Valerie’s eyes widened.
“Dravka—”
“And it certainly won’t be in this room, or any other room in this building, in thisdemav-forsaken place,” he told her.
Not in the place where he’d fucked hundreds of women in the years he’d been there. The mere thought of having sex with Valerie in the brothel, within these walls, made him feel restless.
He pressed a kiss to her nose, across her cheek.
“Pax?” he whispered, needing her to understand.
When he met her eyes, his belly dropped. She was wearing a soft, sad smile. And her gaze was…disappointed.
“Val?”
She was quiet for a long while and then she sighed, leaning into him, pressing her forehead into the crook beneath his jaw. Dravka marveled at howrightit felt, holding her like this, her bare flesh pressed into his.
Then she said, “I’m getting married in a few weeks, Dravka.”
He tensed, just the mere thought unleashing fury and panic inside him. They were running out of time.
“I don’t think I’ll ever be rid of Everton.”
She pressed the words into his skin like a brand, her lips soft on his neck.
“You won’t be marrying him, Valerie,” was what Dravka replied.
She only sighed.
Then she asked, “Can I sleep here tonight? With you?”
He growled and maneuvered her so that she met his eyes. He cradled her face in his palms.
“I’m serious, Val,” he said, his tone soft and even. Certain. “We’ll take care of everything. You don’t need to worry.”
“We?” she asked, frowning.
His jaw ticked. “I told Tavak and Ravu.”
She pressed her lips together. “I thought you might.”
“We have credits, Val,” he said. “Maybe not as many as we are owed, what we were promised, but she did pay us.”
“A credit a night,” Valerie said, her jaw tensing. “That’s hardly payment.”
“Regardless,” he said, “I’ve been saving mine. So have Tavak and Ravu. With the 2700 credits that Khiva and Eve gave us, with the money from the townhouse and the collections…we have enough, Val. To get passage off Everton, to start over somewhere. Together.”
The longing was evident on her features.
He paused and said, “Maybe even on Dumera.”
“Dravka,” Val said, shaking her head.
“Khiva and Eve are there. We heard that he started creating firestones again.”
“Firestones?”
“I’ll tell you all about them sometime,” he promised her. “But if they are in circulation again, then he will need workers. Many of them if he wants to expand. He would hire all of us. You know that. And then we could have our home, Val. The one I said I’d give you. The one with—”
