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The first Horvath guard cleared his throat.
“Excusse me, Mistresss,” he hissed. “But will you be wanting the Obedienssse Ssskin back?”
Karn held his breath. If he could get this fucking metal suit off, he could press the communications device embedded in the nail of his ring finger and call for help! It would mean the difference between life and death. How much did the damn Obedience Skin cost anyway? He hoped it was extremely expensive so that Mistress Mirabella would ask for it back.
But Lilli’s mother only shook her head.
“Keep it,” she said shortly. “Leave it on him and let him starve, for all I care.”
“Starve?” Lilli’s head jerked up. “Mother—”
“Silence!” Mistress Mirabella hissed. “If you dare say one word in defense of that male I’ll disinherit you! I ought to do so right now but I still need you to get me a decent heir, since I’m too old to carry another child myself. Now get in the ship! We’re going home.”
Karn watched as Lilli hung her head and followed her mother into the sleek silver hover-car ship where he and his little Mistress had made love only a few hours before. How had things changed so drastically so quickly? And how had he gotten her pregnant without bonding her to him?
Karn had no answers. He only knew that the woman he loved was about to fly away from him and he would never see her again.
At the last moment, Lilli turned her head and he managed to catch her eye. He tried to convey how he felt with a look, but she shook her head and turned away.
The door of the silver ship closed behind her and she was gone.
Forty-Three
“Go up to your room and think about what you’ve done,” her mother said coldly the moment they arrived back at her mansion. “I’ve got to make some vid calls and clean up this mess you made. I hate to think of the amount of money I’ll have to put out to shut up Mistress Martinet—not to mention Priss Tempertant! You’re going to cost me a ridiculous sum, Lilliana—far more than you’re worth, that’s for certain!”
“I never meant to shame you, Mother,” Lilli said in a small voice.
“You’ve shamed yourself,” Lady Mirabella spat back. “Having you has been the biggest disappointment of my life! But you’ll make it up—I can promise you that. Tomorrow morning we’re going back to Opulex to get that thing inside you removed. And then you’ll be implanted properly with a daughter—a new heir for me—made exactly to my specifications.”
“What?” Lilli’s hand went protectively to her lower belly. “You’re going to make me get rid of Karn’s baby?”
“It’s a male!” her mother snapped. “Of course we’re getting rid of it! A Mistress of Yonnie Six cannot have a male child! The shame of it would ruin our family name forever!”
“But—” Lilli began.
“Go to your room!” her mother snarled. “Now, Lilliana—I mean it! I don’t want to see your face again until I come to get you tomorrow morning.”
Tears running down her face, Lilli turned and fled up the grand staircase.
She didn’t stop until she was in her own room. She flung herself on the bed and pressed her face to a pillow, sobbing so wretchedly it felt like the pain inside her might tear her apart.
But the pillow she had picked was Karn’s. When she breathed in, the big Kindred’s spicy scent invaded her senses, which caused a fresh round of sobbing.
“Oh Karn,” she whispered brokenly. “How could you lie to me like that? How could you put me in this awful position?”
She turned her head away from his pillow, to get away from his scent, but everywhere in her room she seemed to see him. Sitting or laying on the bed beside her, laughing his deep, rumbling laugh when they joked around, having an indoor picnic, just the two of them, on the carpet, talking long into the night…
“I still love him,” Lilli whispered to herself despairingly. “I can’t help it. Even after he deceived me, I still love him. And now he’s gone to the mines. He…he’s going to…to die.”
The words came out in a choked sob and she pressed her face to the pillow once more and breathed in his scent. This was all she had left of the big Kindred, and soon it would fade too…
Just as the thought came to her, she felt a strange sensation in her lower belly. It was so odd and unexpected that Lilli stopped crying and rolled onto her back. There…there it was again! A fluttering in her lower belly—almost like a flutterbye was waving its wings inside her.
Lilli pulled down her skirt and put one trembling hand to her belly. She felt the fluttering again and something moved under her fingers. It was a motion so slight she wouldn’t have felt it if she hadn’t been so attuned to it. But it was most definitely there.
