Dumbfounded, Tenia could only watch her sister stride across the room to join her at the door.
“I won, you know,” Minna tossed out at them.
Reya paused, looked deeply into Tenia’s eyes with assurance before she said calmly, “No, Minna, you lost. The Reekas are reinstated, the Inka name is in ruins, and while we continue in freedom, you’re hiding here in your own private prison dying every day until you take that last step to the gates of Hell.”
Minna’s mouth opened to retort, but nothing came out. She glared at Reya, glared at Tenia, but didn’t say anything.
What was there left to say, after all?
“We got what we came for.” Reya reached past Tenia and opened the door.
They left the silent room.
Left the house.
Walked down the steps and over to the docking bay where the small Daamen travel ship waited.
At the bottom of the ramp, Reya stopped and turned to Tenia. “Are you all right, little sister?”
“I think so.” Tenia took a deep breath and glanced back at the manor house. “I just didn’t think it would end this way.”
“Did you think she wanted to mend broken fences?”
“Maybe. I guess I did.” Tenia shook her head. “I didn’t think we’d find out Mother’s secret.”
Reya was silent for several seconds. “Now we know.”
“Do we tell Connie and the others?”
“Yes. They are blood kin. True blood kin. They deserve to know.”
Deep voices sounded from inside the spaceship, heralding the approach of several traders.
As the sisters started to walk up the ramp, Tenia touched Reya’s arm. “How did you figure out what had happened?”
Reya touched the wall of the ship as they entered the doorway. “Sometimes working missions in places no person is meant to go gives you insight into the darkest areas.”
“You mean..?”
“Minna is broken. People break in different ways. Some people are broken and don’t know it.” Reya paused. “Some people are broken and know it.”
Stopping just inside the entry way, Tenia watched Reya cross to the small lift. As her sister turned around, Tenia almost asked her to explain it more, but then her sister’s gaze met hers and the words died on her tongue at the sudden bleakness in the pale green eyes.
It vanished fast, a flicker of annoyance replacing it as the door to the stairwell opened and the big blonde trader came through and caught sight of Reya.
“Reya, my little love! Care to take a walk through the forest with me before we leave?” Maverk asked cheerfully.
Reya pressed the ascend button.
Quick as a flash, Maverk jumped on the platform lift, his bulk forcing Reya to back against the wall. Her eyes narrowed.
“Isn’t this cosy?” He beamed down at her, one hand braced on the wall just above her head.
The chill in her eyes would have stopped a lesser man but Maverk wasn’t perturbed. The last thing Tenia heard as the lift slid smoothly out of sight was, “How about a little game of Dinno-Sharpe? Just a deck of cards, you and me. Clothes an option.”
Tenia shook her head as the lift slid out of sight. If Maverk was intending to win her sister’s heart, he had picked a harder game to play than he could ever imagine. Reya wasn’t one to give her heart willingly.
If at all.
“So serious,” teased a deep voice.
Before she could turn to greet him, strong arms slid around her from behind, pulling her back against a hard, muscular body.
A sweetly hot, familiar body, an equally warm, familiar embrace.
Darvk’s lips feathered over her ear, his breath hot, dark hair falling across her shoulders. “Did you find out what Minna wanted?”
“We did.” She tipped her head back, inhaling the unique scent of her husband. “Mother’s secret.”
“Ah.” He pressed his lips to her throat.
Warmth fissured through her, circling low into her core as his hand flattened against her stomach.
The door slid shut, encasing them in the privacy of the entrance hold.
“Do you want to know?” she asked, fingers curling around the big hands at her belly.
“Do you want me to know?”
“Yes.” As pleasurable as his caresses were, she turned in his arms to loop her hands behind his neck and look seriously up at him. “No secrets between us, Darvk.”
His gaze scanned her face warmly. “I have no secrets from you, my love.”
“Mother’s secret is the last thing I know that you don’t.” She leaned into him. “Once you know it, there’s nothing hidden anymore.”
“All right.”
Safe in his arms, she told him.
He listened, giving her nothing but loving support, saying nothing, gathering her close against him as she finished.
Cheek atop her head, he said softly, “I’m so sorry.”
“It’s a long time ago.” She relaxed into his strength. “At least we know now.”
“Not a nice way to find out.”
“No. Reya guessed at the end, I hadn’t a clue.”
“Reya…”
Tenia waited.
“I love my sister-by-marriage,” he continued. “But she is a mystery at times, aye?”
“Sometimes I don’t know her that well.” Tenia tipped back her head to meet his understanding gaze. “A lot has happened, I know she’s done things she won’t tell me, has secrets of her own. But I love her.”
“She’s blood kin,” he said simply. “Sometimes you just have to accept that others have secrets. But you and I, my love…” His hands shifted, cupped her cheeks, calloused thumbs tenderly rubbing along her cheekbones. “No secrets.”
“No secrets.” Tenia looked deeply into his eyes. “You and me, Darvk. Forever.”
“You and me, forever.” Lowering his head, he kissed her with aching tenderness. “Together.”
“Together,” she echoed.
Soft kisses, tender caresses, warmth to heat, heat to fire, love stoked with desire.
The whispered, “I love you.”
A statement. A promise.
Together. Forever.
####
COMING
Mercenary
Reya & Maverk’s story
(18 book series
Stand-alone reads)
BIO
Angela Verdenius lives in Australia, where she is ruled by her cats, adores reading, and thinks a perfect day is writing and drinking Diet Coke, followed by reading or a good horror movie.
To date, she has written numerous novels in sci-fi romance, BBW contemporary romances, 2 novellas, and several short stories, one of which is a zombie story she had great fun writing (because zombies rule and are the coolest of the monsters).
For more information about Angela’s books, visit:
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Read on for books available in ebook and print.
Other Books by this Author
Contemporary Romances
Big Girls Lovin’ trilogy
Doctor’s Delight
Cop’s Passion
Vet’s Desire
The Lawson Boys duet
The Lawson Boys: Alex
The Lawson Boys: Marty
The Virgin Sex Queen
The Mackay Sisters duet
Call on Me
Lean on Me
Seducing Sam
Adam’s Thorn
The Goodbye Girl
The Gully’s Fall series
Burn for You
Fall for You
Lie to Me
Fly with Me
You’re the One
Second Chance
Promises
The Wells Brothers trilogy
The Wells Brothers: Luke
The Wells Brothers: Aaron
The Wells Brothers: Blue
Echoes<
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Novellas Contemporary Holiday Romance
Christmas Blue at Flynn’s
Heart’s Desire Soul Destroyed sci-fi romance series
Outlaw
(17 more in the series coming - check the website for progress)
Novellas sci-fi
Operation Seduction (BBW)
Blast from the Past
Free Short Stories
Zombie Hospital
Perceptions
Novellas Written under the pen name Ang Kemp
Devilish Men series
Devil in the Kitchen
Devil on a Hunt
Outlaw Page 46