Page 99 of Stars At Dusk

‘Is that how it is?’

‘Yes, it is,’ she snapped. ‘No man tells me who or what I should do or care about. Which is why I was handling Ruben before you went all caveman on him.’

‘No man puts hands on you, Harlow, and I do nothing about it, not ever,’ Kage ground out.

They glared at each other for a few more moments before she looked away. No man had ever stood up for her, and she’d no idea how to react.

She felt Kage’s eyes drink her in, and when she whipped her head back to face him again, she found his anger faded somewhat. Hers, however, riding on the roller coaster of her churning emotions from earlier that evening, was not.

He raked his silver eyes over her, from the top of her head to her feet. ‘I see you’re still vexed.’

‘Beyond vexed,’ she whispered.

His lips twitched, and he ran his tongue under his bottom lip. ‘Too much emotion for you to be this vexed at me for a kiss that didn’t happen with a woman I don’t even have a second thought for. No matter what she told you, I haven’t come close to Silani in years.’

He rose to his feet and walked towards Harlow, looming over her. He slid a finger under her chin and gently tipped her face up to him.

‘What happened,kara? Something else has upset you.’ His voice had lost its hard note and was now tender and soft. His other hand stroked her face.

Harlow remembered Kage’s perceptiveness too late. He had a way of reading her that no man had ever done. Or cared enough to. The thought alone threw her, and she broke. She could handle his anger, but she couldn’t take his care.

She turned on her heels and fled the room.

She didn’t stop, walking swiftly across the bar and into the night. She tried to blink back tears, but they kept falling down her cheeks.

She burst through the reception at 517 and punched her floor number. When the lift arrived, she lurched into it.

She turned just as the doors closed. To see the silhouette of a tall, thickly muscled man watching her from across the street, hands crossed over his chest.

Kage

Damn it all!

Kage growled as he watched the woman who consumed his thoughts and owned his heart rush away from him. In tears, no less.

What the ever-lovin’ had got her so upset?

He let her go, knowing that chasing after her would push her too far. She needed time to calm down.

He contemplated reaching out to Selene so she could check on Harlow. But from what he remembered of Kainan and his partner’s itinerary, they were on Dunia and not on the rock. Harlow probably didn’t have anyone to confide in this evening, and he felt like a tool for being so hard on her. He’d had a rush of jealousy seeing her with another man, and taking that out on her had been wrong, inexcusable and he felt shit for it.

Kage stood on the street in the dark, contemplating his weariness and rage at Ruben’s asshole behaviour, chastising himself for not stepping carefully with Harlow this evening.

His mission to Rhesus had left him spent, but he’d been burning to see her. So he’d moved the sec the orbital shuttle from the spaceport had touched down on the rooftop terminal at 517. He’d jogged to the lifts and down to her suite like a man possessed.

Finding it empty, he’d felt the disappointment keenly. But it’d also been presumptuous of him to think she’d be waiting at home for him. She’d every right to move about the rock as she pleased.

So he’d asked Mirage to find her, and the AI had pointed him to The Osirian. Silani, Ruben, and a fokkton of bad timing had led to this moment.

Still, something felt amiss.

He pulled himself away from the sidewalk and ducked back into the bar, where he had a short, sharp and protracted chat with Silani in the presence of Mojo for backup and as a third-party witness.

Once done, he stalked to the lifts at 498. Inside, he initiated a node link to Mirage.

‘Tis me. Kage. Did anything unusual happen to Harlow today? I found her with the Rinnax clone, but she seemed visibly shaken even before he touched her. Did the clown do anything else to her earlier?

Mirage’s reply was instant.Not that I’m aware. Harlow and Ruben were barely together for ten minutes before you arrived at The Osirian.

---