Under Different Stars (24 page)

Trey waits for me to sit upon the silk-covered cushion before he joins me. “Ignite fire,” he orders. The grate roars to life with fiery orange tongues.

The heat of the flames is seductive. I lean my head against his shoulder, feeling his hard bicep flex beneath my cheek. He moves his arm so that my cheek shifts to rest against his chest. His arm wraps around me to lie gently across my shoulders. He strokes my arm softly; warm fingers raise goose bumps on my flesh. I inhale deeply. His scent causes my paper heart to flutter and riot; a thousand folded airplanes made from its scraps soar within me.

“I missed your birthday?” he asks disappointedly, as his hand pauses on my arm.

I shrug. “It’s not a big deal. I didn’t tell you my birthday.”

“That doesn’t make me feel better,” he mutters. His arm tightens. He pulls me even closer to him to stroke my hair. I hear his heartbeat beneath my ear—calm, steady—the opposite of mine. “What did you do on your birthday—on Fitzmartin?” he asks in a silky voice.

“Uh…Fitzmartin?” I repeat him stupidly, feeling every fiber of my being come alive at his touch. “We went for a boat ride on the lake…with Em Quinn and his sons…remember?” I ask, feeling him brush my hair back from my neck, causing a sensual shiver to run through me. “Uhh…we had to listen to Em Quinn…tell us that long story of how he once saw a wild saer…near the boarder of Comantre,” I remind him, before biting my lip as Trey’s thumb caresses my nape absently. I don’t even know if he knows he’s doing it. It seems unconscious.

“Golden bathing suit,” Trey says softly near my ear in an intimate whisper, “which was actually just circles of gold linked together with golden-metal hoops…black wrap skirt that exposed your thigh with every step you took…black shoes with gold nail polish on your toes…I almost killed the little one.”

“You almost killed the little what?” I ask him, my eyes widening as I lift my head to look at him.

“The one that touched your—”

“Oh, you saw that?” I ask, surprised.

“Yes, I saw that.”

“Then you saw me smash his toes with my very sharp black heel?” I arch my eyebrow in a questioning look.

“Yes,” his perfect lips spread in a wide grin, “but it didn’t save him from the black eye.”

“You did that?” I gasp. “I thought he was thrown from his spix.”

“He was thrown, but he was nowhere near a spix when it happened,” Trey replies, then he adds, “I want to make it up to you.”

“Make up what?” I ask.

“Your birthday,” he says.

“Why? It’s just another day.”

“Because it’s
not
just another day—because I should’ve known it was your birthday.”

“That’s not your job to know.”

“It’s what friends do.”

He’s back to putting me in the friends zone.
I stiffen. “I’m good, Trey. I don’t want to celebrate it.”

“Why not?” he asks, like the idea of someone not celebrating her birthday is ludicrous.

“Because it won’t be for me.”

“Whom would it be for?” he asks in confusion.

I wave my hand in a dismissive way. “Manus. You tell him it was my birthday and he’ll throw some outlandish swank—he’ll invite all his enemies and expect me to spy on them for him. He’ll make a big production of giving me some outrageously expensive gift—I won’t know what it is, thereby reducing me to a foolish-looking nim.”

“Is that what you think? That you look like a foolish nim?” he asks me, his violet eyes searching mine. I feel fragile under their scrutiny.

“People always laugh.”

Trey’s eyes soften. “They laugh because they’re delighted by you—you ench
ant them. You’re cunningly naïve—vulnerable yet fierce. But, the party I had in mind wouldn’t involve Manus—it would be with your friends—”

“That would be a
very
small party,” I smile in an attempt at levity.

“I’d be there.”

I look away from him, resting my head against his chest again in an attempt to hide the tears that brighten my eyes.
He means just as friends, you idiot,
my mind whispers. “You’re going to be far too busy for that,” I reply.

His arm tenses around my shoulders. “What do you mean?”

“The Alameeda are in Peney. You’ll be leaving.”

“Nothing has been decided yet,” his heartbeat beneath my ear becomes rapid.

“True, but you’ll probably be busy with your other swank.”

“My other swank?” he asks in confusion.

“Don’t you have a commitment ceremony you have to plan?” I close my eyes briefly. I didn’t intend to say that—I just blurted it out like a well-honed survival instinct. All the paper airplanes of my heart nosedive and crash, coming to rest in a heap in the pit of my stomach.

Trey sighs, saying, “My commitment to Charisma has always been the expectation for both of us. Our families have pushed for it for as long as I can remember.”

“Then you should do it,” I murmur, dying inside. “There’s nothing more important than family.”

“Isn’t there?” he asks softly.

“I can’t think of a single thing.”

He lifts a piece of my hair and absently plays with it between his fingers. “What if what they want for me isn’t what I want for myself?”

My cheeks flush and I become breathless. “What are you saying?

“I spoke to Charisma. She and I both agreed that we aren’t right for each other.”

“You’re not?”

“No.” I feel him shake his head. “I don’t love her the way I should love her.”

I can’t move. “How should you love her?”

“I should love her like there is an ache that won’t go away unless I’m with her.”

I know the ache he’s talking about. It’s the one I carry around for him, but mine doesn’t go away anymore. It’s always there; it gets even worse when I’m with him, like now. “When did you figure that out?”

“Hmm?’ he murmurs, and I become fully alert. He’s stalling.

“Trey, when did you call off your engagement to Charisma?”

“I—” he pauses. He looks like he’s about to bluff before he exhales deeply. “The night the squelch tracker attacked us. I spoke to her that night after I spoke to you and I ended it. Deep down, I knew I was going to end it before I kissed you in the fountain.”

“How did you know?”

His soft groan rumbles his chest. “This would be so much easier if I could lie to you.”

“Trey?” My eyebrows knit together in confusion.

“I knew because I can’t stop picturing a very different ceremony…one performed in a gazebo adorned with wildflowers…with a bride in a white gown…who commits to the most enticing of promises…”

Something that feels disgustingly like hope begins to paste small bits of my paper heart back together. “So…you’re not going to have a commitment ceremony?”

“No.”

“Because you love me?”

“I told you before, I’m not allowed to love you,” he says with conviction. “I’m not supposed to have any feelings for you. Your guardian will never allow it.”

“You’re right. It doesn’t matter. I’m not allowed to love you either. The Brotherhood will kill you,” I state with equal conviction.

His warm hand cups my cheek, forcing me to meet his eyes. “I told you before, I’m not afraid of what the Brotherhood would try to do to me. It’s you I’m worried about. You’re Manus’ ward. You’re at his mercy until you’re of age. He has the power to make your life excruciating with very little effort.”

“Manus? You’re worried about Manus?” I ask, surprised.

“Don’t underestimate him, Kricket. You’re a Coriness, not to mention a priestess, and Manus’s favorite toy. I’m minor royalty, a Dreykar, it’s hardly a favorable match for you,” he admits. “There’s nothing for Manus to gain in it.”

“He has a lot to lose, though, if I were to stop cooperating,” I reply.

“You can’t afford to alienate Manus. He has the power to hurt you. I’m here at his request…that can change if he knew how I feel about you.” Trey reaches out and touches my cheek, like he can’t help himself. “If he were to decide that you should be handed over to the Alameeda, no diplomacy on our part would prevent it. I’d have to make you disappear—somehow convince Skye to intervene.”

“What does Manus want from me? I feed him every bit of information he asks for.”
Could I have missed something with Manus?
I wonder.
Maybe. I’ve been so distracted lately by Trey that I haven’t been as diligent about my surroundings as I should be.
That fact alarms me.

“I’ve been watching him, Kricket. I don’t like the way he looks at you lately.”

“How does he look at me?”

“Like you’re his inamorata,” Trey says honestly, gauging my reaction.

“His lover? You have to be wrong!”

“I’m not wrong.”

A shiver of fear erases every other emotion inside of me. It’s like my foster father, Dan, all over again. “What can I do to make him not want me, Trey?” I whisper.

“Nothing. There’s nothing you can do.”

“We have to make the stars align for us now—find a way for us not to get burned for being together.”

Something about what I said triggers a reaction in Trey. Maybe it’s the panic in my eyes, or maybe it’s that I said that I want us to be together. He leans forward and cups my cheek. “I’m working every angle I can think of to align those stars for you, Kricket. I promise,” he admits. “I’ll find a way out of this for you.”

“What if I were to change my status?” I ask.

His eyes search mine. “I’m sorry? Your status?”

“Kyon’s gone now—he won’t be able to get to you—we could keep it from him—from the Brotherhood.”

“Keep what from them?”

“What if I were to change my status from virgin to...other? Maybe Manus wouldn’t want me then. What if you became my inamorata?”

Pulling his hand back from my face, Trey tenses. “Inamorata is feminine. I would be your
inamorato
, your
male
lover.”

I bite my lip, blushing, before I continue my argument, “It wouldn’t have to be a permanent arrangement for you...I would just need someone to...umm...be with me so that Manus gets the idea that I’m not his plaything.”

“And you’d rather be my plaything than his?” he asks, his eyes growing dark and I can’t really tell if it’s with anger or desire.

I nod, but I’m beginning to see by his frown that maybe he doesn’t like my plan. “It’s my body and my life. I’d rather my first time be with someone I care about than someone I don’t.”

“This shouldn’t be a forced choice, Kricket! I don’t want you to be with me because I’m the lesser evil!”

“You’re my first choice, Trey. My only choice,” I state quietly. “There’s no one else I’d want but you.”

“Your plan will never work, Kricket.”

“Why not?”

“There are so many reasons that I don’t know where to begin.”

“You don’t want to be with me?” I ask in a small voice. The scraps of my paper heart blow away in my chest, leaving a baron, gaping hole.

“You could never be a temporary situation for me, Kricket. I know that once I have you, I’ll never be able to let you go.” He looks concerned as he scans my face. “I want you as my consort…until death do us part, and then forever after that,” he quotes what I said on the transport plane to Comantre.

His words do something to me. A flood of warmth begins in my belly and spreads throughout my body. “So you do want me?” I ask. I shift on the sofa, moving to straddle his legs and sit on his lap so that we’re face to face. “I’m right here.”

Trey stares at me like he’s never seen me before. Reaching up, he tucks my loose hair behind my ear. His hand lingers there before his fingers entwine in my hair, gripping the back of my head. He leans forward, while his hand in my hair gently pulls me closer to him. My heart has found its way back to my chest and now pounds in it like it had never been torn apart.

Trey covers my lips with his firm, enticing ones. I feel his other hand on my back; he pulls me to his chest. I melt against him. My arms slowly encircle the back of his neck while my mouth opens to taste him against my tongue. The most delicious pleasure I have ever felt winds it’s way through my veins. I want this; I want him so much that I ache from it.

My hands cup his cheeks. He hasn’t shaved since this morning; my fingers revel in the sandpaper-like feel of new growth against my skin. He groans as his tongue strokes mine; the sound he makes sends a hunger through me that I’ve never experienced before. I want to find a way to make him groan like that again.

“Kricket,” he whispers against my lips, “I’m not about to deflower you as a means of keeping you away from Manus. It would never work anyway. The minute he finds out about us is the exact moment that he gets rid of me and you become well and truly his. The fact that you’re untouched is the only thing keeping him from you.”

“Oh,” I say as I shift on his lap to meet his eyes. “But if I were your consort…then he couldn’t separate us, and it would be okay if I did this?” I lean forward and nuzzle his neck just below his earlobe.