Page 88 of Star Prince

The crowd went wild. Klark rose and came at him again, albeit wobbly. Ian blocked his kicks, sent him sprawling again. Clearly enraged, blood dribbling from his split chin, theVashclimbed unsteadily to his feet and threw another punch. Ian ducked. Instantly he had Klark in a choke hold.

Ian’s breaths hissed in and out as he ratcheted his arm tighter. “What do you think, Klark? Is this man enough for you?”

Klark struggled, wheezing. “Barbarian.”

“You say the word like there’s something wrong with it.”

Ilana whooped, and Ché regarded her with a bemused expression.

Ian yanked on Klark and took him down, holding him flat on the cement with an arm bar, a clamp he made even more painful for Klark each time the man attempted to move. With the prince immobile, he pressed his thumb and finger into his neck. Klark’s face turned purple. “Can we safely say this is over now?”

Klark squeezed out, “You’ll have to kill me.”

He compressed Klark’s pinned arm. The prince bared his teeth in pain.

“Leadership is about making choices, Klark. I don’t have to kill you.” He pressed his fingers into the man’s throat until his legs convulsed. “However, that doesn’t mean I won’t.”

Klark’s golden eyes met his. In their depths perhaps the beginning of respect glimmered. Not the respect that came from admiration, though, but the wrong kind— respect born of fear. It’s not what Ian wanted, yet it was a start. “Today we’ll end this battle this way,” he said. He released Klark. “Inflexibility almost caused the Federation to fall seven years ago— to a cult leader, a mere religious fanatic. All because, after eleven thousand years of peace, they didn’t believe he could start a war. But he did. And it cost you tens of thousands of lives. It might have beenmillions if Rom B’kah hadn’t had the vision to act in time.”

He sought Tee’s gaze. “It’s time for change,” he said quietly. “I will set the example in my home, and with my wife.”

Her slow, proud smile gave him hope. Maybe he still had a chance with her.

With the fight over,Gann pushed his way through the onlookers to Lara. “Commandeered, my eye,” he muttered upon reaching her. “You brought Tee’ah here voluntarily.”

“Aye. I brought her home. That’s what I was paid to do. You never specified where home was.”

“You helped her,” he argued. “At the high probability of forfeiting the money you need to retrieve your ship.”

“Aye, well...” She averted her gaze.

He cupped her chin between his thumb and index finger and forced her to look at him. “You have a generous and loving heart, Lara. Not the black hole you think is in there.” Her shocked eyes grew moist. “And if you ever again say otherwise, I’ll...I’ll...” Blast, he didn’t know what he would do. He swept her into his arms instead.

Her free hand flattened against his chest. “Gann—”

“I want flying lessons,” he declared.

Eyes scrunched, she looked at him as if he had grown another head. “You do?”

“Yes. Teach me how tofly. You know, on that amazing ship of yours…as soon as we”—he paused to enunciate the words— “get it out of impoundment.”

Joy lit up her face. Then her eyes narrowed again. “You already know how to fly.”

He framed her face in his hands. “Ah, Sunshine, but not high enough.” Hesitantly at first, her arms slid around his waist. “No, not high enough,” he murmured and brushed his lips over hers.

They didn’t see the kettacat wriggling free of the duffel bag until it was too late. Before Gann could stop it, the creature bolted under and between legs, darting away until it became lost in the crowd.

“Cat!” Lara yelled. Together they ran after her runaway pet.

The unmistakable meowof a kettacat caught Ian’s attention. Gann looked almost comical as he bent his muscular warrior’s body to the task of trying to retrieve the animal.

“Cat,” Lara crooned. “Here, cat.”

The next thing he knew, Tee was hunched over, making kissing noises.

Ian sighed and met Ché’s equally disbelieving gaze. Why had he ever convinced Gann to bring the animal, when it could have stayed in the car, cooking nicely as the interior hit one-hundred and twenty degrees in the sun?

Gann made another swipe at the kettacat and missed. It brushed against Ian’s leg then padded overto Klark. The crouching man and the animal considered each other. Then the kettacat squatted, its tail stiff and upright, and a puddle of bright yellow urine trickled over Klark’s boot.

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