“They are,” Volcair replied, “and I…I brought you one.”
Kiara’s eyes rounded, and she looked at him. “You did?”
Volcair leaned back, reached into his pocket, and produced a small box.
She smiled as delight filled her. “You brought me a present?”
“Well…technically, my father bought it, but it was my idea and I picked it out.” Holding the box on his palm, he opened the lid.
A soft blue light shone within the case; it took Kiara’s eyes a moment to bring the glowing object into focus. It was a teardrop-shaped stone wrapped in intricate white gold metalwork that connected to a delicate chain.
She gasped. “This is a star?”
“It’s called a balus stone. But it kind of shines like a star, doesn’t it?”
“It does.” She couldn’t believe how beautiful the necklace was, couldn’t believe he was giving it to her. She met his gaze. “Can you help me put it on?”
He carefully removed the necklace from its case. Its gentle glow made his qal markings even brighter than normal. Smiling, Kiara turned as he draped the chain around her neck. The brush of his fingertips over her skin sent a shiver through her just before he clasped the necklace in place.
“This comes with a promise, Kiara,” he said.
Kiara settled her fingers on the pendant and turned to look at Volcair. “What kind of promise?”
“A promise that you’ll always be mine, and I’ll always be yours.”
She inhaled sharply. Heat rushed to her cheeks, and butterflies fluttered in her belly.
“Truly?” she asked.
Expression solemn, he nodded. “Truly.”
Keeping her gaze locked with Volcair’s, Kiara leaned forward, and touched her lips to his. His eyes widened, and he gasped. Her heart stuttered.
Tingles of sensation bloomed outward from where their lips connected, filling her with heat—and with something pleasurable but indescribable. She closed her eyes. This was different from the kisses they’d shared before—the innocent, friendly kisses on hands or cheeks. This…this was a real kiss. His mouth was soft and warm, his breath fresh and clean with a trace of mint. She pressed her lips more firmly against his, relishing the feel of him, and let the kiss linger for a few more seconds before she pulled away.
She opened her eyes and looked at him again; his eyes were half-lidded, glowing brighter than the stone he’d gifted her.
He pressed his lips together, and his tongue slipped out a moment later, licking them. “Kiara…”
“I’ll never take it off, Volcair. Ever. That’s my promise,” she said softly.
Three
London, Capital of the United Terran Federation, Earth
Terran Year 2081
Volcair halted his pacing, turned toward the window, and braced his hands on the windowsill. He felt Cypher’s optics on his back; the inux had been watching him from the bed the entire time, occasionally releasing concerned clicks. Volcair forced himself to look out over London, the city that had been his home for six years—longer than anywhere else, even the planet of his birth. He’d always found this place fascinating. According to the histories, it had been founded just over two thousand years ago, and it displayed that history proudly. The entire city was a blend of ancient and modern the likes of which he’d never seen.
Even now, at two o’clock in the morning, London was vibrant. There was always light here, sometimes in defiance of persistent gloom and gray skies, but this time of year always amplified the city’s glow. There were new lights everywhere—strung up across the streets, coiled around the bare boughs of trees, hung in windows, circling every light post. He’d learned long ago that winter was a time of holidays for terrans, more than he could keep track of. None of them meant anything to Volcair personally—but they were important to Kiara. That made this one of his favorite seasons.
But this year was different. Though London was as beautiful as ever, and there was an air of joy and festivity blanketing the city, it seemed hollow and flat to Volcair. What meaning could these terran celebrations hold while Kiara was away?
He turned his head to look at the tablet sitting on the nightstand beside his bed. Its screen remained dark. Cypher lay on the bedding nearby, head resting on his front legs with his optics still fixed on Volcair.
Volcair’s heartbeat quickened a touch, and a tight, hot sensation—impatience of the highest degree—flared in his chest.
I should’ve pressed the matter with Father. Should’ve made him see my side, should’ve made him ask Minister Moore.
He knew at heart it wouldn’t have made a difference; he’d recognized the finality in his father’s tone when he’d made his request. Vantricar had refused to even broach the matter of Volcair accompanying Minister Moore’s family on their trip to America. It went beyond Volcair’s place being with his father, here at the intergalactic embassy. Minister Moore was going to America to conduct diplomatic business and fulfill some of his many duties to the United Terran Federation, and he didn’t need another child underfoot to distract him.
It didn’t matter that Volcair was a child only in his father’s eyes—he was as tall as Vantricar now, and equally as broad-shouldered. He wouldn’t have been a distraction to Minister Moore at all; Volcair knew how to give adults the space they needed to work. That was why he rarely spoke to his father most days—Vantricar was much too busy to deal with anything as unpleasant as his own child.
Volcair growled to himself and pushed away from the window, resuming his pacing. It was pointless to waste time worrying over his father. Kiara was all that mattered. Why hadn’t she called yet? What was she doing right now? What did the city she was in—New York—look like? Did they have lights there like the ones here in London?
The tablet chimed.
Volcair darted to the nightstand, tripping over his own feet on the way. Cypher leapt back with a startled chirrup as Volcair caught himself against the bed and reached forward to accept the incoming holo call, unfazed by the fall—though his heart was thumping even quicker than before.
A hologram of Kiara from her shoulders up appeared above his tablet. Her hair was pulled back and held in place by a shining gold headband, her mass of springy curls wild behind it. Her lashes were long and curled, her lips painted a soft pink, and there were golden hoops in her ears. And there, around her neck, shining bright against her skin, was the balus stone.
She was beautiful.
“Kiara,” he rasped, suddenly breathless.
She flashed him a wide smile. “Volcair!”
Cypher shoved his head in front of Volcair and clicked excitedly.
Kiara laughed. “Hello to you too, Cypher.”
Volcair nudged the inux aside. He’d waited too long to talk to her, to see her, and he wasn’t going to let Cypher hog the attention. Cypher rolled his eyes and clicked sharply at Volcair before flopping back down at the end of the bed with a huff.
Kiara chuckled again. “Did you miss me, Volcair?”
Warmth flooded his cheeks as he combed the fingers of one hand through his hair, tugging back the strands that had fallen into his face. He feared his grin was more embarrassed than suave now. “Just a little.”
She gaped at him. “Only a little? Huh. Then maybe I should just say goodnight and hang—”
“No! No. Would it make you feel better if I said I was pacing restlessly for the last few hours waiting for your call?”
Kiara laughed. “It would, because I believe I drove my parents mad with how often I asked when I could call you.”
Volcair smiled, pulled himself up, and sat on the edge of his bed, leaning toward the tablet. “Is that all you’ve been up to? If so, I’d still consider it productive.”
She grinned and tilted her head. “No, Father’s kept us busy. We toured New York City yesterday. I wish you’d been there with me to see it all. It was so lovely with all the lights up. Especially Rockefeller Center where they have their enormous Christmas tree. I also
purchased a gift for you, too. The moment I saw it, I knew it was perfect.”
“You didn’t have to get me anything, Kiara.” Still, her thoughtfulness made his qal warm.
Kiara tilted her chin down and raised her brows, giving him a look that clearly stated she would accept no argument on the matter. “It’s Christmas.” She chuckled. “Besides, I can tell from your qal that you’re excited about it.”
“I’m excited about seeing you when you get back. Christmas doesn’t mean much while you’re away. Anyway, that was yesterday. What have you been doing today?”
“We spent all day getting ready for this holiday party.” She rolled her eyes. “It was bloody awful. Just all these boring ministers and government officials with their families, putting on their fake smiles and pretending to be happy to see everyone. It’s exhausting.”
She wrinkled her nose. “Edward Berkeley was there, too. He’s always following me around. He kept asking me to dance, and to be polite, I danced with him—once! And I swear my toes will be bruised for weeks.”
Fire sparked in Volcair’s belly, and he clenched his fists. He wasn’t sure what to be angrier about—that Edward Berkeley was in New York while Volcair wasn’t, that Edward had pestered Kiara, or that the clumsy oaf had stomped on her toes. But Volcair’s frustration wouldn’t make any difference now; he wasn’t there, and he didn’t want to let such emotions spoil this precious time talking to her.
Cypher huffed, releasing a series of angry clicks. The inux didn’t like Edward any more than Volcair or Kiara did.
“I suppose when you get home, I’ll have to dance with you,” Volcair said. “Just so you know how it’s really supposed to go.”
Her features softened, and she smiled. “I would love to dance with you, Volcair.”
They’d danced before—often at the sorts of gatherings she’d described—but Volcair would never tire of it. Everything he did with her felt like it was the first time; the excitement and joy never faded. “Are you still due to return at the end of the week? I’ll have to make room for that dance on my schedule. It’s been quite full lately.”
“As evidenced by your several hours of pacing tonight?” she asked with a smirk.
“I violated my schedule for you tonight, Kiara,” he replied with a smile of his own. “You’ve kept me up quite past my bedtime.”
“What time is it?”
“Quarter past two.”
She laughed. “You’re not even in your pajamas!”
Volcair leaned back to glance down at himself, chuckling. “Well, as I’ve said, I’ve been rather busy. It just doesn’t have the same impact if you’re pacing impatiently in your nightclothes.”
“Shall we both get in our jammies, then? This dress is bloody itchy.”
“All right, but make it quick. I need to rest up. I’ve a long day of staring out my window in tortured boredom ahead of me.”
She laughed, set her tablet down—granting him a glimpse of her golden, lacy dress—and switched the feed to audio-only. Her holographic image vanished. “No peeking, Volcair.”
Fortunately, her turning off the holo feed hid the way his qal flared in response to her words. He’d loved Kiara since the day he’d met her, long before he could’ve understood what that love would mean, and though he was still a bit uncertain about all the complicated things she made him feel, he couldn’t deny that the way he looked at her had changed as they’d grown older.
The thought of her changing her clothes—of taking off that dress—was enough to heat his blood and make certain parts of him stir and ache to be touched.
Clenching his jaw, he forced himself off the bed and walked to the wardrobe standing on the other side of the room. He changed quickly, but his haste didn’t make it any easier to ignore his arousal—nor did the fact that the silky, dark blue pajama pants he pulled on had been a gift from Kiara a few months before, a celebration of his day of birth that only she took part in every year. There was only one way he knew of to relieve the growing ache within him.
But that wasn’t satisfying enough, and he didn’t have the time now.
Whirring sounds and amused clicks came from Cypher, and Volcair turned his head to look at the inux. Cypher was staring at him, feathered crest raised, wearing a sharp toothed grin.
Volcair lowered his brows and narrowed his eyes. “Time to go, Cyph,” he mouthed, gesturing toward the door.
Cypher made a whirring sound that signified his laughter before he leapt down from the bed and strolled to the door. As he passed Volcair, the inux turned his snout up and looked away. Holding his pants in place with one hand, Volcair quickly cracked the door open to allow Cypher out, closing it behind the inux as quietly as he could.
“Besides exhausting yourself with pacing because of how much you missed me, what else did you do today?” Kiara asked amidst the soft sounds of rustling fabric.
“If you think I did anything but wait for you helplessly,” he replied as he tied the waist string of his pants, “then you seriously underestimate my dedication to you, Kiara.”
“Come on, quit taking the piss,” she said with a laugh. “Even Romeo wasn’t that dramatic. What’d you really do today?”
He reached for the shirt that matched his pants but stopped his hand before he grabbed it. He hadn’t missed the way Kiara looked at him when he was shirtless beside the pool, and he’d come to crave that cheeky stare from her. He turned and went back to the bed.
“Well, I had my usual lessons with all the overpriced tutors my father has employed. Today I began delving into the joyful intricacies of intergalactic trade associations. They let me out just before my brain began to fry, and I tried to take a walk around the city”—he scooped up the tablet and dropped onto his bed, sitting with his back against the wall—“but I the bodyguard my father has following me around is apparently uninterested in conversation. Thus began my pacing.”
“Sounds utterly dull.”
“Far less exciting than having Edward Berkeley step on my toes.”
“I think I’d rather have jumped off the Statue of Liberty than dance with him for one more minute,” she said, her voice sounding farther away.
Volcair smirked. “Now who’s being overly dramatic, my little Juliet?”
“O Romeo, Romeo, wherefore art thou Romeo?”
He furrowed his brow. “I only spent a short time learning about terran literature…but wouldn’t it be best if we weren’t Romeo and Juliet?”
“You’re right. They didn’t end well. It’ll be different for us. Are you decent?”
“At least half so. Not telling which half, though.”
The hologram flickered back on. Kiara’s gaze immediately fixed on Volcair, trailing slowly over his bare chest. There was a gleam in her eyes that had only started showing within the last year or so—and he felt its heat course along his qal. She’d left her hair up but removed the headband, and the makeup had been washed from her face, making the faint dark blush on her cheeks clearly visible now. This was Kiara at her most beautiful.
“Well, I’m not disappointed,” she said, grinning.
She picked up her tablet and carried it across her room. Unable to help himself, Volcair dropped his gaze to her chest. She was wearing a thin strapped tank top, allowing him to see her delicate collarbone and the gentle slope of her small breasts. He swallowed hard and shifted on his bed as that ache resurged with new strength.
Kiara crawled onto her bed, set the tablet down next to the pillow, and lay on her side, facing him. She seemed to search his face for a moment before her smile faded. She reached up and grasped the balus stone, holding it loosely between her fingers.
“I miss you,” she said softly after several seconds of silence. “Even though we’re talking now, it’s like I can feel the distance between us.”
Volcair couldn’t stop his smile from falling as well. “I feel it, too. But you’re due back at the end of the week. It’s not like we’re going to be apart for years.”
“I know,” she sighed. “Lights off.”
The light around Kiara dimmed, leaving only the glow of the hologram on her face and skin.
Sweeping back a few rogue strands of hair to tuck behind his ear, Volcair slid down to lay atop his bed, moving the tablet to rest on his chest. He especially felt the distance separating them in moments like this, when the hologram of her face looked so real, so close, that it almost seemed like he could lean forward and kiss her.
He needed a distraction from those feelings before they drove him mad.
“So, Kiara…when you’re free of these obligations and don’t have to travel around with your parents, what do you plan to do? What sort of life do you want to lead when you don’t have to live this one anymore?”
Her lips stretched into a grin. “Does it get to include you?”
“I’d say it’s a requirement that it includes me.”
She chuckled. “Good.” Her eyes turned up in thought. “My parents expect me to attend a university, and I want to go…but not to one of the places they’d choose. I don’t need a prestigious school filled with the world’s elite, and I don’t want all the strict rules and attention that would come with it. I’ll definitely never sit through another bloody diplomatic meeting again. In fact, I think I’ll stay far, far away from any sort of government work.” She looked back at him. “What about you? What do you want to do?”
“I’ll have to enter mandatory service when I’m twenty, as the Dominion requires…but as much as I hate to ask him for it, my father has enough influence to obtain me a posting here on Earth with his staff. I’ll gladly stomach that work to remain near you.”
“It’s so romantic that you’d face the torture of a bureaucratic posting just for me.”
Volcair laughed. “Anything for you. And I suppose I’ll just overlook that you didn’t really answer my question.”
Kiara arched a brow. “What do you mean? I answered.”
“You more told me what you’re not going to do than anything.”
“And you didn’t really tell me what you want to do, did you? That’s more what you feel you must do.” She nestled closer and released the balus stone, reaching forward as though to caress his cheek. Her holographic hand brushed only empty air. “As long as you’re in my life, I don’t care what I’m doing. Whether it means staying there in London, traveling the world, or going to worlds beyond the stars.”
Entwined Fates (The Infinite City Book 1) Page 4
