Sons of Lyra: Runaway Hearts Read Free Page A

planet. She wondered why. A slight
frown creased his dark brows and she realised he wanted an answer
from her.

    “ Whatever gets
me off this hellish rock,” she whispered up at him, her eyes still
locked with his.

    They narrowed and her gaze
fell to his mouth. A smile curved his full sensual lips. She looked
away, cursing the blush that burned her cheeks when her thoughts
got the better of her. So what if he was handsome. He was rough and
a little arrogant too. Those two qualities were enough to make her
think the worst of him. As soon as they were onboard the ship,
she’d part ways with him and continue with her plan.

    He started walking again,
his palm pressed into hers and fingers locked tightly against her
knuckles. She followed him in silence. The crowd was suffocating
and she couldn’t see above them. She was too short. She looked up
at the man. He was a full head above the people around them. She
wondered if the universe looked different from up there. Perhaps it
didn’t. They were both running away from something after
all.

    They reached the rows of
desks near the barriers that blocked the way to the ships. She
noticed the guards and then noticed that the man turned his back to
them when he did too. Had he done something wrong on this planet?
Perhaps he was a criminal and did have money.

    “ Where are you
going?” he said, close to her. She looked around, hoping a
destination would present itself.

    “ Somewhere out
of this system,” she said and tried to remember the route they’d
taken to get to it. She scanned the names on the boards above the
desks. Each desk had a different destination. She smiled.
“Acturus.”

    He frowned at her.
“Acturus?”

    She nodded, still beaming.
She swore they’d passed through there on their way to this
system.

    “ Acturus is a
military base station in space.” He released her hand and fixed her
with a hard look. “It belongs to the Minervans.”

    There wasn’t just distrust
and anger in his eyes, there was fear too. Was it the military
factor or the Minervan? She hoped it was the former not the latter
and then reminded herself that it didn’t matter what he thought. As
soon as they were on the ship, she was going to ditch him. A lot of
the freighters had women only compartments. She’d hide in one of
those and hope that he forgot her.

    “ It stops at
Dliaer before it reaches Acturus.” She pointed to the board above
the respective desk. “You can alight there. Dliaer is a big port
about a day from here. From there you can go anywhere.”

    He seemed pleased by that.
He took hold of her hand again and dragged her towards that desk.
She was growing tired of his pulling her around as though she was a
ragdoll. Either he had no respect for women or he had little
experience of handling them. She glanced at him out of the corner
of her eye. He was so handsome that she doubted he had little
experience. Women were probably falling over backwards to get his
attention. Not her though. She’d had it with men.

    She was roused from her
thoughts when he shoved his purse into her hands.

    “ Get us
passage,” he said and pushed her forwards. His hand remained
against her back the whole time they walked to the desk. She got
the impression that he was wary of letting her out of arm’s reach
with his money.

    When she reached the desk
and opened the purse, she could see why.

    There were at least
fifteen gold Lynans in it. She could buy a small ship with this
much. She swallowed and her heart jumped when he pressed harder
against her back, urging her forwards. For a moment, she’d
forgotten he was there. She’d been lost in the fantasy the sight of
so much money had given her. With this much, she could run away and
set up a shop or something somewhere where her father and family
would never find her.

    She bartered with the
woman behind the desk, ignoring the obscene amount of cleavage her
uniform exposed. This world had no breeding. She was glad she’d
managed to