“I came down to check on you,” he murmured in the echoing quiet of the brothel’s lobby. It was a cavernous space. The brothel had once been the mansion of a merchant trader who had since moved to Genesis. They were in its foyer, similar to though smaller than the Larchmont’s foyer where they’d held their night ball yesterday. Above them was a twinkling chandelier and behind them was a grand staircase leading to the upper floors.
“Right,” Valerie murmured, clenching her fists at her sides, before putting on a small, wavering smile and looking up at him. “I’m sorry about yesterday. It was…it was a long day and I…”
She trailed off, not quite knowing how to explain. For some reason, the engagement didn’t seem real yet. They had obviously been discussing it for a while, without Valerie knowing. Gabriel had known who she was, after all, and had seemed to agree to this arrangement.
Not only that…but she couldn’t actually imagine saying the words out loud to Dravka:I’m engaged to someone I barely know.It would feel final. Done.
It had barely been twenty-four hours sinceshe’dfound out that her aunt had essentially sold her into an arranged marriage.
“I just wanted to make sure you were all right,” Dravka said, walking a few steps forward until they were an arm’s length away.
He was barefoot, his feet padding on the soft rug underneath him. He wore pants and a t-shirt, just like her, and she wondered what he’d worn when he lived on Kerivu. She’d never asked about Kerivu fashion. It seemed like such a silly thing to wonder about now.
“I’m all right,” she said softly, holding his gaze purposefully when all she wanted was to shy away. She could barely look at him last night. She didn’t want him to worry now. “I just needed sleep and rest. I haven’t gotten much this week.”
After a long moment of tense silence, Valerie relaxed slightly when he nodded, seeming to accept her answer.
“Where did you go yesterday?”
Valerie licked her lips, highly aware that Dravka’s gaze followed the quick movement. “Madame Allegria wanted me to accompany her to a…a party.”
He frowned. “Why?”
Valerie only shook her head, lifting her shoulder in a shrug. Her eyes strayed to the door, the main entrance to the brothel. She had a long day of cataloguing Eve Tesler’s townhouse and she wanted to get everything sold off within the week. Madame Allegria would return to Everton in two days and she needed to make the most of her absence. She rarely tracked Valerie’s movements, after all, when she was off colony.
“Val,” Dravka said again, catching her attention. Her breath hitched when he stepped closer and reached out a hand, strong and warm and gentle, to touch her cheek. “Come take your breakfast upstairs. We can talk. We have all day.”
He knows, was what Valerie thought. He knew something was wrong. Of course he did. Valerie was a terrible liar and Dravka knew her too well.
“I—I can’t,” she said. “I have to go somewhere.”
She winced, knowing that now she would have to explain.
“Where?” he asked. The look on his face was serious. As serious as she’d ever seen him.
She decided to tell him a little bit of the truth.
“I’m going to Eve Tesler’s townhouse,” she said softly, trying to judge his reaction.
Dravka blinked, his dark pupils flickering back and forth between her own.
“Why?”
“She left it to us,” Valerie told him, though he already knew that. In addition to that, Eve and Khiva had given them a credit card loaded with 2700 credits, though Dravka had that hidden away in his bedroom. It was the amount that Eve Tesler had believed Khiva was being paid for her visits to him, credits that she believed were owed to him.
It was enough to buy passage off Everton for the Keriv’is, but wouldn’t last them much longer. The townhouse, however, and the credits that Madame Allegriawouldbe paying the Keriv’i—Valerie would make sure she did—upon their departure from the brothel would be enough for them to live off of, all three of them, for the rest of their lives. In peace. Without ever worrying about their livelihood again.
“What are you planning to do there?” Dravka asked, that serious expression never leaving his face.
“I’m selling everything,” she whispered, feeling the pad of his forefinger stroke her cheek. Longing went through her. Affection. No one touched her but Dravka. “And putting the credits into a universal account. One she can’t find.”
“Val,” he rasped, “if she finds out that you’re—”
“She won’t,” she told him. “And even if she does, I refuse to be afraid of her. No more.”
His brow bone lowered but she took a step away from him, his hand sliding away from her cheek. Being around him was stoking that desire within her. It was making her shake. It was allowing that fear to rise again, fear that things were never going to be the same.
There would need to be distance between them if Valerie didn’t want her heart to shatter into a million pieces when this was over.
