Chapter One
Bright light shone through the burgundy framed windows of the communal study room as nineteen-year-old Gissandre entered. A group of younger girls who’d dyed their hair in an attempt to match the pale shade of hers trailed behind her. She was relatively new to the exclusive school, but she’d made friends easily as she always did. There were only a few older, influential girls who snubbed her. That didn’t concern her very much, because she had many larger issues, like trying to remember that her nickname here wasn’t Giss as it had been her whole life. She’d promised her sister she would keep the details of her identity secret, like her name, her home planet, and, most importantly, the reasons she was currently in hiding at a secure school for wealthy young women.
A commotion caused Giss to turn and stare as Cleery and her set rushed to the windows. Cleery, who ruled the school, had a lovely, plump figure, but her too sallow complexion often had to be covered with heavy makeup because it was spotted with a rash. Giss thought she needed to give her skin a rest from the harsh products she favored, but Cleery insisted they were “nourishing.”
“There! The smoke. I told you he was out there,” Cleery said, pointing triumphantly.
Her three friends tittered, and Lyris, a skinny, freckled young woman, knelt on the sill, pressing her nose against the glass.
What’s this? Giss wondered, strolling closer to them. “Who’s out there?”
With a smug expression, Cleery said, “The one they call the golden hunter. The most magnificent specimen to set foot on this desolate planet!”
Giss froze, her stomach lurching. A magnificent looking man with golden hair? That matched the description of one of the men who might be looking for her. Her heart thumped heavily in her chest. The planet of Junistar was only sparsely populated, which was surely one of the reasons it was chosen as the current secret location for the school.
“What are you talking about?” Giss asked.
“A young man adventuring here,” Cleery said, without bothering to turn her head. “His golden hair is definitely Linzen. Though it’s wildly tangled!”
Giss’s breath caught. Was it Larsinc? When she’d last seen him his hair hadn’t been wild or tangled, but since then he’d been through an ordeal.
Junistar, a distant outpost from the more fashionable worlds, was home to people who were fairly poor. The bloodline of the Linzen people was considered so valuable that generations back, when they were enslaved and captured for breeding, they’d been bought by people on very wealthy planets, like her own home world of Orius. That was why descendants of the lost Linzens were usually highborn and well moneyed. She and her older sister Zawri had light hair, green eyes, and features that looked somewhat Linzen themselves. Although no one had ever confirmed whether there had been a Linzen in the family line, they suspected there might have been.
Giss moved to a smaller window in the room’s corner and squinted at the sky. There did seem to be smoke curling up from the frozen landscape beyond the hills. Was he out there? She chewed on her lower lip, unable to keep a flood of emotions from hitting her. Regret, lust, longing, and some fear mingled in her blood.
She told herself to settle down. It was unlikely he was here. How could he have found her? She licked the corner of her mouth where she’d bitten it. He’d said he was a Ketturan warrior, though she wasn’t sure whether she believed it. And even if his family had settled on Kettura when Larsinc was a boy as he’d claimed, that wouldn’t explain his finding Junistar. The fierce, normally dark-haired and bronze-skinned Ketturan warriors traveled all over the universe as mercenaries, but they’d never have had cause to know about this world because the planet had never been under siege. Junistar had too few resources to be a target for off-world aggressors, which meant its people—even if they could’ve afforded to hire Ketturans as protectors—wouldn’t have needed to.
The last she’d heard, Larsinc was still imprisoned in the Wilds, a prison colony on her homeworld. She swallowed against an uncomfortable lump in her throat, trying not to think about the details of what had landed him there. Or the unfortunate part she’d played.
If he’s here, he survived.
If he’s here, he’s angry. And he came for revenge.
She turned from the window and walked away. She needed to go to her room so she could try to contact Zawri. She wasn’t supposed to talk by com with anyone from home since an off-world com transmission might be intercepted by someone on Orius who would tell Urcolin, the other man who was probably looking for her.
She shuddered, slowing her stroll to her room. She should never do anything that would allow Urcolin to find her. The banker-magistrate was more than corrupt and manipulative; he was evil. Just before Zawri had sent her away to this school, she told Gissandre all the ways Urcolin had brutally beaten his slaves. Some had died. Giss’s stomach churned, threatening to empty itself at the thought. She’d known instinctively that she had to escape him at all costs. It’s why she’d been driven to do something that was as drastic and desperate as an act could be. She’d walked into the sea during a storm. She shouldn’t have survived. She still wasn’t completely sure how she had. Larsinc had claimed he’d rescued her. Maybe he had.
Of course, he was a pirate and so much of what he’d told her that night was unlikely to be true. Her steps slowed as she pictured him, tall and strong, his skin faintly golden in the low light of the cave. How many times since they’d met had she woken from dreams of him with an ache between her thighs? How many times had her mind tried to recall every detail of his face and body? So many times. Too many.
Don’t, she chided.
Let go of that disastrous night, and be grateful you get a second chance at life.
* * *
Larsinc dipped a cloth through the hole he’d cut in the frozen lake. He brought it up, exhaling hard as he used it to wash away the soap on his face and beard. He gritted his teeth and cursed as the water threatened to freeze on his face. He leaned closer to the small fire for a few moments, then turned back and shoved the cloth into the icy water again. He dragged it over his chest, growling at the frigid bite. Discipline was a way of life, but that didn’t make the needles of pain easy to take as he washed.
When he’d emerged from the Wilds prison encampment, he’d been thin, wounded, and worn to the bone in some places. In the Wilds, food had been scarce, and fighting required. Seven months was a long time to live in harsh conditions while constantly under attack. So though he’d been living rough while watching Gissandre’s school, he went frequently to the villages for meals and supplies and ate more than his fill. He’d regained his muscle, and the evidence of the wounds faded more with every week of freedom.
Linc paused, closing his eyes as he pictured the girl’s beautiful, treacherous face, the curves of her flushed cheeks, the full lips, the bright eyes. He remembered the texture of her smooth skin and silky white-blonde hair. Despite the bitter cold, his cock rose.
He dropped the rag on the ground and stroked himself, licking his chapped lips and contemplating his plans for her. During the reckoning, he would punish and enslave her until she’d paid for her betrayal.
He tipped his head back, drawing deep breaths as he gripped his cock hard, trying to recall the scent of her sea-soaked skin. It had been a light, sweet musk when his face was buried between her legs. And the tangy salt had been nectar in his mouth as he’d licked her pussy. His cock erupted as the vividness of the memory took him back to that night eight months earlier.
