Daughters of Lyra: Heart of a Mercenary by Felicity Heaton

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