Daughters of Lyra: Heart of a Mercenary by Felicity Heaton Page B

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