Daughters of Lyra: Heart of a Prince Read Online Free PDF Page B

side of the barrier, surrounded
by darkness and loneliness.

    “ Renie,” she
whispered, as though ashamed to tell him.

    Perhaps not ashamed. She
cast her eyes downwards into her lap and twisted her fingers around
themselves. Embarrassed? Awkward? All new emotions to him. There
was none like her on this side of the barrier. Meeting her and
experiencing this wondrous array of feeling had only strengthened
his resolve to leave the Black Zone.

    He moved to the bars and
knelt in front of her.

    “ Tres,” he said
and slid his hand between the bars, holding it out in what he hoped
was a Lyran gesture of greeting. His knowledge of different
species’ formalities had all collided in his mind and become
tangled over the years.

    She stared at his hand as
though it was going to attack her.

    Perhaps he had been
wrong.

    Her hand slid into
his.

    Tres’s entire body jolted
and tensed, a sweep of tingles racing through him, fanning out from
the point where her skin touched his. She closed her fingers around
his hand, her soft skin brushing his, creating smaller waves of
pleasure with each tiny caress. His heart beat hard in his chest,
pounding in his ears as he stared into her eyes, absorbing the
divine feeling of her body against his. For a moment, he forgot
himself, lost in the feel of her hand in his, her gentle touch. He
had never been touched before, not skin on skin. It was forbidden
for anyone to touch him. As a child, those who’d had to touch him
had worn gloves, and since then he had always been wearing his
thermal suit when he had been touched.

    Not that he had ever been
touched as intimately as this. Anything more intimate than touching
his arm or shoulder was forbidden also.

    His fingers slowly closed,
clasping her hand, and he never wanted to let it go.

    “ How do you
know a Terran form of greeting?”

    His eyes had almost closed
when she voiced that question. They opened slowly and ambled over
her body and then her face to meet hers.

    Terran. One of her species
then. To think the Vegans and Lyrans had almost destroyed the
species that had created her, a stunning dark rose, a flower so
delicate he wanted to hold her gently and savour her
scent.

    “ Education,” he
said as an answer and reluctantly took his hand back, sliding it
carefully through the bars.

    He could have held hers
forever.

    His entire body felt warm
from just that brief touch but the heat quickly faded.

    “ Your hands are
freezing,” she said with a smile that he supposed was meant to make
him feel as though that wasn’t a bad thing.

    She was trying not to
offend him.

    He smiled at her, showing
that he wasn’t at all offended. He knew that he was cold compared
to her. His species relied on the strong sun of their planet and
thermal suits to keep them alive. In deep space, and with his suit
broken, he was so cold that it was difficult to move.
Painful.

    Still, as he looked at
her, he found that he didn’t feel the cold. He didn’t feel the
pain. He felt only warmth. A strange warmth that suffused his
entire body.

    “ Tres?” she
said and his eyes half-closed on hearing her soft voice speak his
name.

    He managed a nod in
response and clawed the scattered pieces of his mind back together.
Something about her made him lose all reason and control. He wished
that he was able to get closer to her. He wanted to feel her body
against every inch of his and needed to help her get away from this
dark place. The Black Zone was no place for her and the Vegan
commander of this vessel was intent on hurting her, or at least
damaging relations between Vega and Lyra. He had to stop that from
happening. He looked around him at the cells. Trapped here, he
wouldn’t be able to do anything.

    “ Do you think
my brother is going to be all right?” She leaned back against the
wall near him and pulled her knees up to her chest.

    The vulnerability in her
look made him frown and a dark feeling filled him, an urge to
escape the cell at any cost to