The Glass Admiral Read online

  Her hand paused again and Kos fought the undignified, self-protective urge to yank his own hand back. What the hell is wrong with you?

  “I’m sorry.” She said and he struggled to breathe through the pain of knowing he’d been right. “I keep forgetting that you’re not—” Not acceptable. Not a legitimate choice for a mate. “a dragon.” That brought him up short.

  “What?” He forced himself to ask. Was impressed at how normal the question came out despite the turmoil twisting through him.

  “I keep forgetting that you’re not a dragon and that I can’t just claim you—that you don’t know what I—that I need to explain about—”

  Dragon. His brain seized on the word. “You’re a dragon?” He didn’t bother to wonder how that was possible, couldn’t bother to wonder how it was possible that a cavalry officer from a dirt-side military unit belonged to the Order of the Dragon.

  “Yes.” She answered quietly and he could feel her studying him. Doubtlessly wondering what the hell was wrong with him. “Sort of.” She amended.

  Kosuri sucked in a breath. “And you’re claiming me?”

  “If you’re willing.” She said after a long moment during which Kosuri’s universe had no bottom.

  “As mate?” He forced himself to ask despite the potential for disaster.

  Again the answer came quietly. “If you’re willing.”

  Hope fought with disbelief and decades of hurt and rejection. He forced his eyes open, forced himself to meet her quiet gaze. Tried to remember that she’d seen him at his worst and hadn’t run. “Me?” He indicated his body with his free hand. “This?”

  “If you’re willing.” She said again in the same quiet voice. “If your physiology permits.” She added with a frown.

  “If my physiology—” He laughed in disbelief. “I know there’s been some difficulty but—”

  “I don’t want to press you.” She explained.

  His throat spasmed in response to that. “I want you to press me.” He rasped around the hard knot of emotion. “Press me. Claim me.”

  “Consider yourself claimed then Kosuri.” Afraid to cause him injury, further injury, Saverna resisted the impulse to punctuate the claim with a kiss on the lips; instead lifting his hand and pressing a kiss to his palm.

  Eyes darkening in reaction, Kos slid his palm along her cheek in a caressing then down to the back of her neck where he applied the slightest of pressures to draw her forward. “I don’t want to hurt you.” She protested even as she followed the dictates of his hand and after carefully bracing her hands on either side of his torso lowered herself slowly towards him for a kiss.

  “I’m drugged Saverna.” His lips tugged gently at hers. “You can’t hurt me.”

  The sound of the exam room doors swishing open had her pulling back reluctantly. “Time to go home.” She wiggled her eyebrows at him suggestively as she sat up in an attempt to mitigate the disappointment in his gaze.

  “Meg.” Annaleis said from somewhere behind her and the darkness in her tone sent a trickle of trepidation along Saverna’s spine. Sliding off the bed and turning to face Annaleis in one smooth motion she was taken aback to find that the doctor stood just inside the door of the room and wasn’t making any motion to come farther in the room.

  “They won’t let me come any further until…” Annaleis trailed off miserably.

  The trickle became a full on river of ice. “They?”

  “We’ve received orders… from fleet.” Annaleis gripped the tablet she held in front of her until her knuckles went white. “There’s going to be an investigation—a hearing. A team has been dispatched.”

  Saverna felt her stomach begin to churn. “An investigation into what?”

  Annaleis shot her a sympathetic look. “Into what happened with the Admiral tonight.”

  “We knew it was going to happen.” Kosuri said quietly from behind her but Saverna resisted the impulse to turn and look. Instead she kept her focus on Annaleis. “Until?” She prodded her friend afraid that she already knew the answer.

  Annaleis looked miserable. “Until he’s restrained.”

  “He’s received permission to return to quarters.” She reminded Annaleis, maintaining her focus even as she monitored Kosuri’s sudden and absolute stillness.

  “Revoked.”

  “On whose authority?”

  “Space Lord Ashbury’s” Annaleis grimaced knowing that she had just dashed her friend’s hopes of putting together some kind of work around.

  Saverna reached for the next best option. “Surely the restraints aren’t necessary?”

  “Orders.” Came the answer. “There’s also a guard stationed outside the door.”

  “Annaleis,” Sav began to argue. “This is beyond ridicu—”

  “Lieutenant.” Kosuri’s voice came strong and quiet form behind her. “It’s fine.”

  “Admiral—”

  “It’s fine LT.” He repeated. “It’s standard procedure. We knew this was going to happen.” He reminded her.

  I didn’t. She thought churlishly. Something occurred to her. “Can I stay with him?”

  “There was nothing in the orders about that.”

  “Okay.” That’s something. Relieved Saverna began to mentally regroup. “Then here’s what we’re going to do.”

  11:46, SUNDAY, SICKBAY, THE ASARO

  Best laid plans. Saverna watched Kosuri sleep in the darkened room and fought the urge to cry.

  At first her plan to keep the restraints as loose as possible and the Admiral in a sitting position coupled with his pain medication had worked and Kosuri had been relatively relaxed and comfortable if slightly more talkative than normal. By the second hour however, he’d talked less as the anxiety connected to not being able to move coursed through him like a slow moving old earth steam train gaining momentum and force as time went by. By hour three he’d stopped talking entirely; had turned his head towards the wall and eyes open, vanished into it.

  A glance at the chronometer revealed that had neither moved nor responded to anything in the last four hours. Where have you gone Kos? The phantom memory of his lips against hers as they’d kissed only hours before reminded her that this silent, locked down man in front of her was her mate and pulled her from her chair to the side of his bed. After pausing briefly to remove her boots, she climbed onto the bed and arranged herself around him moving medical lines as she went. He’ll come out when he feels safe. She told herself and tucking her forehead against the top of his shoulder closed her eyes and let sleep take her.

  It felt like she’d only been asleep a bare few seconds when she felt a hand encircle her arm. Opening her eyes she turned toward the body attached to that hand and met the disapproving gaze of her friend. “When I assigned you to Kosuri,” Vadaész Isabella Arpád straightened and dropped her hand. “I did not imagine that it would be you who would destroy him.” As Saverna watched Isa’s fists clenched and unclenched at her sides. “Who the hell are you working for Lieutenant Saverna?”

  *************************************************************

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  ABOUT THE AUTHOR

  Kit subsists on the hope that if she lives and behaves in the appropriate manner someone somewhere will permit her to be a pirate. In the meantime, she enjoys drinking copious amounts of tea and writing stories about unconventional heroes with the assistance of her three feline 'crew members'.

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  Keep going for an announcement about the second book in the Glass Admiral Series and a sneak peak into Kit’s upcoming project Earl Gray With the High Horse Bastard.

  Excerpt:

  “I can’t help but feel that you’re about to ask for something Sinclair.” Hastings nodded at the overburdened coffee table as he took a seat on my pirate sofa.

  I fought the urge to deny it. “Actually, I would like to make a proposal.” I took a seat across from him.

  “An indecent one by the look of things.” He eyed the plates of scones, sandwiches and assorted pastries that I had arranged on the table. “You must have been baking all night.”

  I leaned forward and hefted the tea pot. “Tea?” I had ordered everything online from a local tea shop but I wasn’t about to tell him that.

  “Sure.” He remained where he was forcing me to pour the tea into his cup where it rested on the table. That monumental exercise in balancing a full tea pot over, I filled my own cup. Once I had doctored my tea with milk, I nabbed a scone and several sandwiches for myself and then proffered the tongs.

  Hastings eyed me from his position leaning back against the sofa. “What do you want Sinclair?”

  “Is that the expression you use on writers who have the nerve to ask for an extension?” I set the tongs down.

  “Are you asking for an extension?”

  “Nope.” I took up a tiny cucumber sandwich took a bite. I eyed him as I chewed. I must be nuts to think this could work. “I am asking for a collaboration.”

  He looked incredulous. “For gods sake Sinclair, you have fourteen days to finish this project. Exactly who do you think I can get on such short notice? I’m an editor not a wizard.”

  I popped the remainder of the sandwich into my mouth and smiled. “You.”

  He blinked. “Me?”

  “Yes.” Enjoying his reaction, I took a moment to contemplate the choices on my plate. Is it scone time or do I continue with the sandwiches? Eventually I selected a salmon sandwich. “Problem?”

  “Why?” There was a hard edge to the question that I didn’t understand and a tension in his posture that hadn’t been there earlier.

  “Because you were right.”

  “Does it hurt?” He quirked an eyebrow at me.

  “Hurt?” I echoed, confused.

  “Admitting I’m right.” He clarified finally leaning forward to snag his cup of tea.

  “Smug bastard.”

  “So I’ve been told.” He regarded me over the brim of his cup. “What brought this on?”

  “Last night, after you left I did some research.” I felt my stomach begin to squirm uncomfortably as I prepared to venture into potentially hazardous territory. “About what you said.”

  He took a sip of tea. “I leave and you immediately start to research?”

  “Well—no.” I scowled at him. “First I cleaned the bathroom.”

  “First you cleaned the bathroom and then you hit the computer?” He tilted his head back.

  “I was pissed.” I muttered into my tea.

  “At me?” Was that amusement? I glanced up at him. It was.

  “Yes at you.” I nabbed my scone and began to break it into small pieces. The destruction satisfying both my residual irritation and my building squeamishness.

  “Are you shredding that scone in my place Sinclair?”

  “Yes.” I admitted.

  “You’re still pissed at me.”

  “Yes.” I answered his non-question.

  “Why?” His question hung between us for a long moment as I tried to find the words to answer.

  “Because it would have been simpler.” I dropped the remaining piece of scone on my plate with a sigh. “And I only have fourteen days. And—” I waved at hand in the general direction of the powers-that-be. “But,” I amended my conjunction. “You were—are right about the existing material being crap.” I let that settle between us as I took a deep breath. “And I need help.” I hated the way that sounded so I opened my mouth to add to that, to modify it somehow.

  “Why me?” He cut me off with a quiet aggression that had me trying to read his expression.

  “As you said, there’s no time to get anyone else,” I stammered still trying to read him while my stomach churned. “And as you demonstrated last night you already have opinions about—and you’re available…”

  “And?”

  “And?”

  He glanced down at his tea briefly before leveling his gaze back at me. “And I have a disability—Cerebral Palsy. Like the hero in the book.” His tone was as level as his gaze. “If we are going to collaborate Sinclair you’re going to have to overcome your discomfort with that and learn to look directly at it. Fourteen days does not allow for a lot of time for dancing around your feelings.”

  I felt as though someone had swept the proverbial rug out form under me. My feelings? “Okay.” I said slowly, feeling my way along. “So is that a yes? You’ll collaborate?”

  He studied me for a long moment. “That’s a conditional yes.” He affirmed. “So long as you don’t get squeamish on me, I will collaborate.”

  Despite the fact that it was clearly a warning, I felt a surge of relief one that evaporated as quickly as it had come at his next words.

  “Have you ever fucked a man with a disability Sinclair?”

  Available February 24th 2018 on Amazon