Daughters of Lyra: Heart of a Mercenary (10 page)

Her family would never
allow her to stay in Minervan space. It was too dangerous for her.
From now on, she would be lucky if they would let her leave the
Lyra system without an armed escort of thirty men and her two
brothers, or worse, her father.

She sighed and watched the
planets drift into the distance.

There was a bleep from the
control panel beside her quarter’s door.

“
Come in,” she
said, her eyes never leaving the stars outside.

The door swished open and
closed again. Soft footsteps sounded on the plush deep blue
material lining the floor. Her eyes half closed when she felt him
step up behind her and the ends of her hair shifted.

“
Your brothers
asked me to tell you that we’ll be dropping into sub-space
soon.”

Miali said nothing. She
didn’t want to go to sleep, not right now when everything was so
uncertain.

Kosen stepped out from
behind her and she felt his gaze on her, intent and studying her
profile as she stared at the stars and tried to get a grip on her
feelings.

“
I brought you
something,” he said.

She looked at him when he
held his hand out. On his palm was a deep orange pill.

“
What is it?”
she said and her gaze lifted to meet his. He still wore a black
flight suit, moulded to his body like a second skin. She ached to
peel it off him.

Cursing her thoughts in
case they affected her hair, she focused on the pill that he was
offering.

“
It will stop
the sickness that you experience in sub-space.”

“
Will it send
me to sleep?”

He shook his head. “Not
this one. I’ve spent some time altering the active ingredients so
there isn’t a need for a tranquiliser. It should simply relieve
your sickness.”

He smiled at her and her
heart beat a little quicker.

As she took the pill,
something dawned on her.

She really was like her
father.

She had fallen for a
doctor.

She hesitated a moment and
then swallowed the pill.

“
There,” Kosen
said and brushed her cheek with the backs of his fingers. “Now you
should be fine. I’ll be right here in case you experience any
nausea.”

He wasn’t leaving
her?

“
What about
your sisters?” she said with a frown. “I thought they needed
you?”

“
The nurses
from your father’s ship are seeing to them. They’re resting at the
moment.” He paused and then smiled again. “I wanted to see
you.”

He did? Her hair
threatened to float upwards and she pinned it down.

“
Don’t,” he
said and removed her hands from her hair. “I love how it
reacts.”

“
Because it
gives away everything that I’m feeling,” she muttered and pushed it
down, clawing at it. “It’s hardly fair.”

“
Miali, what’s
wrong?” he said and brushed her hands away before clearing the hair
from her face. “You seem tense.”

She sighed, resigning
herself to whatever happened. If she didn’t get her fears out in
the open, she might burst. “You’re going to leave.”

He frowned.
“Leave?”

Pushing his hands away,
she walked across the room and stared out of the window.

“
You have your
sisters now. We’re even. There’s no reason for you to stay and
they’ll probably want to live in the Minerva system, and you’ll
live with them.”

He laughed but it was a
mirthless sound, one born of annoyance. “What are you talking
about?”

When he went to touch her
again, she avoided his hands and walked to the other side of her
bed, placing it between them. She couldn’t bear the thought of him
touching her if he was only going to leave. She didn’t want that.
She would rather they had a clean break and she parted ways with
him now.

“
Miali,” he
whispered and she ached when she looked at him and saw the hurt in
his eyes. They searched hers. “Do you want me to leave?”

“
No!” She
started towards him and then stopped herself. “Of course not. Why
would I want you to leave?”

“
Why would you
think I want to leave?” he countered and she threw her hands up in
frustration.

“
You have your
sisters to look after.”

“
That doesn’t
mean I have to leave.” His look turned incredulous and he walked
towards her.

“
They’ll want
to live in Minerva.”

“
No, they
won’t. They don’t. I’ve had an offer that I’d be a fool to turn
down.”

Her whole body stopped on
hearing those words, even her heart. She stared at him, too afraid
to hear what the offer might be. He was going to leave
her.

“
Miali,” Kosen
said and rounded the bed, blocking her way.

Miali knelt on the bed,
intent on avoiding him, and went to scramble across it but he
grabbed her waist and dragged her back to him. She struggled and he
flipped her over, took hold of her wrists and pinned her to the bed
beneath him.

“
Will you
listen to me?”

She shook her head. Why
couldn’t he just leave? She didn’t want to hear the explanations.
It hurt too much.

Her hair flattened against
the bed. Kosen’s shoulders slumped.

“
That’s
something that I never wanted to see,” he said and released one of
her wrists. He stroked her hair, fanning it out across the soft
rich blue bedcover. A sad smile touched his lips. “Don’t you want
me to stay? Are you trying to push me away?”

“
No!” she
protested again, ill at the thought that she might be. “I’m just so
confused. Surely you’ll want to stay with your sisters. My father
won’t let me out of his sight now, or out of the Lyra system if
he’s not with me. So you see, it’s impossible for us to be
together. We’re doomed.”

“
Doomed?” He
looked amused. “You truly are as young as you look.”

“
What’s that
supposed to mean?” She frowned up at him, offended by his remark.
She was young but the way that he had said it made it sound as
though he thought that she was a fool.

“
You were
heading for a life in slavery and not once did you think you were
doomed. Now you think you are? You won’t even listen to what I have
to say. If you did, you’d know that we’re anything but
doomed.”

Her eyebrows rose. “We’re
not doomed?”

Kosen shook his head and
smiled at her. His dark eyes shone with it. She stared up at him,
lost in his eyes and musing how handsome he was. Her gaze fell to
his lips. She licked hers.

“
Far from it.
I’ve spoken with your father and, well, mostly your mother,” he
said.

His words snapped her out
of her daydream about kissing him.

Dear Iskara, her heart was
pounding so hard that she felt sick. He had spoken with her
parents? With her mother?

“
When we were
back on your father’s ship and I was making the pill for you, your
mother was impressed with my skills. I’m an idiot for not
recognising her as your mother. I was so focused on my work that I
didn’t notice the resemblance until she approached me and mentioned
that she and your father had agreed that it would be best if I was
offered a position that kept us close to one another.”

Miali’s mouth fell open.
“Offered a position?”

“
Emmanuelle has
offered to train me as her assistant with a view to me becoming a
doctor of the fleet. I would remain onboard the Nebula-Lyra II. My
sisters would have quarters there and be offered rehabilitation and
therapy.” His smile suddenly held a hint of nerves. “There was one
condition.”

Miali cursed her father.
He was never one to make things easy when it came to her. She had
tried having boyfriends and he had soon chased them off. Of course
he would still have conditions now. He had probably banned them
from touching each other, or worse, said that they couldn’t see
each other without supervision.

He had only ever been
difficult when what she wanted happened to have anything to do with
a member of the opposite sex.

“
Miali...”
Kosen stopped and sighed heavily. The anxiety in his look only made
her heart beat faster. It would be typical of her family to dangle
exactly what she wanted in a man in front of her and not let her
have him. She willed Kosen to say the words and put her out of her
misery. He was staying, but it was over. He hesitated a moment more
and then said, “I want to stay...”

“
But?”

Kosen wet his lips. It was
sheer torture to be this close to him, waiting for an invisible axe
to fall and cut all the happiness from her life, when all she
wanted was for him to kiss her.

“
I made a deal
with your parents that I’ll stay if...”

“
Cruskin
nyaaeso, Kosen, spit it out. Just say that you can’t see me
anymore.”

He frowned. “Can’t see
you? It’s quite the opposite. I’m going to marry you.”

Her eyes popped wide.
Something wasn’t quite right about that sentence. It didn’t fit. It
was all wrong.

“
My father said
that you can only stay if you marry me? Did I hear that
right?”

“
No,” he
said.

She had thought it was too
much to ask.

“
I read up on
your Dazkaran side. It’s tradition to ask the mother for her
daughter’s hand. She agreed and spoke with your father, and they
agreed we should marry. If you’ll have me, of course... and there’s
no rush. I can wait until you’re ready. I mean, we hardly know each
other.”

Miali stared blankly at
him, struggling to absorb the information and the fact that Kosen
might have actually convinced her father to let him marry
her.

Her eyebrows rose
again.

Her hair rose with it when
it hit her.

“
You want to
marry me?”

“
Of course,”
Kosen said, matter of fact, as though she couldn’t have ever
doubted that he wanted it. He smiled and leaned down, peppering her
face with kisses and running his hand over her forehead and into
her hair. “Who wouldn’t want to marry you? Although I don’t think
that I deserve you.”

“
I think your
drug has affected my mind.”

He laughed and before she
could say another word, his lips claimed hers, stealing her breath
away. She closed her eyes and relaxed into the bed, becoming
gradually aware of the fact that Kosen was on top of her. Her body
warmed with the feel of his pressing against it. Her hair drifted
upwards, tickling her cheeks.

Tilting her head to one
side, she moaned quietly in her throat when Kosen’s tongue tangled
with hers and then hesitated a moment before venturing into his
mouth. His lips parted, teeth opening with them. She slowly
explored his mouth, kissing him deeper than she had ever
done.

He pressed harder against
her and her tongue caught on his teeth. She loosed a muffled
‘ouch’.

“
I’m sorry,”
Kosen said with an air of nerves and an awkward smile.

She stared at his teeth.
They hadn’t cut her but they were as sharp as they
looked.

“
I just don’t
understand why you do it,” she said, frowning at his sharpened
teeth.

Kosen frowned too and ran
his tongue along them. The sight of it caressing his teeth made her
tremble and ache inside.

“
All Minervan
males do it.”

“
I know,” she
whispered and reached her free hand up, touching his teeth with her
fingertips. “Why?”

He playfully snapped at
her fingers and she jerked her hand back.

“
It makes us...
sexy.” He grinned.

She laughed and his face
fell. When she realised that he was being serious, she cleared her
throat. Perhaps it did make them more attractive to Minervan
females but it didn’t do anything for her.

“
Sexy
how?”

His frown wasn’t shifting.
He sat up and she pined for the feel of his body against hers. She
hadn’t meant to spoil the moment with her stupid questions. She sat
up and moved closer to him where he was sitting at the edge of the
bed.

He looked thoughtful. His
black eyes slid to meet hers.

One eyebrow
rose.

His eyes narrowed on her,
holding such heat that her body flushed and her hair threatened to
rise again. She twirled it and tied it in knot to stop
it.

He leaned towards her and
she was captivated as his lips parted, entranced by their beautiful
shape and the sight of his sharp teeth. Thoughts of what he could
do to her with that mouth made her heart flutter and her blood boil
with desire.

She licked her
lips.

He edged closer, his
movements achingly slow. She looked down at his hands, yearning to
feel them on her, and then back into his eyes.

He whispered one word that
made any shred of reserve she had disappear.