Daughters of Lyra: Heart of a Mercenary

by Felicity Heaton

  Her cheeks flushed.

  “No one you know,” she said and tried to turn away. He held her. She was a spirited little thing now that she was free and safe, even more than he had expected, but she couldn’t deny it.

  “Miali,” he whispered and she looked up at him through her lashes.

  Her eyes widened as he dipped his head. He captured her lips, not caring about the fact that her father was likely to tear them apart and throw him in the cells, if he didn’t kill him outright.

  She made a small noise of protest and then melted into him, her hands pressing against his chest as he wrapped his arms around her. A quiet moan escaped her lips as he tilted his head and deepened the kiss, and she began to respond. Her tongue parted his lips and brushed his, her hands sliding up until she had looped her arms around his neck. He frowned and exhaled through his nose when her body pressed against his.

  Suddenly, there was only her in the universe, just as it had been the first time they had kissed back in her cell.

  The galaxy came crashing back when someone tapped him on the shoulder and he lifted his head to see three unimpressed males.

  “Come with me,” her father said, his expression grim. “I have a few questions I would like to ask you.”

  Kosen released Miali and followed her father towards the airlock that led to the Lyran fighter. He glanced back at her to see her standing between her two brothers, worry written across her face.

  He really hoped that a few questions meant just that and wasn’t code for ‘I’m going to crush you once we’re in private and my daughter can’t see us’.

  Holding his hand up, he smiled at Miali, trying to tell her that he would be all right. Her hair floated upwards as she returned the smile and she blushed again as she struggled to smooth it down. Beautiful.

  She was an angel of Arkus.

  And she had fallen for him.

  Just as he had fallen for her.

  ****

  Chapter 8

  Miali stared out of the window of the small fighter ship and wondered how long it would take to travel back out of Minervan space to where the Nebula-Lyra II waited for them. Taelis and Aksel had accompanied her and Kosen to Minerva Seven. Her two brothers seemed reluctant to leave her alone with Kosen but now they were busy tending to their new guests. Kosen had gained his sisters’ freedom at the scant cost of one hundred gold Lynans, which was only a fraction of what her father had given her.

  Kosen had taken his two sisters straight to sickbay. She had only seen them in passing on the planet and when they had been brought onto the ship, but they were both beautiful, with skin as pale and hair as dark as Kosen’s. They seemed frail though and wary. Kosen had told her that it would take a long time before his sisters overcame their time as slaves, if they ever did.

  She wondered if they would like to live in the Lyra system and then realised that it wasn’t just for their sake that she wanted that. She wanted Kosen to stay with her. Now that she had seen him around his sisters, she knew that he would go wherever they went. She had never seen such an attentive and loving brother. If they wanted to remain in the Minerva system, even after what had happened to them, then he would remain there also.

  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 ov
er, 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.