Read Online DarykRogue by Denise A. Agnew - Free Book Online Page B

justice for what he’d done to her
family. She swallowed hard around the bitterness that filled her heart, filled
every part of her until she overflowed.
    “Xandra? What’s wrong?”
    She kept her gaze pinned to his face, overwhelmed by
feelings and a staggering awareness of his virile presence. “Why do you care?
I’m merely your slave.”
    His mouth tightened, his brows lowered and eyes serious.
Those green and gold striations mesmerized her and added mystery to his allure.
    “You’re my slave, and it’s better if you get used to idea
rather than fight it,” he said.
    “Just allow you to take over my body. You don’t want to
marry me, so why are you?”
    “You know why. Because Admiral Aramus requires it.”
    “You are second-in-command. You don’t have influence over
him?”
    “I’ve been on this ship three years, slowly working my way
to second-in-command. I didn’t get that far by arguing inconsequential points.”
    She made a noise of disbelief. “Marriage is
inconsequential?”
    His eyes sparked with a predatory glimmer. “No. It’s a very
important step in anyone’s life. My parents made sure I knew that.”
    Sarcasm crept into her reply. “Really. I heard that all
Dragonians are raised by their brutish fathers and the mothers rarely interact
with their children.”
    His fingers tightened on her shoulders as his mouth became a
thin slash. “Where did you hear such bollocks?”
    “Our scribes.”
    He grunted. “They lie.”
    That stung, and she wanted to deny what he’d said but
couldn’t. “Mia, one of the women I met on the ship, was training to become a
scribe. She decided the life wasn’t for her. She said some unhappy things about
lies and the scribes.”
    “There you have it then. From the mouth of one who knows.”
    “I would rather see for myself, but I don’t have time. I
need to return to Magonia.”
    “What is so important there?”
    She shook her head, unwilling to give him more. “Business.”
Before he could press her to ask more, she swerved toward a new subject. “Your
parents were good people?”
    “My father was a professor who taught children their sums,
and my mother also taught very small children. They were gentle people.”
    Surprised that he’d revealed his childhood to her like that,
she relaxed in his grip. “That’s wonderful.”
    “It was. I had a happy childhood. But it wasn’t perfect.”
    “Is it ever?”
    “Perhaps not.” He released her but didn’t move away. “When
it was apparent I was to become a Daryk One, they tried to hide my abilities.”
    Daryk One. Oh my god Magon. “You’re a Daryk One?”
    His smile held wicked teasing, his gaze losing that
intensity for one moment. “You’ve heard of us? What do you think you
know?”
    She licked her lips and his gaze flicked to her mouth and
settled there. Heat flowed and filled her up. “Daryk Ones are powerful. Men who
are stronger than the average man and brutal killers. And you’re all in
alliance with Drakus Fina, an evil man who wishes to bring down the Magonian
government and enslave every Magonian man, woman and child. Your slave ships
are filled to the brim with Magonian women who Drakus uses as breeding
material.”
    Teasing left his eyes, replaced by a hard, unforgiving air.
“Some of your story is completely wrong. But I’m not sure I want to take the
time to tell you which parts are right.”
    He started to turn away and took a couple of steps toward
the bed. His wide shoulders were sculpted with muscle, waist trim, his butt
hard. And his legs. Ah, his legs fascinated her. Thighs peppered with dark
hair, corded strength through his calves and into his big feet. Xandra couldn’t
help but stare, and when he turned to look back, he caught her assessing his
body.
    She couldn’t avoid seeing his manhood without acting the
complete ninny, the full prude. His cock, she’d once heard this part of a man
called. Somehow the word fit so well. Thick and long, his arousal stood