Daughters of Lyra: Heart of a Prince (9 page)

In the name of Iskara, she
had never wanted anything more than she wanted him.

Impulse won again. She
truly was a daughter of Lyra. She wanted Tres and she was damn well
going to have him.

She stifled a giggle when
he lunged at her, making fast work of her shirt and trousers.
Before she could tell him to slow down, he had pulled her boots and
trousers off, along with underwear, and was against her again. He
palmed her breasts as his length thrust against her belly. She
melted into the wall behind her and closed her eyes, surrendering
to him. This was insane, but it felt so right.

His hand skimmed over her
flat stomach to the nest of dark curls that covered her mound. Her
hands tensed against the wall when he slid one finger between her
slick folds. He groaned and she looked at him, watching the
fascination flicker across his dimly lit face as he stared down at
his hand. Reaching out, she took hold of his length again and his
lips parted.

“
Renie,” he
whispered urgently and she felt he wanted to say something. He
closed his mouth and moaned instead. The way he reacted to her
touch was incredible. The slightest caress had him trembling. She
could feel his hands shaking against her. He bit his lip and then
took hold of her hand, stopping her. “I... this is all...
new.”

New?

Her eyes widened. New. As
in, he had never done this before. She moved her hand against him
again, regardless of his attempt to stop her. Everyone had a first
time. At least his would be memorable and hopefully not his only
time with her. She didn’t want this to be a one-moment thing, she
wanted so much more.

No wonder he reacted so
strongly to her touch. This was definitely the something else she
had sensed earlier.

She felt as though she
should say something but couldn’t think so she grabbed his
shoulders, pulled him up against her, and kissed him. She wasn’t
going to make him stop or let him make her stop. They both wanted
this. She only hoped it was more than a crazy moment for
him.

His hands caught her
thighs and he lifted her again. She settled her legs around his
waist and then buried her fingers into his hair as he lowered his
mouth to her breasts. He kissed across them and then licked her
nipple into hardness before sucking it into his mouth. She bit back
her moan, stifling it so no one heard her. He moved to her other
breast, teasing it, torturing her until her thighs
trembled.

“
Tres,” she
whispered into his hair and tensed against him, desperate to
encourage him.

He looked up at her.
Seeing her chance, she reached down between them and took hold of
his length.

“
I don’t think
we have time for this to be romantic,” she said with a shy smile
and he lowered her.

With a combined groan, he
slid into her, stretching her body in a way that made the ache
inside her worsen. He took hold of her hips and pressed her into
the wall, his length pushing up deeper inside her, until she felt
as though he was going to break her in two. She buried her face
into his neck with his first thrust and found his mouth with the
second, swallowing his moans. His tongue tangled with hers, their
teeth clashing as their bodies moved against each other, his
thrusts so powerful that they slammed her into the wall.

Renie clung to his
shoulders, moaning with each plunge of his length into her. He
moved faster, deeper, making her quiver. The tightness inside her
was growing hotter by the moment and she was on the verge of
begging him to make her climax when it crashed over her, sending
sweeps of tingles and intense heat through her.

He grasped her hips
tighter and thrust harder into her. With a low deep growl that she
swallowed in a kiss, he jerked up inside her and came, his length
throbbing as he spilled his cool seed.

“
Renie,” he
whispered against her mouth.

She went to kiss him again
but squealed instead as he collapsed to his knees, still inside
her, taking her down with him.

He trembled against her,
shivering. She moved off him and pressed her hand to his bare
chest. He was freezing to the touch.

Renie quickly refastened
his thermal suit, even pulling the collar up to cover as much of
his neck as possible, and then wrapped her arms around him and
pulled him to her. His whole body shook in her arms as she rubbed
his back, trying to warm him. It made a strange kind of sense that
he would be cold now. He had probably used all of the stored energy
in his body during intercourse. Now he was back to square one and
he needed to get his body temperature back up. It was all her
fault. She should have realised that something like this would
happen.

Holding him, she didn’t
care if she was growing cold herself. She focused all of her
energies on him, determined to get him warm again. He shivered and
held her closer, burying his face into her neck. His breath was
freezing against her throat but gradually warmed.

Her cheeks blazed when she
thought about what they had done.

She always had been
impetuous. It was a trait that everyone in her family
shared.

It was one that she
wouldn’t change for all the world.

Not when it gave her
moments like this.

Closing her eyes, she held
Tres closer, savouring the feel of him in her arms.

He emerged from her
embrace and she looked at him. He had stopped shivering. When he
touched her cheek, his hand was warm again. Not as hot as hers, but
as hot as he had been the whole time she had known him.

He leaned towards her and
her eyes closed again when he kissed her, slow and deep, stirring
warmth inside her and bringing a smile to her lips. Perhaps this
wasn’t going to be a one-moment thing. There was such tenderness in
his kiss, so much emotion that she found herself daring to hope
that his feelings were the same as hers.

When he pulled back again,
she became painfully aware of her lack of clothing and the way his
eyes raked over her bare body. As much as she wanted it, this was
no time for an encore and she didn’t want to hurt Tres again. He
stood and held his hand out to her, clearly thinking the same
thing. She took his hand and he pulled her to her feet.

Renie dressed quickly,
partly because she was cold and partly because she felt embarrassed
being the only one half-naked. Tres watched her the whole time. She
could feel his eyes on her, following her hands and sometimes on
her face. A little smile kept touching her lips, a secret one that
he had brought out.

It wasn’t just because
they had acted on their mutual desires.

It was because he had
given her a sign that she wasn’t the only one feeling this
way.

Now she had to find out
the depth of his feelings. Now she had to find a way to ask him to
come with her. She didn’t want to explore the galaxy without him.
Whenever she thought about it now, she could only picture her, Tres
and Rezic in their small battered ship.

She was almost finished
fastening her shirt when there was a noise. Tres pressed his finger
against his lips and edged towards the opening of the small dark
recess they were in. She frowned, her heart pounding with
adrenaline when she heard voices. Two males.

Tres moved back to her,
guiding her into the shadows, and wrapped his arms around her. The
warmth she felt whenever he touched her tempered her fear. She
rested her cheek against his chest, facing the walkway around the
room.

Her breath hitched in her
throat when two Vegans passed the opening to the recess and
disappeared from view. Tres held her closer, his arms like steel
bands around her. When another noise sounded, he released her and
went to the end of the recess again. He waved her over.

She poked her head around
and looked both ways along the walkway before stepping out to join
Tres.

Her eyes widened when she
looked over the edge of the walkway and down towards where the blue
light was coming from. The height of the drop was stomach turning
and there were no railings to stop someone from falling
in.

Far below her was a bright
blue twisting orb. A large ring encircled it, with a smaller ring
inside. Both were spinning fast and in opposing directions. She
stared at it, fascinated and trying to get a clear glimpse of the
core of the rotating rings.

“
What is it?”
she said, leaning forward to get a better look.

“
The reactor
core of the ship,” Tres said without a trace of emotion. He seemed
to know a lot about these vessels. “Come away from the
edge.”

Renie looked up at him and
went to take a step towards him. The moment she raised her foot, a
shrieking alarm filled the room, so loud that it startled her. She
jumped and put her foot down behind her to steady
herself.

It slipped off the edge of
the walkway.

****

Chapter
7

Renie twisted in the air
as she fell. Air rushed against her face and she found herself
staring at the reactor core of the ship. The fall seemed to be
taking forever and she lost her ability to scream when she clearly
saw the centre of the blue orb she was falling into. It was
beautiful. It sparkled as though it held a billion stars in its
bright depths.

She gasped when something
touched her and then her eyes shot wide when she realised it was
Tres.

He had jumped after her.
He would die too.

“
I will not let
you die... trust me,” he whispered into her hair and held her
close, so her cheek was against his. She wrapped her arms around
his waist. They turned in the air and then suddenly they were going
up instead of down.

Pulling away from him
slightly, Renie gasped again when she saw that Tres had wings,
white leathery wings that were tinted blue in places. They carried
her upwards and then he spread them wide and they began to glide
down.

Her brows
furrowed.

He couldn’t be.

He just
couldn’t.

She clung to him as they
steadily dropped towards the ground far from the reactor
core.

“
I will protect
you, always,” Tres whispered close to her ear and she closed her
eyes, touched and knowing that he was telling her the truth. It
didn’t matter what he was or what she was. All that mattered was
how they felt.

She couldn’t doubt that he
felt something for her, not now that he had risked death to save
her and that he was promising to keep her safe from
harm.

His feet touched the floor
first and he slowly lowered her. When her feet hit the deck, he
released her and turned away. She watched his wings fold up and
then watched in amazement as they shrank and disappeared. The back
of thermal suit had slits in it that almost disappeared as they
meshed, as though the suit was repairing itself. She hadn’t noticed
them before and she hadn’t known that their wings could disappear.
If she had, she might have realised something earlier.

“
You’re Vegan,”
she said and stepped towards him.

Tres stepped away, keeping
his back to her.

“
I am.” His
voice carried a weight of sadness.

“
Why didn’t you
tell me?” She tried to step towards him again but he moved
away.

She glared at his back and
moved quickly so he couldn’t evade her. Grabbing his shoulder, she
turned him to face her and held his arm.

“
You never
asked,” Tres said with a long sigh and stared over his shoulder at
the reactor. There was so much pain in his eyes. What was he
thinking in there? “Perhaps I should have told you. Perhaps I did
not wish you to hate me.”

She frowned. “Why would I
hate you?”

“
Because of
your family,” he whispered and then looked at her. “The Earth
system was destroyed—”

“
Lyrans
destroyed it, not Vegans.” She cupped his cheek and smiled at him,
hoping to reassure him. “Vegans frighten me... I can’t deny that.
We’re told such terrible things about them as children and when I
saw the commander, he was everything I’d imagined. But you... I
didn’t know Vegans could be so beautiful.”

He looked down at his
feet.

She lowered her hand and
took hold of his.

“
You’re nothing
like the Vegans we’re told of. I couldn’t hate you, Tres,
never.”

A smile curved his lips,
brief but a smile nonetheless. She smiled too, glad that he was
listening to her. He was so different to everything she had ever
learned about Vegans. He had wings but they were white like his
skin, not black as the commanders had been or the stories she had
heard. His eyes were different too. Everything about him was
different. His ears were pointed but the tips weren’t as long as
the tips of the other Vegans ears. And he was kind.

He wasn’t anything near
the cruel picture painted by her education or the soldiers on this
ship.

He was helping
her.

He cared about what
happened to her.

“
We cannot
remain here,” he said and his fingers flexed against her hand.
Warmth spread up her arm at the feel of his hand in hers and she
hoped he wouldn’t let go.