Read Online Seduce Me in Flames by Jacquelyn Frank - Free Book Online
Authors: Jacquelyn Frank
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something of Balkin’s staging. But although there was no denying his steady confidence, it was clear that time was ticking away in his mind.
What if he was right? What if this was her one and only chance to do something? To commit herself to her course? She was always thinking about how it would have to happen one day. What if that day, that moment, was right now and here? Even if she refused to take action against her brother, refused to throw the country of Allay into a civil war that made the people choose between siblings, she could at least escape the oppression of her long life of captivity. She wouldn’t be turning her back on Allay for good—she didn’t have the heart to do that—and she wouldn’t be signing away all of her rights to a throne she felt in her soul belonged to her, but shewould be taking a step of strength. A step toward freedom. A step where she was putting her foot down and saying to all who watched that she refused to be treated this way any longer.
Ambrea turned away from him quickly, leaping for the devotional book resting on her cot and her mother’s picture within. She pressed the worn leather cover to her lips, the smell of it reassuring and comforting. Most carried around the thin, lightweight VidPads these days, the pocket-sized things resistant to wearing and aging and able to be used for multiple purposes rather than just containing Scriptures. But this had been from her nursery, from back when her mother had been alive. From back when she had been a fully entitled princess and had been treated as her birthright had demanded she be treated. Even now she recalled her mother coming to her bedside at night and reading from the beautiful, thoughtful stories in the book. The night she’d been packed off into exile, she was told she could take a single favorite toy, and this book had been her choice.
She wasn’t about to leave it behind now. Not when she most needed the Great Being to look after her. Not when she needed her mother’s attention from wherever she was in the Great Beyond to focus on her and get her safely through this.
She turned to face the Tarian, whose presence seemed to overflow the tiny cell that had before been adequate enough for the two smaller women. Ambrea lifted her hand and placed it in his. She drew a soft little breath when she felt him snatch her up tight in his grip, the hard calluses of his palm so coarse and overwhelming compared to the simple softness of her own hand. His palm swallowed her entire hand, and she became immediately aware of the heat of his skin and the kinetic strength and power she had just turned herself over to.It somehow strengthened her decision, and she turned to look at Suna.
“Are you coming?”
Suna snorted at that. “Or get left behind and hung as a traitor in lieu of my mistress? Do I seem daft to you?”
“Ladies, we must move with haste now.”
Ambrea let him draw her out of the cell. Her heart thudded with a mixture of fear of what could happen next and the thrill of shaking off that damp, miserable hole.
Neither anticipation would prove worthwhile. To her shock, he drew her past the outer doors and the promise of daylight, and instead guided her into the guard elevator. He latched the door and rapidly yanked out the control panel and began to rewire it, whistling all the while as if he were busily going about a day’s work and didn’t have a worry on his soul. She tried to let his attitude infect her, especially when the elevator jolted into movement, and she tried not to question him when it was clear he had a distinctive plan in mind.
“We’re going deeper into the wet rooms,” she noted ridiculously after a moment, trying hard not to make it sound as though she was questioning his judgment, and just as hard not to make the observation sound as stupidly obvious as it was.
His only reply was to give her that half-baked smile again and touch it off with a mischievous lift of both brows.
“I’m going to
What if he was right? What if this was her one and only chance to do something? To commit herself to her course? She was always thinking about how it would have to happen one day. What if that day, that moment, was right now and here? Even if she refused to take action against her brother, refused to throw the country of Allay into a civil war that made the people choose between siblings, she could at least escape the oppression of her long life of captivity. She wouldn’t be turning her back on Allay for good—she didn’t have the heart to do that—and she wouldn’t be signing away all of her rights to a throne she felt in her soul belonged to her, but shewould be taking a step of strength. A step toward freedom. A step where she was putting her foot down and saying to all who watched that she refused to be treated this way any longer.
Ambrea turned away from him quickly, leaping for the devotional book resting on her cot and her mother’s picture within. She pressed the worn leather cover to her lips, the smell of it reassuring and comforting. Most carried around the thin, lightweight VidPads these days, the pocket-sized things resistant to wearing and aging and able to be used for multiple purposes rather than just containing Scriptures. But this had been from her nursery, from back when her mother had been alive. From back when she had been a fully entitled princess and had been treated as her birthright had demanded she be treated. Even now she recalled her mother coming to her bedside at night and reading from the beautiful, thoughtful stories in the book. The night she’d been packed off into exile, she was told she could take a single favorite toy, and this book had been her choice.
She wasn’t about to leave it behind now. Not when she most needed the Great Being to look after her. Not when she needed her mother’s attention from wherever she was in the Great Beyond to focus on her and get her safely through this.
She turned to face the Tarian, whose presence seemed to overflow the tiny cell that had before been adequate enough for the two smaller women. Ambrea lifted her hand and placed it in his. She drew a soft little breath when she felt him snatch her up tight in his grip, the hard calluses of his palm so coarse and overwhelming compared to the simple softness of her own hand. His palm swallowed her entire hand, and she became immediately aware of the heat of his skin and the kinetic strength and power she had just turned herself over to.It somehow strengthened her decision, and she turned to look at Suna.
“Are you coming?”
Suna snorted at that. “Or get left behind and hung as a traitor in lieu of my mistress? Do I seem daft to you?”
“Ladies, we must move with haste now.”
Ambrea let him draw her out of the cell. Her heart thudded with a mixture of fear of what could happen next and the thrill of shaking off that damp, miserable hole.
Neither anticipation would prove worthwhile. To her shock, he drew her past the outer doors and the promise of daylight, and instead guided her into the guard elevator. He latched the door and rapidly yanked out the control panel and began to rewire it, whistling all the while as if he were busily going about a day’s work and didn’t have a worry on his soul. She tried to let his attitude infect her, especially when the elevator jolted into movement, and she tried not to question him when it was clear he had a distinctive plan in mind.
“We’re going deeper into the wet rooms,” she noted ridiculously after a moment, trying hard not to make it sound as though she was questioning his judgment, and just as hard not to make the observation sound as stupidly obvious as it was.
His only reply was to give her that half-baked smile again and touch it off with a mischievous lift of both brows.
“I’m going to
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