Sons of Lyra: Runaway Hearts Read Online Free

looking
right down into his soul and could see everything there.
Afterwards, she’d changed slightly, just as she had this time.
Whatever she thought she’d seen in his eyes had made her calm and
compliant. He hoped she remained that way until they were on the
ship.

    The metal gangplank echoed
under his heavy footsteps. The sound of hers was lighter, softer.
Everything about her seemed soft. He glanced furtively out of the
corner of his eye at her. She swept her deep blue cloak over her
shoulders with her free hand and then fixed her hair, smoothing the
long black locks into place in the elaborate bun at the back of her
head. Some of the strands fell back down. His gaze fell to the
smooth white column of her throat and her graceful shoulders. She
moved slightly in front of him and he openly looked at her now. His
eyes followed the sweeping curve of her back to where it narrowed
at her waist and blossomed out into full hips that begged to be
touched. He swallowed and his jaw muscle twitched when he looked at
her long legs. The floor-length rich green dress she wore was slit
up the side to reveal her thighs as she walked. He noticed the
skin-coloured band around her right thigh. She was carrying a
weapon. The thought of that turned him on for some reason. It
whispered of danger and adventure, with her.

    Something else about her
whispered to him. It spoke of the fact she didn’t look like a
common thief. Her clothes were too fine, her body too well looked
after, to be a beggar or pickpocket. She looked as though she was
running away from a rich family.

    He pushed his cloak over
his shoulders as they entered the ship. With such a fine looking
woman on his arm, he no longer felt the need to look rough and
dirty to fit in. If someone saw them together, they would presume
they were man and wife, heading off to some distant planet. No one
would associate him with a woman.

    A stewardess dressed in a
tight black top that covered her to her jaw and tight black
trousers took the tickets from the woman. She checked them and then
intimated a corridor to her left. The woman followed the
stewardess, her hand leaving his. He walked along behind her, eyes
scanning the interior of the ship, thankful that she couldn’t see
him and his fascination. He didn’t want her to think he’d never
travelled before.

    The ship was incredible
and far larger than they looked from his balcony as they flew in
and out of port. The interior was black and silver, with strips of
lights underneath his feet and above his head. The exterior had
been sleek but bulky, tapering from the front to a wide flat set of
thrusters at the back. He wished that they’d had more time. He
would have liked to have walked around the outside of the ship to
get a real look at her.

    They passed a row of
square windows. Opposite them were open rooms crammed with people.
This was obviously the deck of the ship where the cheapest seats
were. He peered into one of the rooms. People were sitting in
groups, drinking and laughing. It looked like fun.

    When he turned to continue
walking, he came face to face with a man. The man stared at him,
black hair and eyes giving him a sinister appearance in the strange
half-light. He smiled to reveal sharpened teeth.

    Sebastian’s heart pounded.
He squeezed past the Minervan, keeping his head down, and hurried
after the woman and the stewardess. He saw them just before they
turned a corner halfway along the corridor. By the time he’d caught
up, they were entering a lift. He slid in behind them and smiled
briefly.

    Too close.

    He should have been more
cautious. Of course there would be Minervan crew on the ship. The
man had been wearing a similar uniform to the female showing them
to their seats. His eyes strayed to her as she pressed a button and
the lift began to move upwards. Perhaps she was Minervan
too.

    “ This way
please,” the stewardess said as the doors opened again.

    He followed the woman down
a long corridor. At the end