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  He tried to distract her, rather effectively at times. They did their best to make up for all the time they’d lost. But she knew he had to be almost as glad as she was when the message finally came.

  The invitation was issued directly from the premier’s office, so Shayalin thought she had a good chance of meeting the man at the event. She’d known better than to try to contact him, as discretion was one of the things he’d sought in hiring her. The invitation was even addressed to Jayce, with the allowance of one guest. She had threatened dire fates should he even consider bringing anyone else.

  “We both know this invitation’s really for you,” Jayce said to quiet her.

  And it was to a quiet, private celebration of Quynh’s daughter that they went. Some religions had baptisms, and there were cultures that gathered family on the hundredth day after an infant’s birth, while Quynh and Speaker Zakiyah asked those close to them to attend their daughter’s naming. It was in the private wing of an Albarzi hotel, very posh. They’d even been provided with rooms, since the ceremony took place at full moonrise.

  In the darkness, Quynh hummed a lilting melody as she allowed water to fall on the wide-eyed infant’s head. The Speaker leaned over her daughter and whispered the name she had chosen into her ear. When the song ended, she faced the rest of them and said, “Cantara. Know her through the rest of her days as Cantara.”

  It was simple and swift, but the hushed ritual still brought tears to Shayalin’s eyes. She was touched she’d been one of the few to be present, but she also suspected that the premier would use the opportunity for some politicking. And sure enough, when they moved to the banquet room for a reception, she saw faces she recognized from newsfeeds. Senators. Leading scientists. At least the food would have to be excellent to satisfy the palate of such folk, Shayalin mused as she continued inventorying the guests. A pair of top-ranked admirals—and with them, Commander Chodere, a nicely symbolic presence representing the dismantled barricade. Doubtlessly she’d pieced together enough of the story to warrant her inclusion as well.

  “I should speak with her,” Jayce said apologetically.

  “I think I’ll let you handle her by yourself,” Shayalin said, eyeing the premier a short distance away. She had her own business to tend to. “See you.”

  But as she started across the room, Quynh intercepted her. She held her infant in her arms, and next to her stood a tall, elegant woman with a cap of dark curls and tired eyes. She smiled when Quynh, hand on Shayalin’s arm, said something to her.

  “You are Shay, my wife’s friend, I understand.”

  Shayalin was grateful not to be introduced as a pirate. “Yes. You’re Speaker Zakiyah?”

  “Call me Nala. We both wanted to thank you for what you have done.”

  “It started out as a job,” Shayalin said frankly. “But I’m glad I took it. I’m glad your daughter’s well.”

  The Speaker’s eyes crinkled, and she said something to Quynh. The two of them conferred for a few moments, and then Nala turned back to Shayalin, her manner suddenly formal. “Would you consider becoming her godmother?”

  Shayalin looked at Quynh, shocked.

  “I’m sorry to spring that on you,” Nala said.

  “You hardly know me.”

  “I trust Quynh,” Nala said. “I don’t know of any decent candidates, anyway. Certainly not most of the people in this room. And there’s something reassuring about a godfather in the Corps.”

  “Jayce already agreed?”

  “Well, we’re going to ask him next. But from what I understand, once you say yes, he’ll follow.”

  “It won’t have anything to do with me,” Shayalin said. “He was already protective of her before she was born.”

  Nala shook her head with a faint smile. “Don’t sell yourself short. Quynh told me what happened. One of the reasons she was willing to leave your ship with the doctor was because she had seen how he looked at you. She thought you had seduced him into some piratical scheme. It was only after she realized you loved each other that she understood it was Keaton who had misled her.”

  Shayalin, still remembering that confessional scene with some embarrassment, tried to turn the conversation back away from it. “But won’t the government decide who gets to associate with your daughter?”

  “I’m sure they’ll want a say. But we want someone who’ll look out for what’s best for her, not for the world.”

  “She’s got a big role to play. Look at everyone here to see her. The only guest you’re missing is a Beller representative.” Shayalin wasn’t surprised—there was still a lot of negative sentiment toward the aliens—but she did feel disappointed.

  “They didn’t feel it was appropriate,” Nala said. “They believe that forcing their thoughts upon others who can’t communicate in the same way is rude. Not that this is stopping our child, as you’ve noticed.”

  Quynh interrupted at this point, clearly tired of being left out of the conversation. Shayalin smiled an apology at her as Nala translated what they had said so far.

  “Quynh says, right now she’s only a baby, and she’ll learn. And do you want to hold her?”

  Shayalin had done her share of babysitting back on Centuris, so she took the tiny bundle into her arms, automatically adjusting the infant’s head so it would be supported along the crook of her arm.

  “Hi,” she said, putting a finger into reach of that tiny grasp. “Cantara, is it?”

  She was jolted by a sense of warmth and curiosity—not her own. Thankfully, she didn’t drop the baby, but she did look wide-eyed over at Quynh. “She’s doing it on her own already?”

  “She’ll get it under control soon,” Zakiyah said.

  “Did you start this early?”

  “No,” Zakiyah said. “But I peeked while Quynh was pregnant, and that probably triggered it.”

  “Then how do you know when she’ll start reining it in?” Shayalin asked. An infant telepath indiscriminately using her talent was not a reassuring thought.

  Zakiyah smiled and tapped her temple. “You forget. I can talk to her.”

  “You’ll be an interesting family,” Shayalin said, shaking her head even as she transferred the baby’s slight weight back to Quynh.

  Zakiyah translated, and Quynh laughed before replying. Zakiyah’s expression was frankly curious as she said, “As interesting as a pirate and a Steader, hmm?”

  Shayalin shot Quynh a dark look. That wasn’t information she wanted shared widely.

  “Don’t worry,” Zakiyah said dryly. “We know each others’ secrets, as it were.”

  Shayalin had to concede that Zakiyah had far more to be worried about. “I won’t tell anyone,” she said. “I’m not sure how long you can keep it quiet, though.”

  “Hopefully long enough that we’ll find others like me, so she won’t have to grow up a freak. I’m sure Cuoramin has already started more experiments.”

  Quynh put a hand on her wife’s shoulder at Zakiyah’s bitter tone.

  Shayalin, remembering how right her world had become when she’d found just one other person who shared her outlandish ambitions for spaceflight—and oddly as she and Jayce had been regarded on Centuris, it was nothing compared to how differently people would look at Quynh’s and Nala’s daughter—thought she understood a little. “Remember, right now,” she said firmly, “she’s an adorable little girl. Treat her that way. When things get rough later on, that’s when a pirate godmother will come in handy.”

  “You’re giving up pirating,” Zakiyah said, but her dark mood was broken. She said something to Quynh, who broke into a smile and spoke to Shayalin. “She says, welcome to the family.”

  Shayalin took a moment to steady her voice against the sudden upwelling of warmth within her breast. “Thank you.” She bent to brush Cantara’s cheek with her knuckles then bid them farewell before sentiment could get the better of her.

  The premier was waiting to speak with the guests of honor, of course, but she had her own share of tal
king to do with him. He nodded as she approached. “Captain. Well done.”

  The praise caught her off-guard. Her father never told her when she’d done a good job, as he simply expected her to do one in the first place. “Thanks. And not that your regard doesn’t mean much—”

  He raised a hand. “Spare me. I’ll arrange for your pardons as soon as I can.”

  “The longer you take, the more ships we’ll hijack between now and then,” Shayalin pointed out.

  The premier muttered something. But a smile tugged at his mouth as he said, “Give me 'til the end of today. You can’t cause too much trouble before then, can you?”

  “I can only try my best,” Shayalin said solemnly.

  He snorted and was about to move on, but she stopped him.

  “Sir…”

  “Well?”

  “Did you pick me because of my connection to Jayce?” She’d decided to ask him as soon as she’d realized he was involved with the mission.

  “Yes.”

  She hadn’t expected such a bald response.

  “Don’t throw him away this time,” he added.

  She was flippant by reflex. “Well, if the premier says so…”

  He smiled faintly. “If only so that it’ll make you easier to reach the next time I need you.”

  “The next time?” she asked, startled.

  “You didn’t think you could get away with being useful to me only once, did you?”

  “I fully expect to be too busy with my new business to hijack any ships or breach any blockades.” The premier’s interest made the back of her neck prickle. Then again, his favor could be useful indeed.

  He quirked his eyebrows at her. “We’ll see, Captain.”

  She grinned. “'Til next time, then, sir.”

  And finally she was free to go to Jayce. She should call her father and let him know—and she really ought to send a message to her mother—but there was something more important she had to say to Jayce.

  Although he smiled at the sight of her and excused himself from his conversation partner to turn to her, his smile was strained. She tried to kiss it away. It didn’t work.

  “What’s wrong?” she asked.

  Jayce rubbed the back of his neck. “I don’t think this will work.”

  She took a step back, feeling her stomach twist. “Why not?”

  He caught her hands. “Don’t you see? I love being in the Corps. Don’t ask me to give that up.”

  With a flood of relief, Shayalin realized his line of reasoning, but she couldn’t help teasing him a little after he had shocked her with that pronouncement. She slid her arms around his neck and let her voice go low and husky as she pressed her body against him. “Why would you have to?”

  “You’re a pirate!”

  She grinned up at him. “Remember that reward the premier referred to? I’m getting a pardon.”

  He looked blank.

  “That was my asking price for having to put up with you.”

  “You said you were doing it for the money.”

  “I lied.”

  “You let me think that of you?”

  “Maybe we should have this out,” she said, releasing him. “What do you think of me?”

  He gazed at her in silence for a long moment. Then he said, “I think that you’re bold and foolish and daring and tough and beautiful, and I love you, Shay, and if you ever leave me again it will break me.”

  She blinked back her sudden tears. She mustn’t cry, she told herself. She had to find the right words to keep him this time.

  “I’m sorry I left you like that. Like I told you, I was overwhelmed about my father, and you should’ve been the first person I turned to, but then you got accepted into the Corps and…” She smiled ruefully. “I was jealous, plain and simple. So I ran.”

  He watched her quietly.

  “I would think about you sometimes and try to convince myself I was better off without you,” she went on. “But when I bumped into you on Ionia, I realized what I’d given up. And you’ve done so well in the Corps. To think that I missed that, missed ten years of your life and never got to tell you I’m happy for you—I really am.”

  He still didn’t say anything.

  “A lot’s happened since then and we’ve both changed a lot,” she said slowly, “but I think that being raised as a Steader has left its mark on me.”

  “You?” But his laugh was forced.

  “Yes.” She wrapped her arms around his neck again. “I’ve been seeking my hearth. And I found it. It’s you.”

  He kissed her, long and desperate. She clung to him, wondering how she’d ever survived without the press of his body against hers. She was suddenly hungry for him, all of him. Her hands moved under his shirt and up his back, while his took hold of her ass and pulled her so closely against him she knew he felt the same need.

  He finally broke away before they could start tearing off each other’s clothes. She couldn’t remember ever seeing him this happy. “Race to the room?” he asked her, eyes dancing.

  “If it takes both people to actually have sex,” she said, “isn’t a race meaningless?”

  He only grinned and set off at a dead run.

  Her competitive instincts kicked in, and she sprinted after him. He had a good head start and was already out of sight.

  “Sorry!” his voice floated back to her.

  Running indoors was discouraged and for good reason. Shayalin careened around a corner and nearly flattened someone who was just rising from a defensive crouch after Jayce’s passage. So that was to whom Jayce had been saying sorry. She called out her own apology over her shoulder as she dashed onward.

  She caught up with him just as he keyed the door open. He laughed as he pulled her in. “Not bad. You’ve gotten faster.” He crushed her mouth against his, then spun her free. “Get your clothes off.”

  She cursed her boots as she struggled to pull them off without unzipping them. By the time she got them off, he was already naked and ready. He yanked at her shirt while she tried to unfasten her pants with overeager fingers.

  “God, Shay, I’m going to explode as soon as you touch me.”

  There was no way he was keyed up any more than she was. “Only after I come first,” she said with a wicked grin, kicking off her pants.

  “Oh?” He pushed her back onto the bed and spread her legs with his knee, still standing.

  “No fair!” she gasped when he seized her wrists to hold them down. “I come faster when I’m on—”

  He drove into her, and she cried out sharply.

  “You were saying?” But his voice grew ragged, ruining the arch tone. He began to move in and out of her.

  She raised her legs along his body, and he let go of her wrists to rear back, take hold of her ankles and push them up overhead. The angle was incredible.

  He slammed into her again and again, tearing cries out of her with each thrust. His gaze trapped hers. She couldn’t look away from him, his intent expression, the sheen of sweat upon his skin. The deep heat in his eyes every time he was fully within her.

  She felt herself tightening, tightening—and then with his next thrust, the sudden release, a flood of waves that swamped her so that she barely noticed him stiffening a moment after. But she did notice.

  When he finally lowered her legs and collapsed off to one side, she smiled at him, stretching her arms up and closing her hands in soft fists over her victory. “Beat you.”

  “Just wait 'til the next round,” he said into the pillow, for all that he looked completely melted onto the bed and incapable of lifting a finger, let alone another session of energetic sex. “This time I’m betting on you. But give me a minute.”

  “Always keeping me waiting,” she teased. She tugged at the coverlet trapped under his body. “At least share the blanket.”

  He lifted himself enough for her to pull it out. “That’s what I did the first day we met, and look what happened.”

  She smiled, remembering that eve
ning on the hilltop. Her fingers feathered their way along his shoulder blade. “I’ll always be here for the next round,” she said softly. “And everything in between.”

  About the Author

  Karalynn was born in Texas, raised in Korea and now lives in California. Despite having majored in English, she makes her living writing in programming languages instead. She enjoys early mornings, running, barley tea and watching football games in crowded pubs. More of her writing is available from Carina Press, Samhain Publishing, Drollerie Press and at her website, www.karalynnlee.com.

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  ISBN: 978-1-4268-9700-9

  Copyright © 2011 by Karalynn Lee

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