He visibly swallowed and the pressure on her wrists decreased. He was giving her a funny look. Was it something she’d said? She opened her hand and looked at it, indicating his purse. He snatched it and shoved it into his pocket. He didn’t let her go.
She whimpered when he dragged her onto her feet, his hand locked tight around her wrist. No matter how much she tried to prise his fingers off her, he wouldn’t let go. She kicked him in the shin. He frowned at her again.
“Why do you need to leave?” he said, the curiosity still in his eyes. “Is someone after you?”
“It’s hard to explain. I just need to get away.” She tugged on her arm. He tightened his grip. Her bones ached. He was going to snap her arm if he kept going. She dropped to her knees again, her eyes closed against the pain. He hauled her back onto her feet and towered over her. “Let me go... I won’t bother you again.”
“Where are you going?”
Damn he was full of questions. She wished she’d never mentioned why she’d been robbing him. Desperate times called for desperate measures. Didn’t the people of this planet understand that?
She kicked him again. He cursed in Lyran, voice rich and deep, and then slapped her so hard her head turned to the side. She stood there with her eyes wide and mouth open as she waited for her cheek to stop stinging and her head to stop spinning. She’d never been hit before. She couldn’t say that she liked the experience.
“Answer me,” he said and she looked at him. It was too dark in the square to see his face properly, but she could hear all the hardness in his voice. He was used to getting answers when he asked a question and she was starting to anger him. He sounded like her father.
“Anywhere,” she whispered and her brow furrowed. “Just somewhere away from here.”
He went quiet for a moment and then his look changed. All the anger disappeared, leaving a sense of calm behind. She reached out a little with her mind, testing the waters. He was calm, interested. There was a sense of hope and relief about him and something else. Understanding.
“Have you used transport before?” he asked.
She nodded. She’d used it a few times in her life. Getting passage here couldn’t be any different to those times. Most space ports worked the same way.
“Then I’ll pay for your passage, but on one condition.”
“Name it,” she said quickly, not wanting him to change his mind.
“I will be coming with you.”
She stared at him but before she could say anything, he was dragging her towards the port. He was coming with her? Was this the understanding she’d felt? He wanted to leave this planet too.
He had been heading towards the port when she’d stolen his money.
His hand slid into hers when they entered the port. She looked down at them, frowning at the way he thought he could do as he wanted with her. He couldn’t. She tried to get her hand free but his grip tightened and he stopped to look at her.
“If you cannot play along, I will leave you on this planet.” He stepped close to her, his voice a silken purr in her ear.
She closed her eyes a moment to savour the strange sensations he’d stirred in her and then opened them again when he stepped away.
The light was better here and she could see him properly. He was handsome. No amount of dirt could hide that from her notice. His almond eyes spoke to her of his feelings, telling her everything he was trying to hide from the world. He did want to leave this planet. She wondered why. A slight frown creased his dark brows and she realised he wanted an answer from her.
“Whatever gets me off this hellish rock,” she whispered up at him, her eyes still locked with his.
They narrowed and her gaze fell to his mouth. A smile curved his full sensual lips. She looked away, cursing the blush that burned her cheeks when her thoughts got the better of her. So what if he was handsome. He was rough and a little arrogant too. Those two qualities were enough to make her think the worst of him. As soon as they were onboard the ship, she’d part ways with him and continue with her plan.
He started walking again, his palm pressed into hers and fingers locked tightly against her knuckles. She followed him in silence. The crowd was suffocating and she couldn’t see above them. She was too short. She looked up at the man. He was a full head above the people around them. She wondered if the universe looked different from up there. Perhaps it didn’t. They were both running away from something after all.
They reached the rows of desks near the barriers that blocked the way to the ships. She noticed the guards and then noticed that the man turned his back to them when he did too. Had he done something wrong on this planet? Perhaps he was a criminal and did have money.
“Where are you going?” he said, close to her. She looked around, hoping a destination would present itself.
“Somewhere out of this system,” she said and tried to remember the route they’d taken to get to it. She scanned the names on the boards above the desks. Each desk had a different destination. She smiled. “Acturus.”
He frowned at her. “Acturus?”
She nodded, still beaming. She swore they’d passed through there on their way to this system.
“Acturus is a military base station in space.” He released her hand and fixed her with a hard look. “It belongs to the Minervans.”
There wasn’t just distrust and anger in his eyes, there was fear too. Was it the military factor or the Minervan? She hoped it was the former not the latter and then reminded herself that it didn’t matter what he thought. As soon as they were on the ship, she was going to ditch him. A lot of the freighters had women only compartments. She’d hide in one of those and hope that he forgot her.
“It stops at Dliaer before it reaches Acturus.” She pointed to the board above the respective desk. “You can alight there. Dliaer is a big port about a day from here. From there you can go anywhere.”
He seemed pleased by that. He took hold of her hand again and dragged her towards that desk. She was growing tired of his pulling her around as though she was a ragdoll. Either he had no respect for women or he had little experience of handling them. She glanced at him out of the corner of her eye. He was so handsome that she doubted he had little experience. Women were probably falling over backwards to get his attention. Not her though. She’d had it with men.
She was roused from her thoughts when he shoved his purse into her hands.
“Get us passage,” he said and pushed her forwards. His hand remained against her back the whole time they walked to the desk. She got the impression that he was wary of letting her out of arm’s reach with his money.
When she reached the desk and opened the purse, she could see why.
There were at least fifteen gold Lynans in it. She could buy a small ship with this much. She swallowed and her heart jumped when he pressed harder against her back, urging her forwards. For a moment, she’d forgotten he was there. She’d been lost in the fantasy the sight of so much money had given her. With this much, she could run away and set up a shop or something somewhere where her father and family would never find her.
She bartered with the woman behind the desk, ignoring the obscene amount of cleavage her uniform exposed. This world had no breeding. She was glad she’d managed to get away and was one step closer to escaping completely.
She rummaged in the purse for the money when the woman told her the price. The second the woman saw the money, she babbled something about lack of availability and a lot of people travelling to Dliaer. Terea sighed. She should’ve hidden the money better.
“She says they only have premier passage available.” She turned to the man. He didn’t seem at all bothered by this news. He just shrugged and waved her back towards the woman, keeping his back to her all the time. Was he scared of the woman recognising him too? She looked at the woman and handed over a single gold Lynan. “Fine.”
The woman smiled sweetly and handed her the tickets and the five hundred silver Lynans change. Terea glanced
at the man to see if he’d been paying attention and when she realised he hadn’t, she pocketed the silver Lynans. She’d need some money for the next part of her trip, wherever that took her.
She touched the man’s arm and he took the purse from her and then grabbed her hand. He led the way through the crowd towards the gates into the departures area. When they reached it, she noticed he dropped back and covered part of his face with his cloak. She showed the tickets to the guards and then walked through the gates when they opened. The man followed her.
On the other side, she stopped and looked at her ticket. The ship was in dock five. She followed the signs around the curved arched walkway, looking for the right dock. When they reached it, she stepped through the open archway and her brows rose. If the man hadn’t liked the fact it was bound for Acturus, he was going to be even more annoyed when he saw the ship.
Sebastian looked up to see the ship in front of him. It was large. It was dark. It was Minervan.
There was no way he could set foot on that ship. He grabbed the woman by her upper arms and shook her.
“You didn’t mention it was a Minervan freighter!” He almost growled the words.
She flinched away, leaving him feeling guilty. He frowned at the ship. He couldn’t fly on that. It was too dangerous. It had been bad enough when she’d chosen a ship whose final destination had been a Minervan military port. That had been running a risk. This was just madness. The ship would have Minervans on its crew and Minervan passengers. What if they recognised him?
“It’s just a ship... you didn’t specify the type!” She jerked out of his arms and glared at him. “Do you have something against Minervans?”
He stared at her. She placed her hands on her hips. Her eyes narrowed into dark slits.
There was something terribly appealing about her when she was angry. It made her dark eyes even darker and her blush lips pouted slightly, drawing his attention to them. A hint of rose touched her pale soft cheeks. Her black eyebrows met in a frown. The irritation radiating from her was alluring. It made him want to argue with her even more, to keep pushing.
A call from the direction of the ship announced that it was preparing to leave.
He looked at the ship. Minervan or not, he had to get on it and get away from Lyra Prime. It was only a matter of time before someone discovered that he was gone. It would be too much of a risk to wait for a different passenger freighter.
The woman was still glaring at him. Perhaps she wanted an answer to her question. She wasn’t going to get one. He grabbed her wrist and strode past her. She protested and tried to pull away from him. Turning on her, he used his superior height to look down at her, his own anger rising. She stilled, her eyes wide and laced with fear. He relented when he saw it and loosened his grip so he was no longer hurting her.
“We must leave,” he said and she stared at him for a minute, right into his eyes, before nodding.
She’d done that before. He started walking towards the ship with her. Earlier, she’d stared into his eyes like that. It had felt as though she was looking right down into his soul and could see everything there. Afterwards, she’d changed slightly, just as she had this time. Whatever she thought she’d seen in his eyes had made her calm and compliant. He hoped she remained that way until they were on the ship.
The metal gangplank echoed under his heavy footsteps. The sound of hers was lighter, softer. Everything about her seemed soft. He glanced furtively out of the corner of his eye at her. She swept her deep blue cloak over her shoulders with her free hand and then fixed her hair, smoothing the long black locks into place in the elaborate bun at the back of her head. Some of the strands fell back down. His gaze fell to the smooth white column of her throat and her graceful shoulders. She moved slightly in front of him and he openly looked at her now. His eyes followed the sweeping curve of her back to where it narrowed at her waist and blossomed out into full hips that begged to be touched. He swallowed and his jaw muscle twitched when he looked at her long legs. The floor-length rich green dress she wore was slit up the side to reveal her thighs as she walked. He noticed the skin-coloured band around her right thigh. She was carrying a weapon. The thought of that turned him on for some reason. It whispered of danger and adventure, with her.
Something else about her whispered to him. It spoke of the fact she didn’t look like a common thief. Her clothes were too fine, her body too well looked after, to be a beggar or pickpocket. She looked as though she was running away from a rich family.
He pushed his cloak over his shoulders as they entered the ship. With such a fine looking woman on his arm, he no longer felt the need to look rough and dirty to fit in. If someone saw them together, they would presume they were man and wife, heading off to some distant planet. No one would associate him with a woman.
A stewardess dressed in a tight black top that covered her to her jaw and tight black trousers took the tickets from the woman. She checked them and then intimated a corridor to her left. The woman followed the stewardess, her hand leaving his. He walked along behind her, eyes scanning the interior of the ship, thankful that she couldn’t see him and his fascination. He didn’t want her to think he’d never travelled before.
The ship was incredible and far larger than they looked from his balcony as they flew in and out of port. The interior was black and silver, with strips of lights underneath his feet and above his head. The exterior had been sleek but bulky, tapering from the front to a wide flat set of thrusters at the back. He wished that they’d had more time. He would have liked to have walked around the outside of the ship to get a real look at her.
They passed a row of square windows. Opposite them were open rooms crammed with people. This was obviously the deck of the ship where the cheapest seats were. He peered into one of the rooms. People were sitting in groups, drinking and laughing. It looked like fun.
When he turned to continue walking, he came face to face with a man. The man stared at him, black hair and eyes giving him a sinister appearance in the strange half-light. He smiled to reveal sharpened teeth.
Sebastian’s heart pounded. He squeezed past the Minervan, keeping his head down, and hurried after the woman and the stewardess. He saw them just before they turned a corner halfway along the corridor. By the time he’d caught up, they were entering a lift. He slid in behind them and smiled briefly.
Too close.
He should have been more cautious. Of course there would be Minervan crew on the ship. The man had been wearing a similar uniform to the female showing them to their seats. His eyes strayed to her as she pressed a button and the lift began to move upwards. Perhaps she was Minervan too.
“This way please,” the stewardess said as the doors opened again.
He followed the woman down a long corridor. At the end was the hull of the ship. The windows here were larger, reaching from floor to ceiling. The stewardess turned right before she reached the end of the corridor, leading them down another that was just as wide and elaborately decorated. There was a definite difference between the lower deck and this one. No strip lights lit the hall here. On the walls were beautiful lamps that glowed softly. The floor was carpeted with a silvery cloth. The walls were decorated with silver scroll work that marked a rich contrast against the black metal.
The stewardess stopped in front of a door and swiped their tickets over a circular panel beside it on the wall. The door swished open to reveal a large room. Along the wide rectangular window was a bench seat covered in silver velvet that matched the curtains that hung either side of the glass. He stepped into the room, following the two women, and looked around. There was a smaller room off to his right. It looked like a bathroom. He ignored it and took in the main room. It was bigger than he’d expected. The tickets must have been expensive.
He listened to the woman’s conversation with the stewardess while he investigated the large panel on the wall. It was displaying the weather at their destination, as well as current news from across the universe a
nd other information. He was glad that his face wasn’t up there. Perhaps his parents hadn’t discovered he was gone yet, or maybe they were keeping it quiet for now while the palace guard search for him. Either way, the longer the galaxy didn’t know he was missing the better. That way he could travel with more ease and get further out into space.
Sons of Lyra: Runaway Hearts Page 2
