Read Online Daughters of Lyra: Heart of an Assassin by Felicity Heaton - Free Book Online Page A

could be found
anywhere. She had thought that it was just purple glass.

    “ Why do you
have this?” Her voice shook almost as much as her hands. The
pendant jiggled, the heart swinging in a small circle.

    “ I…” He lowered
his head. The long finger-length black strands of his hair fell
forwards to hide his face. She wished he would look up at her again
so she could read the reason in his eyes because she was beginning
to fear that he was going to leave her with no explanation.
“Forgive me.”

    She frowned. Forgive him?
His tone had held such a solemn note, one that spoke to her heart
and told her to do as he had asked, even though she didn’t know why
he wanted to be forgiven.

    “ I should not
have bought it,” he said to his knees. “But the Perseian took a
little money and handed it to me. She spoke to me in my own
language and made me foolishly believe in something which is
impossible… I never intended to give it to you. Doing so would
break—”

    “ I forgive
you.” Natalia didn’t want him to continue. If he was going to
mention his duty and his position then she had to stop
him.

    She knew that he had been
watching her the whole time since she had left the palace but
hadn’t realised how closely. He must have seen her at the stall and
seen the disappointment she had felt on realising that she couldn’t
afford the pendant. Taking a look at the scant silver Lynans in his
jacket pocket, she realised that he probably hadn’t been able to
afford it either. Had the woman given it to him for only a few of
his Lynans because he was Perseian or because she had realised why
he had wanted it?

    The woman had made him
believe something that was impossible. What was that something? Did
it have anything to do with her?

    Natalia looked at the
pendant. It was beautiful, but what made her smile was the fact
that Ixion had bought it for her because he had seen her
disappointment.

    “ Thank you,”
she said and he looked up at her, his clear purple eyes as bright
as the stone that she held. “No one other than my family has bought
me a present before.”

    He frowned. “No one has
bought you this. Only your family are worthy of buying you
gifts.”

    Natalia’s shoulders
slumped. She hated the way he talked about himself as though he
didn’t exist. He had done so the night he had come to take her home
from the club and he was doing it again now. She wanted to tell him
that she thought he was someone of consequence and that he wasn’t a
nobody. He existed to her, in her heart.

    “ Can I keep it
anyway?” She closed her fingers around the heart and held it to her
chest. “Can I say that it means a lot to me and order you to
believe it?”

    An order was probably her
only way of making him believe it.

    She swallowed her nerves
and stepped closer to him, so they were toe to toe. She looked down
into his eyes and then leaned over, swept his black hair from his
forehead, cupped his cheek and kissed him.

    It was barely a meeting of
lips but her stomach flipped and her heart raced. She brushed her
mouth over his and was surprised when he responded with force. His
hand caught her wrist, bringing her closer and holding her there.
His lips grazed hers and then he slanted his head and his tongue
stroked the seam of her mouth.

    Natalia felt giddy when
she parted her lips, allowing his tongue into her mouth, and
clumsily tackled it with her own. It was thrilling to kiss him like
this, to have such deep intimacy between them. His tongue slid
sensually against hers, stroking it and her teeth. Her breathing
turned rough and her blood heated. The kiss became choppy, a
clashing of lips and bursts of tongues. Her nipples tightened
against her dress and fire pooled at the apex of her thighs.
Iskara. She wanted him.

    Suddenly, the kiss was
over and he had drawn back into the chair. His eyes were dark as he
stared at her, full of passion and something else.

    Anger?

    Natalia struggled to level
her breathing, absorbing