Chapter 11
She wanted this night of wonders to never, ever end.
It took her one dance to trust the anti-grav boots. It took a second dance to find the rhythm of the alien music. But by the third dance…
Rayna laughed with delight as Raz spun her higher. He took her all the way to the top of the chamber in a powerful arc like a comet, her skirts trailing glitter behind her.
She might’ve worriedfor a moment about dancers below seeing up her dress, but the anti-grav in the layers of gauze seemed to know where they needed to float to keep her decent and demure.
Even if all her thoughts were decidedly, ducally wicked.
When she’d descended the stairs—thank the God of Tripping Hazards for the hidden escalator—she’d almost fallen to her knees at how stunningly handsome he was. Well, she’dalready known he was stunningly handsome, but in his formal black suit that was something like a tuxedo and something like the historical court dress she’d seen in old drawings he was even more enticing. Maybe it was the irresistible confluence of a man with old-world manners and a zoomy spaceship… Be still her heart.
But it couldn’t be still, not when he was rocketing her through a verticalballroom of suspended lights and other hovering dancers. He had all the strength and grace needed to guide her even when she faltered. And once, when she got too cocky and almost upended them, he took control and whirled them actually upside down for a moment, a very not upright and respectable move if the aghast expressions of the other dancers were anything to go by. Or maybe they were just horrifiedat her shriek of shocked laughter.
Raz didn’t seem to mind, though. He just laughed along with her and spun her again.
She seemed to keep spinning inside even when he finally let them float down and insisted she drink something. She tried the ghost-mead, although he asked for a watered-down version. When she’d stuck out her tongue at him, he backed her into a private, enclosed alcove and kissedher, hard and lingering, until she thought she might be floating again.
“Let’s take our drinks out to the balcony,” he said. “Or I might keep kissing you.”
“Is that an oath?”
“No. Just the truth.”
The hunger in his eyes convinced her.
But she let him tug her outside because the night was beautiful and maybe he wasn’t wrong about needing to clear their heads a little.
It would be too easyto let this night mean too much. Though the dowager had swanned by at one point to nod approvingly at them—“How romantic,” she’d cooed, “the engagement of the Duke of Azthronos and a Black Hole Bride”—Rayna heard a few sotto voce hisses too. She couldn’t understand the words, but she guessed the meaning anyway: How could a blood champion and avatar stoop to courting a closed-world hillbilly?
They didn’t know this was just for one night. And she was having trouble remembering that herself, as if Raz’s handsomeness and charm were a mind-wipe she was all too happy to inflict on herself.
The few people standing out on the small balcony overlooking the front courtyard melted away at his look, leaving the space for just the two of them.
She gave a low, impressed whistle as he closed thedoors behind them with a decisive thud. “My arrogant duke.”
He huffed out another one of those laughs that made her heart skip. “They didn’t want to be here anyway. Can’t gossip about us right in front of us.”
“Gossip?” She pursed her lips. “We didn’t do anythingthatcrazy.”
“Merely by existing you are fascinating.” When she gave him a gimme-a-break stare, he shook his head. “No lie. TheEarther who escaped a black hole to capture a duke.”
Though the thought of being the subject of interstellar speculation creeped her out, she waved her hand dismissively. “Probably they just want to talk about how fine you look.” She waggled her hand again. “Or this massive rock.”
“It’s probably my pants,” he said modestly. “Did you know they are actually mostly bombproof?”
She giggled, thenclamped her hand over her mouth. “Hoo. That ghost-mead is good, even watered down.”
He took her into her arms and waltzed her slowly across the balcony. “No drunkenness. Because then I will have to be respectable and not fuck you.”
Her whole body heated at the crackle of desire in his voice. “I’m not drunk,” she protested.
“I meant me.”
She giggled again, then snorted, then giggle-snorted.“We can keep dancing until we sober up.”
“That’s really what the crowd will be talking about.”
