Sons of Lyra: Fight For Love by Felicity Heaton Page A

Acer’s eyes that said slow was
torture. He’d seen him around the female engineer from his ship
several times now, and it was obvious to him that he liked her. He
looked back at Emmanuelle. Perhaps speed was a must when it took so
long to get the courage to act on feelings. It seemed that neither
he nor Acer could move as swiftly as Balt and Sebastian.

    He pushed Emmanuelle onto
the ship, waved a quick farewell to his brothers and Jericho and
Ambra, and then closed the door. Striding up to the deck, he
focused, intent on getting out of the atmosphere and to Dazkara as
soon as possible. It would take at least two days to get there and
then three to get back to Lyra Prime. He could be married to
Emmanuelle within a week. He smiled.

    “ You alright?”
she said close to his elbow.

    He nodded, wrapped his arm
around her waist and kissed her hard, his tongue tangling with hers
as their mouths fused together. When he let her go, she was panting
and breathless.

    Before she could say
anything, he grabbed her waist and settled her down into the
co-pilot’s chair. He buckled her in and then hopped into his own
chair. Her fingers closed over the end of the armrests when he
fired the engines up and the roar shook the ship.

    “ I’ll have you
home in a heartbeat... two heartbeats.” He grinned across at
her.

    She looked
petrified.

    “ Take your
time,” she squeaked. “Honestly... I’d rather make it there and back
in one piece.”

    “ Slow?” he said
and she nodded. “What was it you said about the sons of
Lyra?”

    Her eyes widened when he
dropped the thrusters and raised the ship out of the dock at
break-neck speed. He laughed.

    “ We don’t do
slow.”

    She squealed when he
pushed forwards on the controls and they shot into the atmosphere.
Before he could blink they were through it and heading out into the
infinite darkness of space. He punched the coordinates in for
Dazkara and then looked across at her. Her skin was as pale as her
hair.

    The computer announced
that at their current speed the Dazkara system was a day
away.

    “ I’ll marry you
before the week is out,” he said and released the controls, letting
them ease back into their auto-pilot position. “I’ve gone slow
enough.”

    Emmanuelle wondered if a
handful of months before getting married could be considered slow.
She closed her eyes when the ship slowed, rocked and then dropped
into sub-space. When she opened them again, stars were streaking
past in a constant dizzying line. Perhaps this was slow for a son
of Lyra. She’d made him wait and it only seemed to have increased
his desire to wed her. Seeing his rush to marry her now that he
could fly her to Dazkara and fulfil her stipulation was beautiful.
She’d never felt so loved before.

    “ So what are
your parents like?” he said, leaning back into the chair with such
a cocksure air that it only made what she was about to say all the
sweeter.

    She turned to face him,
smiled broadly and then said, “They hate Lyrans.”

    His face
dropped.

    “ Seriously?” he
said with a hopeful look. If he thought she was joking, he was in
for a shock when he met her family. “So why did you join the
imperial army? Don’t they hold it against you?”

    “ They do, but I
don’t really care what they think.”

    “ So why are we
going to meet them?” He reached out for the controls, as though he
was going to turn the ship around.

    She placed her hand on his
nearest one and took it away from the controls. It was his
cybernetic arm. She stroked the strange rubbery skin and smiled at
the way his fingers flexed, slowly closing around hers and holding
her hand.

    “ It’s tradition
on Dazkara for the future groom to ask for a daughter’s hand from
her mother.” Her eyes met his. Her smile turned mischievous. “Think
of it as challenge number two... convince my mother that a Lyran is
worthy of her only daughter.”

    “ Only
daughter?” His cheeks paled and his eyes widened. “This