Chapter One

Year 5, Saurellian Calendar

Daaron crept up to the edge of the hillside, raising the scope of his rifle to his eyes, finger light on the trigger. The small figure of a woman came into focus and his breath hissed inward. He recognized her.

Tessa Marasdottir.

Fuck.

Of all the people in the damn Empire to find the garnet deposits, why the hell her? Tessa’s tiny form hunched over an ore processor, and from the excited tension in her body he knew she’d struck pay dirt. She’d discovered cerulean star garnets, which just happened to be the new Emperor’s favorite gemstone. Before today, they could only be found on one planet in the entire Empire.

The damn things would be worth a fortune, a dream come true for Tessa. Now Daaron’s job was to kill that dream. By all rights he should kill Tessa too. He sighed heavily, and raised one hand to signal his men to hold their fire. He just couldn’t bring himself to do it, not yet.

Tessa dropped something, falling to her knees and reaching under the processing platform to find it. The position pulled her sturdy work pants tight against her butt and Daaron’s breath caught on a surge of lust. He’d wanted to get his hands on that ass for years, ever since the first time he’d seen her at university. She had a tight, compact little body just soft and round enough to give a man all kinds of ideas – mostly about plowing her until she screamed for mercy. His cock stirred, prodding the ground painfully, which also brought back memories. No woman had turned him down before or since, yet he’d spent two years lusting after Tessa without so much as a kiss, let alone the long, hard screw he needed.

Nope, she’d protected her virtue against every type of assault, from his first, gentle attempts to flirt to his final, humiliating offers of money.

Daaron reached down to adjust himself, but the brief touch of his hand brushing his stubborn prick just made things worse. Trying to ignore his arousal, he studied her carefully through the scope. Long, reddish braids still swung down her back, reaching all the way to her knees. He hated those braids. A proud symbol of her purity and unwed state, they were the crowning glory for any girl raised in the Warrens of Tyre. Why a people would refuse to allow their women to have sex outside marriage was beyond him, but that stubborn, lower-class morality had kept her out of his bed.

He would have given her anything, yet she rejected him.

As he watched, Tessa stood and turned toward him, reaching both hands down to the small of her back, stretching. High, pointed breasts poked forward. Taunting him. He’d never seen them, but he’d watched her working out at the pool more than once. Her bathing suit, while modest, still left little to the imagination. He wanted to lick those nipples, suck on them while he thrust his fingers right into her cunt. Virgin territory, so tight it would hurt. Daaron reached down again, unable to resist gripping his cock as she turned away from him. His hips thrust down involuntarily, need hardening his thighs.

How could he kill Tessa? She’d fought so hard to make her way in the world, rising above her birth to escape the Warrens and build a life for herself. And what a waste of a beautiful woman that would be… Daaron forced himself to pull his hand away from his crotch as a solution came to him.
Maybe he wouldn’t have to kill her after all.