He shrugged. “I have theGrandynow.”
“That’s a big responsibility too,” she noted.
His rogue’s grin returned. “But should I need to run, her engines would take me to the stars.” He peered past her to the suite’s sitting room. “Lady Trixie,” hesaid with that sly smile deepening. “Talking to aliens yet?”
The young woman glided toward them, the plush Thorkon robe trailing behind her like royalty. “Only nice ones,” she said and triggered the door panel to close.
Rayna swore she heard a muffled laugh from the other side of the door as she followed Trixie into the suite.
Lishelle was curled on the deep couch cushions, snoring softly withher hands flattened in a prayer position under her cheek. Trixie followed Rayna’s glance. “Maybe it doesn’t look like it, but we were so worried for you. She hated that we were afraid and stayed behind. She said we should go after you.” The young woman lifted her stricken gaze to Rayna’s. “It’s my fault we didn’t follow,” she confessed. “I’m a big, dumb chicken.”
“And I’m a little honey-bird,”Rayna muttered as she threw herself down on the couch across from Lishelle who sat up, rubbing her eyes.
She focused on Rayna and jolted straighter. “You’re back,” she exclaimed. “Oh, Ray. I was so…” She sidelonged a glance at Trixie. “Well, we knew you could do it.”
Rayna smiled at the other women. “Really, I don’t think even I needed to be there tonight. They just wanted an excuse to havea ball.”
Trixie twisted her hands together. “I would’ve been so scared.”
“Terrified the whole time,” Lishelle agreed, “that my skirts would’ve flown away without me.”
Rayna forced a laugh. “They almost did.” She regaled them with a few stories of the zero-G dancing and the ghost-mead and the strange beings who had filled the ballroom.
She left out the parts with the Duke of Azthronos.
Butas she was gesturing, imitating the wagging tentacles of an Ajellomenes alien, Trixie leaned forward with a gasp. “You have an engagement ring!”
Lishelle leaned back with an impish grin. “Seems like you’re leaving off part of the story. The good part. Was there kissing?”
“Who was it?” Trixie pressed.
Lishelle guffawed. “Mr. Fine and Dandy Duke, of course.”
Holding her hand out to the pawingTrixie, Rayna sighed. “It’s not real.”
Trixie held it up to the light, and dazzling sparkles shot across the room. “Seems real.”
“I mean…the rock is real, but the engagement isn’t.”
Trixie let her go. “Why not? You obviously like him.”
Rayna sputtered. “That’s not… I mean, I just met him a few days ago.”
“I know it’s fast,” the younger woman said. “But…considering we’ve crossed interstellardistances in just days, maybe ‘too soon’ is relative now.”
Rayna blinked at her in surprise. For such a quiet, nervous, little thing, Trixie had some depths.
Lishelle nodded. “And with the time distortion around a black hole, you can make the engagement last as long as you want.”
With a suspicious glance between the two women, Rayna slumped back into the cushions. “How’d you guys learn so muchabout space? I thought you were avoiding memories that’ll need to be erased.”
“Captain Nor downloaded the remake ofCosmosfor us,” Lishelle said. “Those are memories we can keep.”
Trixie grinned. “And Neil deGrasse Tyson is at least as sexy as your duke.”
Rayna huffed out a breath. “He’s not my duke. He belongs to his whole solar system.”
“Which makes it pretty special that he chose you”—Trixiepatted her knee—“of all the beings in the universe.”
Just thinking about the vastness of space and the improbability of them ever encountering each other made her want to hyperventilate. Instead, she thanked her friends for waiting up for her and slipped away to her bedroom. Stripping off the destroyed gown outside the sonic shower, she stared down at the ring.
Should she leave it on the gownrather than risk it washing down the drain? Was there a safe deposit box somewhere in the room, like in hotel rooms? She should’ve given it back to Raz before she ran away.
Damn it, she didn’t run away… Okay, she had, but for a very good reason.
As she stepped into the shower—her hand clenched tightly around the ring band—she just wished she could remember why.
