Queen of Starlight by Jessa Slade Page A

last-chance stand against tyranny and despotism, somehow the planet is still dead. Which is about as pacified as you can get.” He slammed closed the tabs on his vest. “Where are my boots? And my weapon?”
    “At the front door.” But she didn’t move out of the way. “Captain Deynah—”
    “Corso,” he snapped. “If I’m going to kill for you, use my first name.”
    That made her flinch, but she didn’t back down. “Corso, you’ve already risked your life for us. For the boy. For me. Don’t you want a taste of your reward?”
    “I think we agreed on berries, yes? I could use some breakfast.”
    She took a step closer to him. He wished for his boots, for the slight extra height to put him safely above her. But shorter though she was, she had no trouble resting her palms on the vest tabs he’d so carefully closed.
    “We agreed on me,” she reminded him.
    “No, you offered you. I didn’t accept.”
    She angled her fingers under the tabs. “Would you like to accept now?”
    He clamped his hands over hers. Not gently. “What are you doing?”
    “Do you remember how you blew a hole in the side of the wall to come for me? My intention is rather like that.”
    “And I’m the trapped little boy in this scenario? I’m offended.”
    “Maybe you are the wall about to be blown.” Leaving her hands caught in his, she sank to her knees in a slow, sensuous slide.
    He hadn’t done up his trousers yet and his shirttails hung out. When she knelt, her lips were level with the open placket—and his thickening flesh behind. His grip on her hands tightened involuntarily.
    She glanced up at him, her gaze smoky, as if the fire they’d escaped still burned there. “We need you, Corso. I need you.”
    “You already have me,” he reminded her.
    “Not yet I haven’t.” She dipped her head forward.
    And he jolted back, dropping her bandaged hands.
    Thrown off balance, she caught herself with one hand on the floor. The way she looked up at him through her dark lashes made him think he should just abandon his shredded boots and run.
    Though he might need the hazer.
    “Oh, you’re one that prefers to do the pursuing,” she murmured. “My mistake.”
    “I’m not—” He clamped his jaw shut. “You can’t buy me with your body, princess.”
    She smiled, her flash of teeth a little too fierce to be simple amusement. “But I can buy you with berries. And credits, of course.”
    “Get me the information I need or you won’t have anything to sell.”
    She shook back the waves of her hair and stood, graceful as ever in her nonchalance. “You will have what you need. And that doesn’t include the coordinates to the qva’avaq.”
    “You said you chose me because you knew I wouldn’t want the crystals.”
    “Yes, well, we thought you would want me. And see where that has gotten us.”
    It had gotten them in a tense standoff on opposite sides of her bedroom. Why hadn’t he just taken what she offered?
    Because she would have given it to anyone standing in his place.
    “I sold myself once,” he said softly. “And I ended up at L-Sept, watching a planet burn. I won’t be a whore again, not for anything. It was…too hard.”
    She studied him, her silvery hands folded into a strange shape in front of her with index fingers and thumbs making two interlinked circles and last three fingertips lightly touching. Her wrists were braceleted in red where he’d held her too tightly. “I translated the song for you, except for the refrain— Qv’auro lo —which is hard to paraphrase. It means, literally, ‘You are the light in my stone.’ I could light up your stone to make you forget a burning planet, Corso, but only if you want that.”
    Without waiting for a response, she pivoted on her bare heel and walked out the door. He followed more slowly to find his boots and weapon. Not to mention his calm. The departing sway of her hips was like a wave goodbye to what he’d just turned down.
    The temple was serene in