Page 106 of Tempting Cargo
Scowling, I wove them back in as best I could, though my headspines fought me at every step.
The guards bowed, and an older male strode into the room.
And I? I skykking stood up, didn’t I? At least I didn’t drop in a skykking curtsey.
“The beautiful Mistress Shohari. It is a pleasure.” The male was impeccably dressed in high city fashion, his voice deep and elegant.
I crossed my arms over my breasts and jutted my chin in a most unbecoming angle. “Master Rokharu fei Sinla, I presume? I’m not mating you.”
Laughter shook his broad chest and sparkled in his indigo eyes. “So I have heard.” He had? I turned my head, and he frowned. “Who struck you?”
I put a palm to my cheek. “It is of no matter.”
“I disagree.” A growl rumbled in his chest. “Tell me.”
He was… not unattractive. But he was too tall, too broad. Too spiny. Too kri’ith. “It doesn’t matter. I can fight my own battles.”
“Of that I have no doubt.”
I tipped up my chin. “You can’t charm me, Master Rokharu. Nor should you want to.”My brazenness is the steel to shatter bonds.“You should know, I’m not untouched.”
Heat filled his lazy smile. “Neither am I. Though I daresay since my mate passed a number of years ago, I’ve been disinclined to find another. Until now.”
Breathe. “May her star shine with the Ancestors.” I may have hated him on principle, but I wasn’t a monster.
“Thank you,” he said softly. “We shared a soul bond. It was very difficult.”
My headspines twitched despite my best efforts. Mate bonds were exceptionally rare on Orith; could he tell I had one, too?
“Your mother is most insistent on this union,” he said.
I forced myself to pay attention. “So I have heard.”
He tilted his head, pursed his lips, but said nothing more.
“And you?” I said, voice flat. “Are you as insistent?”
Rokharu was halfway towards me before I growled in warning, and he stilled. “I would be lying if I said I wasn’t tempted by your beauty. Or your belligerence.” He drew his eyes down my body. “I am sure you would put up a very pleasurable fight.”
The smile he gave me was full of promise, and I realised, with stark surprise, though he left me cold, he was not the horror I’d painted him. Having been soulbound before, his bones would want their hollow spaces filled, and he would want more than just an arranged match. In another life, it could have been tolerable. More than, even.
But not this life. Not now I’d flown amongst the stars. Not now I’d met my Garrison. Not now he was in my bones.
“But no, fierce mistress,” Rokharu continued, oblivious to my turmoil. “I am not as single-minded, and I certainly would not wish to take an unwilling mate.” His face took on a wistful cant. “Would you consider giving me the chance to court you?”
I hadn’t given Garrison the chance to court me. “I skykked an alien, you know.” Throwing Garrison in his face didn’t fill me with pride, but my mate was big enough to feel like armour. He wouldn’t mind.
Rokharu only missed a beat. “Perhaps if I were young and out in the galaxy, I might do the same.” He smirked at my wide eyes. “I have reviewed your trading history. Quite impressive.”
“Thank you.”
“Your mother is a fool to think she could replace you with your cousin and be as profitable.”
I arched a brow. Such overt thoughts were unseemly. “I thought you held my uncle in high regard?”
“I do, and it is for precisely that reason I would tell him the same.”
I laughed. I didn’t want to, but I did.
