Stark Surrender (36 page)

“No, really.” She widened her eyes at him, “I love you more than coffee.”

He did laugh now. “Somehow, I doubt that.”

“I’ll prove it. I’ll go without coffee for a—a week. Even decaf.”

“I won’t allow you to—I have no intention of spending a week on the Orion with a grumpy fiancé.”

He kissed her again and reached into the inner pocket of his jacket for a small leather box. “And here is a little something for you, kitten.”

She gasped when he opened it, revealing the stunning ring a jeweler had likely stayed up all night to finish creating for her, a huge chocolate diamond framed with white diamonds and set off with two smaller golden topaz. He lifted her left hand and slipped the ring on her finger. It fit snugly, perfectly.

She gazed at it, her lips parted. “It’s beautiful,” she breathed. “Thank you.”

He smiled to himself. “You’re welcome. The collar isn’t quite ready yet.”

This made her look up. “Logan, I haven’t said I’d wear—“

He kissed her, thoroughly. “You will. Now come along, I want to celebrate with a nice lunch.”

He led her out of the building into the dark, wet day. Rak still stood under the rain bubble, admiring the sign. Logan handed her into the hovie and followed her in.

“Do you love me more than coffee?” she asked as they rose above the building, headed for the scraper top restaurant.

Logan settled his arm around her shoulders. “Yes.”

“More than moonbrandy?” she asked, curling into his side.

He pursed his lips thoughtfully. “Hmm. Now that I’ll have to think about.”

She tipped her head against his shoulder, laughing. He smiled down at her, holding his world in his arms.

* * *

Logan Stark married Kiri te Nawa in the galactic society wedding of the year. The ceremony and the attendant parties took place on the vast lawn of the couple’s spacious new home on Frontiera, on a hilltop outside the city.

The groom, dressed in a coffee brown silk suit, stood up with his two brothers under a magnificent arbor decorated with late summer roses and sheaves of grain against the backdrop of blue Frontieran skies and the golden hills of early autumn. Silk ribbons waved gently in the warm breeze, and music played under the huge open tent of raw lii silk.

Among the guests were such exalted beings as Prince Azuran of Aquarius, Lord and Lady Braveling, a president or two, several galactic ambassadors, the head of the IGSF and the IBI, the captains of LodeStar cruise ships and the crew commanders of the Orion, including Captain and Mrs. Craig, Prince and Princess Dragolin, Commander and Mrs. Navos, and Commander and Mrs. Tryon Jag.

Galactic singing star Chaz Jaguari sat with them, until he went up to sing a love song for the happy couple.

There were also many LodeStar employees and their spouses. Bronc Berenson was there by himself, looking stoic and uncomfortable in a suit.

The guests sat rose as the bridal march played, and the bride walked down the aisle on her brother’s arm. He wore a suit, she wore a lovely gown designed by her sister-in-law. Of pale gold topaz, it cupped her breasts in cleverly folded silk, then drifted below in waves of transparent tulle, so that she seemed to float down the aisle. And it
almost
hid the subtle swell of her pregnancy bump.

Her face, enhanced with subtle cosmetics, glowed with happiness under a simple crown of blush gold roses. Around her slender throat she wore a stunning collar of chocolate diamonds and topaz that matched her engagement ring.

Logan Stark smiled when he saw her, in a way that shredded the doubts in the minds of anyone present that this might be one of those alliances contracted by the powerful for gain of some sort.

No, this was clearly a love match.

The females in the audience sighed as one. It was so romantic, and it just proved, didn’t it, that love was the most powerful force in the universe, felling even the mighty.

The End

Epilogue: 

Frontiera, the Stark Estate

A few years later …

“Logan!” Kiri called, peering into yet another room of their home and finding no one. “Logan, where are you?”

“Here,” called her husband, his voice drifting through the warm, late summer air.

Kiri hurried to the open doors of their sitting room, and crossed the upper level of the big wooden deck that looked out over their back lawns and gardens.

Then she stopped. She began to laugh quietly to herself.

Logan Stark, quazillionaire business magnate, was on his hands and knees in the grass, with two little girls riding him like a catamount pony, while a baby boy sat watching them, gurgling happily.

“Go, Papa, go,” the larger girl, with long dark curls shouted. “Gallop.”

“Gawop,” the smaller girl chorused, patting her father’s shoulders and kicking her short legs. Her hair was lighter brown, and curled in a cloud around her head.

“Dessa, Ava, I can’t gallop, I’ll buck you off,” their father said. “And then I’d have to eat you up. I’m very hungry.” He crawled closer to the blanket where his son sat, waving his chubby arms in excitement. “Oh, look, what have we here? A tasty little boy.”

He leaned his head close and made loud chomping noises on the crown of his son’s dark, downy head, while the girls tumbled from his back.

“No, no, Papa! Don’t eat Kai-Kai.”

Logan swept them close in one arm, and picked up their little brother—whose name was Kaiden, but whom everyone, including his doting uncles, called Kai-Kai—in the other arm.

“I’ll eat you all,” he said.

They shrieked happily and broke into giggles, squirming in his hold.

Kiri walked down the steps to the lawn, laughing at the infectious sound of her children’s laughter.

“Look,” Logan said, grinning wickedly at her over their heads. “It’s Mama. Maybe she’ll save you. Unless I eat her up too.”

The glint in his eye said this was a distinct possibility, later when they were alone.

Kiri dropped to her knees before them in the grass, and laughed harder as the girls threw themselves into her arms, little arms around her neck.

“We’ll save you, Mama.”

“Oh, thank you,” she said, holding them close and smiling at her husband and son.

“They won’t be around to save you later,” he murmured, leaning in for a kiss.

“Ha,” she said, unconcerned. “I’m not worried. I can blackmail you with holovids, if I need to. Logan Stark, terror of galactic markets, pretending to be a catamount pony.”

He chuckled and lifted Kaiden to meet his wide, golden brown gaze. “What d’you think, son? Are we worried?”

His son smiled toothlessly, drooling, and Logan cradled him close. “That’s what I thought. Let ‘em see us. Who gives a darn what anyone else thinks, as long as we’re happy.”

He looked at Kiri, his gaze alight with love. “And we are happy, aren’t we, kitten?”

“Yes,” she agreed, lost in his silver gaze. “We are. We’re the happiest beings in the galaxy.”

Her husband kissed her, surrounded by the living proof of their words.

* * *

I so hope you enjoyed the culmination of Logan and Kiri’s story! Please consider leaving a review, to help other readers find the book.

Thanks,

Cathryn

For more great Sci Fi Romance,

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… and turn the page, galactic explorers, for more red hot space opera!

Coming in 2015

LodeStar 5 ‘Her Cyborg Husband’

Ilya Mondas had everything—life with a band of space gypsies wandering the wild plains of Frontiera, the freedom to use her tech savvy to wreak mayhem on pirates and slavers, and her big, sexy, soft-spoken husband Var, who adored her.

Then she lost it all.

Now to survive she must take over The Pleasure Palace, a ragtag space-station casino, the home of hookers, gamblers and rogues. And monsters … in the form of human-cyborg gladiators, created for the illegal fight ring hidden deep in the center of her new home.

Where the biggest, baddest cyborg of all looks eerily like her dead husband ...

LodeStar 6 ‘His Galactic Guardian’

Kai te Nawa survived years of slavery. Now he’s free to do and be whatever he wants on the wild new planet of Frontiera. But the one man he dreams of, security specialist Bronc Berenson, wants his help finding his shanghaied brother.

Which means going back to the nightmare world Kai escaped once already.

Kai’s not sure he has the courage. Can he find it in Bronc’s powerful arms? Or does Bronc just want to use him, like nearly everyone else in Kai’s life …

For a list of Cathryn’s other Sci Fi Romances,

read on  …

Red Hot Sci Fi Romance

    The Orion Series

Tyger, Tyger, Burning Bryght
http://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/tyger-tyger-burning-bright-cathryn-cade/1014542747?ean=9781605040721

Her Commander
http://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/her-commander-cathyrn-cade/1018641529?ean=9781605046266

Prince of Dragons
http://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/prince-of-dragons-cathryn-cade/1100229794?ean=9781609281540

Deep Indigo
http://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/deep-indigo-cathryn-cade/1029722326?ean=9781609283964

Frontiera Series

Heart of Stone FREE
http://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/heart-of-stone-cathryn-cade/1114586976?ean=2940044304079

Heart of Steel
http://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/heart-of-steel-cathryn-cade/1120942921?ean=2940150257474

The LodeStar Series

Stark Pleasure; the Space Magnate’s Mistress
http://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/stark-pleasure-bn-cathryn-cade/1116146425?ean=2940148584575

Creed of Pleasure; the Space Miner’s Concubine
http://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/creed-of-pleasure-the-space-miners-concubine-cathryn-cade/1117344018?ean=2940149029365

Captive of Pleasure; the Space Pirate’s Woman
http://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/captive-of-pleasure-the-space-pirates-woman-cathryn-cade/1119172939?ean=2940149459124

Dark Runner
http://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/dark-runner-cathryn-cade/1120374670?ean=2940150544734

Contemporary Hawaiian Paranormal

Walking in Fire
http://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/walking-in-fire-cathryn-cade/1108349173

Rolling in the Deep
http://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/rolling-in-the-deep-cathryn-cade/1110608714?ean=9781619212466

Blooming in the Wild
http://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/blooming-in-the-wild-cathryn-cade/1112567999?ean=9781619214958

Burning up the Rain
http://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/burning-up-the-rain-cathryn-cade/1114274150?ean=9781619216020

Contemporary Erotic Romance

She’s All In
http://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/shes-all-in-cathryn-cade/1115662731?ean=9781619217584

She’s All Tied Up
http://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/shes-all-tied-up-cathryn-cade/1117054052?ean=9781619220034

She’s All That
http://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/shes-all-that-cathryn-cade/1118069796?ean=9781619220164

She’s Worth It All
http://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/shes-worth-it-all-cathryn-cade/1120886700?ean=2940150254022

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Cathryn Cade lives and writes in the beautiful lake country of North Idaho. When she’s not tossing hot alpha heroes after feisty heroines, she loves to quilt with colors as wild as her characters, read, and chat on Facebook.

She and her own alpha male enjoy bicycling, hiking, gardening, trying new brew pubs and spending time

on their boat.

Copper the golden retriever keeps her company as she writes. He tried critiquing for her, but he was too kind, so she gave him a dog treat and fired him.