured out, the airlock attached, a medical team on its way, a message being sent to someone distant, another claim of some sort being made…
Her head was whirling again, and it wasn’t untilRaz lifted her from her seat that she realized she had her hands over her face.
“Hey,” she said woozily.
“I’m not leaving you on the shuttle alone,” he said. “Who knows what trouble you’d get into. Maybe you’d break free from here too.”
She glanced over his shoulder. Everyone else was already gone. She craned her neck the other way to see the other women being guided away. “Wait.” The wordcaught in her throat.
“You’re going with them,” Raz assured her. “You’re all going to the med bay to get checked out.”
Her arm tightened inadvertently on his neck as he carried her out of the shuttle. “What…what do you think Blackworm did to us?” She hated the quaver of fear in her voice.
Almost as much as she hated his hesitation. “I want to lie to you and tell you everything is fine, butI don’t know.” Regret softened his tone. “I can say with full confidence that the med bay, the galley, and several suites on theGrandiloquencewere upgraded for my presence on this tour, so I swear you’ll be well taken care of until you are returned to your world. Perhaps fresh food and a sonic shower don’t sound like much when everything you know seems lost, but trust me when I say that cleanhair and a slice of pixberry pie will do wonders for your outlook.” He gave her a lopsided smile. “Even if what you see is just a sky of unfamiliar stars.”
Peripherally aware of the wide, sleek bulkheads that seemed like a bigger version of the shuttle, Rayna concentrated on his face, searching his clear blue gaze for any sign he was prevaricating. But when he met her glance, she saw only concernand candor.
And maybe a touch of some deeper awareness. He might be an alien and a duke, but somehow he seemed to know what she was feeling. And that wry smile turned his excessively handsome face into something less perfect and more personal.
