"Knight, Angela - Baby You've Changed" - читать интересную книгу автора (Knight Angela)

"Baby, YouТve Changed"

By Angela Knight

IТm told everybody squirms a little on seeing somebody they made love to as a teenager. Maybe you gained weight. Maybe he picked up a few scars. Maybe, like me, you said something stupidly thoughtless when you broke it off that makes you wince as an adult.

But I suspect my reunion with Captain Gage Deauxville hit new depths of Godawful unplumbed in the history of romance.

To begin with, our little meeting didnТt exactly take place at a Star Academy reunion. Nope, I and the rest of the crew of the XeТvit had just been captured by DeauxvilleТs Intrepid after a running four-hour space battle during the conquest of Arcana.

Not that we made it easy. After the XeТvit was disabled by several really well-placed Intrepid antimatter volleys, we fought like hell to repel the enemyТs boarding parties, with me and my Arcanan Marines in the lead.

DidnТt do much good. DeauxvilleТs mercs were just too damned battle-hardened for a shipload of human draftees, no matter how desperate. Most of my mates were grass-green fresh recruits, no match for DeauxvilleТs troops, fully half of whom were either vamp or genetically engineered anyway. I knew when the boarding started we were fucked, and I was right.

After the obligatory ass-kicking Ц and the post ass-kicking trip to the shipТs medtechs for treatment of some ugly beamer burns Ц all us Marines were ordered to report to the XeТVitТs quarterdeck. My boys and girls didnТt like the sound of that much, and to tell the truth, neither did I. My old lover had built himself a very dark reputation, so dark I was still wondering whether it really was him.

Until they lined us up on the quarterdeck, us unarmed in our shipsuits, them in boarding armor. Deauxville came out to review us all, and my heart sank. It was him, all right.

Of course, he was a hell of a lot bigger than the half-grown 17-year-old IТd seduced as a bitchy little teenaged Fem. Hard to tell how much of it was him and how much was that matte black boarding armor, but he towered over every Marine in the line. Except maybe Tiny, who wasnТt really human to begin with.

But that face Ц that face I knew. HeТd been such a pretty kid all those years ago, with that beautifully sculptured bone structure that looked like something Michelangelo had chiseled, with big blue eyes and a sweet, kissable mouth. A young archangel I had thoroughly enjoyed corrupting with all the wicked experience that comes from being a whole year older.

The beauty was still there, but it was darker now, harder. A scar slashed from his forehead, across one eye, and down an elegant cheek, but it somehow set his looks off instead of ruining them. I imagined what the original wound must have been like and winced. It was a miracle he hadnТt lost that eye.

I also wondered why he hadnТt had the scar surgically removed. What kind of statement was he trying to make with that?

As he walked down the line of my Marines, I saw him study each of them in turn, meeting their eyes with an icy crystalline stare. If any of them had any thoughts of giving the IntrepidТs crew a hard time, they didnТt by the time he went past.

Watching him terrorize my unit, I remembered the time I used my Fem strength to hold him down and suck his beautiful young cock into a gushing orgasm. I remembered the adoration in those blue eyes when he told me he loved me.

And I remembered telling him I could never fall for a mere human like him.

With the sort of thoughtless cruelty only a teenage girl can manage, IТd told him I was a Fem, genetically engineered for battle. I wanted a man of my own kind who could match me strength for strength, and more. Dominate me, even. Not a guy I could hold down and suck off without working up a sweat. I wanted a Warlord.

God, what a fucking idiot IТd been.

I donТt know whether Deauxville read the wince of apology in my eyes when he reached me in that line. I do know he stared down into my face for a long, long time while I tried to decide what, if anything, I should say. Then, slowly, chillingly, he smiled, revealing half-inch fangs.

My beautiful Gage Deauxville wasnТt a "mere" human any more. He was a vampire. And one of the nastiest military commanders in this part of the galaxy.

Without saying a word, he pivoted on his heel and aimed an offhand command at the Intrepid trooper behind him. "That one."

"Aye, sir." The trooper lifted his stun rifle and pointed into my face.

Shit.

Before I could react, the lights went out.

***