Chapter One
Year 5, Saurellian Calendar
Daaron crept up to the edge of the hillside on his belly, raising the scope of his rifle
to his eyes, finger light on the trigger. The small figure of a woman came into focus and
his breath hissed inward. He recognized her.
Tessa Marasdottir.
Fuck.
Of all the people in the damn Empire to find the garnet deposits, why the hell her?
Tessa’s tiny form hunched over an ore processor, and from the excited tension she
radiated he knew she’d struck pay dirt. She’d discovered cerulean star garnets, which
just happened to be the new Emperor’s favorite gemstone. Before today, they could
only be found on one planet in the entire Empire.
The damn things would be worth a fortune, a dream come true for Tessa. Now
Daaron’s job was to kill that dream. By all rights he should kill Tessa too. He sighed
heavily and raised one hand to signal his men to hold their fire. He just couldn’t bring
himself to do it, not yet.
Tessa dropped something, falling to her knees and reaching under the processing
platform to find it. The position pulled her sturdy work pants tight against her butt and
Daaron’s breath caught on a surge of lust. He’d wanted to get his hands on that ass for
years, ever since the first time he’d seen her at university. She had a tight, compact little
body just soft and round enough to give a man all kinds of ideas—mostly about
plowing her until she screamed for mercy. His cock stirred, prodding the ground
painfully, which also brought back memories. No woman had turned him down before
or since, yet he’d spent two years lusting after Tessa without so much as a kiss, let alone
the long hard screw he needed.
4
Garnets or Bust
Nope, she’d protected her virtue against every type of assault, from his first gentle
attempts to flirt to his final humiliating offers of money.
Daaron lifted his pelvis, adjusting himself awkwardly, but the brief touch of his
hand brushing his stubborn prick just made things worse. Trying to ignore his arousal,
he studied her carefully through the scope. Long, reddish braids still swung down her
back, reaching all the way to her knees. He hated those braids. A proud symbol of her
purity and unwed state, they were the crowning glory for any girl raised in the Warrens
of Tyre. Why a people would refuse to allow their women to have sex outside marriage
was beyond him, but that stubborn, lower-class morality had kept her out of his bed.
He would have given her anything, yet she rejected him.
As he watched, Tessa stood and turned toward him, reaching both hands down to
the small of her back, stretching. High, pointed breasts poked forward. Taunting him.
He’d never seen them naked, but he’d watched her working out at the pool more than
once. Her bathing suit, while modest, still left little to the imagination. He wanted to
lick those nipples, suck on them while he thrust his fingers right into her cunt. Virgin
territory, so tight it would hurt. Daaron reached down again, unable to resist gripping
his cock as she turned away from him. His hips thrust down involuntarily, need
hardening his thighs.
How could he kill Tessa? She’d fought so hard to make her way in the world, rising
above her birth to escape the Warrens and build a life for herself. And what a waste of a
beautiful woman that would be… Daaron forced himself to pull his hand away from his
crotch as a solution came to him.
Maybe he wouldn’t have to kill her after all.
* * * * *
Tessa sat next to her fire in the cool evening air, studying an ancient colonial survey
on her tablet. The brightly lit screen scrolled by quickly, dancing across the caparison
data gleaned from fifteen core samples she’d taken earlier in the day. The last had been
5
Joanna Wylde
the best—who could have dreamed that she’d find a cerulean star garnet as big as her
eye in a frigging core sample? Stuff like that never happened in the real world,
Year 5, Saurellian Calendar
Daaron crept up to the edge of the hillside on his belly, raising the scope of his rifle
to his eyes, finger light on the trigger. The small figure of a woman came into focus and
his breath hissed inward. He recognized her.
Tessa Marasdottir.
Fuck.
Of all the people in the damn Empire to find the garnet deposits, why the hell her?
Tessa’s tiny form hunched over an ore processor, and from the excited tension she
radiated he knew she’d struck pay dirt. She’d discovered cerulean star garnets, which
just happened to be the new Emperor’s favorite gemstone. Before today, they could
only be found on one planet in the entire Empire.
The damn things would be worth a fortune, a dream come true for Tessa. Now
Daaron’s job was to kill that dream. By all rights he should kill Tessa too. He sighed
heavily and raised one hand to signal his men to hold their fire. He just couldn’t bring
himself to do it, not yet.
Tessa dropped something, falling to her knees and reaching under the processing
platform to find it. The position pulled her sturdy work pants tight against her butt and
Daaron’s breath caught on a surge of lust. He’d wanted to get his hands on that ass for
years, ever since the first time he’d seen her at university. She had a tight, compact little
body just soft and round enough to give a man all kinds of ideas—mostly about
plowing her until she screamed for mercy. His cock stirred, prodding the ground
painfully, which also brought back memories. No woman had turned him down before
or since, yet he’d spent two years lusting after Tessa without so much as a kiss, let alone
the long hard screw he needed.
4
Garnets or Bust
Nope, she’d protected her virtue against every type of assault, from his first gentle
attempts to flirt to his final humiliating offers of money.
Daaron lifted his pelvis, adjusting himself awkwardly, but the brief touch of his
hand brushing his stubborn prick just made things worse. Trying to ignore his arousal,
he studied her carefully through the scope. Long, reddish braids still swung down her
back, reaching all the way to her knees. He hated those braids. A proud symbol of her
purity and unwed state, they were the crowning glory for any girl raised in the Warrens
of Tyre. Why a people would refuse to allow their women to have sex outside marriage
was beyond him, but that stubborn, lower-class morality had kept her out of his bed.
He would have given her anything, yet she rejected him.
As he watched, Tessa stood and turned toward him, reaching both hands down to
the small of her back, stretching. High, pointed breasts poked forward. Taunting him.
He’d never seen them naked, but he’d watched her working out at the pool more than
once. Her bathing suit, while modest, still left little to the imagination. He wanted to
lick those nipples, suck on them while he thrust his fingers right into her cunt. Virgin
territory, so tight it would hurt. Daaron reached down again, unable to resist gripping
his cock as she turned away from him. His hips thrust down involuntarily, need
hardening his thighs.
How could he kill Tessa? She’d fought so hard to make her way in the world, rising
above her birth to escape the Warrens and build a life for herself. And what a waste of a
beautiful woman that would be… Daaron forced himself to pull his hand away from his
crotch as a solution came to him.
Maybe he wouldn’t have to kill her after all.
* * * * *
Tessa sat next to her fire in the cool evening air, studying an ancient colonial survey
on her tablet. The brightly lit screen scrolled by quickly, dancing across the caparison
data gleaned from fifteen core samples she’d taken earlier in the day. The last had been
5
Joanna Wylde
the best—who could have dreamed that she’d find a cerulean star garnet as big as her
eye in a frigging core sample? Stuff like that never happened in the real world,
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