Kraving Dravka by Zoey Draven

Chapter Twelve

Valerie watched the property agent slide into a driverless car at the end of Eve Tesler’s walkway.

She was leaning against the front door, shaded by the overhanging porch, a Nu device clutched in her hands with the contract for the closing. There was a buyer who had already made her an offer for the townhouse.

The number shone up at her, more credits than she’d ever seen in her lifetime at once.

1.2 million.

It had taken all of a day and a half to have an offer drawn up. Property was scarce on the colonies. A detached townhouse in the Garden District of Everton was even more rare. The tree-lined streets of the quiet, exclusive neighborhood had made it an easy sell.

And all Valerie had to do was sign the documents on her Nu device, send them to the property agent, and the credits would be threaded into a private account she’d set up yesterday. An account that Madame Allegria would never know about, one Valerie had made for Dravka, Tavak, and Ravu, which they’d be able to access once they left Everton.

Valerie knew she could probably get more for the townhouse, which was what the property agent had told her a few moments before. This was only the beginning, she’d said with a small smile on her ruby-red lips.

But Valerie didn’t have the time to wait for more offers. 1.2 million credits were enough for now. She would only add to that number once the buyer from Genesis sent her the credits for the collections and furniture within the townhouse.

It will be enough, Valerie thought, swiping her signature on the numerous documents flooded across her Nu device. The property agent wasn’t even down the street by the time she was finished.

Madame Allegria was on her way back to Everton at that very moment. As if in reminder, her left shoulder ached a little. She pressed her fingertips to the back of it, skimming them across the bone where her tracker had been implanted years before.

Valerie sighed, knowing she needed to hurry.

It was the late afternoon, two days after Dravka had kissed her with the taste of brandy on his tongue. And like a coward, she’d avoided him since. Every spare moment she had, she was at the townhouse, making final preparations.

And now that she’d agreed to its sale, she felt like a weight had been lifted off her shoulders. She felt like she could breathe.

Turning back inside the townhouse, she saw the carefully packed boxes were lined up in the sitting room, boxes that would soon be shipped off to Genesis. The top floors were already bare. She’d already hired a transport to take the boxes away. She wouldn’t need to return.

Valerie reached out her palm to run across the wall. For a time, it was nice to be free of the brothel. To be within a house that had obviously held special memories. Love. Valerie could almost feel it.

But now, she’d picked the home clean. She’d sold it off quickly. She didn’t even feel guilty about it.

With one last look, she left and ordered a driverless car to return her to the brothel. Just as she slid inside, she received a call from the property agent, who told her the buyer would wire the credits that night and would give her time to get the boxes shipped off before taking full possession.

When the car slid up to the front of the brothel, which had been her home for over five years, she felt…hope. For the first time in a long time.

Things were working out…almost flawlessly. A part of her couldn’t help but wonder when they would start to go wrong again.

Once inside, she snuck down to her bedroom with a quick glance at the stairs. It shamed her that she was hiding from Dravka but she didn’t know what else to do. That kiss changed things between them.

Once down in her bedroom, she changed out of her dirtied, loose clothes just in case Madame Allegria came early. The smell of smoke still permeated the basement level. It had seemed to thread between the fibers of her clothes. It was in her sheets, in the walls.

But it made Valerie smile. She wasn’t even afraid of what her aunt would do when she found the burned ropes and whips lying in a useless heap next door. Because she couldn’t do anything. Not anymore.

She was just smoothing back her hair, wrapping it up into a tight knot on the top of her head, when a knock came at the door of her bedroom. Just one…and then it was opening.

Valerie froze. It was Dravka.

He was dressed in a black, soft shirt and black pants. His feet were bare. And his eyes were on her, intense and observing her carefully as he stepped into the room.

Slowly, her hands lowered from her hair but since she hadn’t finished tying it up into a knot, it fell down her back, a few tendrils drifting across her cheeks.

“Dravka,” she said quietly, her eyes flickering to the open door behind him. “What are doing down here?”

Twice now, he’d come down to her private room. Twice in a week when she didn’t think he’d come down here that many times in the past two years.

He must’ve thought her darted gaze behind him meant she was thinking of bolting…because he shoved the door closed, trapping the both of them in that small space.

Dravka leaned back against the door for good measure. He had to hunch a little because the ceiling was lower closest to the frame…and Valerie didn’t think the small room had been constructed with a bulky, seven-foot-tall Keriv’i male in mind.

“You’ve been avoiding me,” he remarked.

Valerie felt the shamed flush that crept over her cheeks. Swallowing, she tucked a tendril of hair behind her ear, a ridiculous excuse already on her tongue.

“I’ve been busy at the townhouse,” she informed him. “I—I sold it today. 1.2 million credits that will be in the account I set up. And I have more coming in from the collections that Eve and her father—”

“Valerie,” Dravka interrupted, pushing off the door and approaching her.

Her swallow was audible and she barely stopped herself from taking a step back. She looked up at him, but not without remembering his tongue stroking against hers…and those lips on hers…and those hands clutching possessively around her ass…and that hardened thickness between his legs pressing—

Stop! she mentally screamed. This was Dravka. Her friend, who had never kissed her until a couple nights ago. Hell, he’d barely even touched her. He’d just been drunk and sad and maybe a little angry.

With sudden realization, she thought that the kiss really hadn’t meant anything.

“I don’t give a damn about the credits right now,” Dravka rasped, approaching her until the backs of her knees hit the edge of her bed. He stopped within arm’s reach of her, still blocking the view of the door with his broad shoulders. “I want to talk to you.”

Her heart gave another furious little pump before she tried to settle it down again.

“About what?” she asked quietly.

“About why you’ve been avoiding me,” he said, his head dipping slightly, his voice dropping deeper.

A shiver raced up her spine, one she couldn’t hide.

Valerie thought it was obvious.

Then again, as she looked up at him, she thought it was possible he didn’t remember. She knew some humans, if they drank too much alcohol, could have lapses in memory. Valerie had never had a drop of alcohol in her life but maybe Keriv’i males reacted the same.

Somehow, the thought that he didn’t remember the kiss only depressed her more.

“Do you…” she started, licking her lips.

His eyes dropped to her mouth for a brief moment. “Do I what?”

“You had a lot to drink,” she commented softly. “Do you remember it?”

His eyes flared, his pupils going blacker and wider. Then his eyes narrowed. “Remember what?”

Suspicion rose in her just as readily as confusion. Was he going to make her say it? Or was it that he really didn’t remember?

“Do you remember what we talked about in your room?” she whispered, frowning. “And…and what happened afterwards?”

“What did happen afterwards?” he asked, his voice dropping even more, a slight smile quirking up at the edges of his mouth, which baffled her. “Tell me.”

Did he think it was…funny?

Suddenly, Valerie felt her temper snap. Suddenly, she felt anger rise with her confusion and sadness. She was disappointed. With him, with herself, with believing that the kiss meant something at all, when it was obvious that Dravka was just…was just toying with her.

She knew him. She could read him well. Did he think this was just a big game? Because if he did, maybe she didn’t know him so well after all.

She’d dreamed of kissing him for years. Now that she finally had—feeling those lips glide along hers, feeling his warm palms digging into her hips, and his heavy breaths against her—he thought it was…amusing?

It hurt.

There she’d been, worried and embarrassed and wanting more of that kiss for two days…and he found it amusing.

“Never mind,” she bit out, her hands going back up to her hair, clenching her teeth hard to keep from saying anything she might regret. “Nothing happened.”

She scurried around him, part of her arm hitting his chest as she attempted to finish securing the bun on her head. Her throat felt tight. Her face felt hot.

Valerie heard his sharp exhale followed by his murmured curse.

It mortified her when she felt her eyes begin to sting, when her vision went blurry with her sudden tears. Every part of her longed to flee. To race through her door and run upstairs…to another place she’d be trapped. Then again, she’d been trapped in some way or another all her life. From poverty on Genesis, to her mother’s sickness and watching her slowly die because they were too poor to get her help, to Everton where she had to rely on her aunt to stay fed and housed.

And her future?

Marriage. Trapped again. Chained and trapped.

Her heart was racing in her chest and when she swiped at the tears spilling down her face, she found her hands were trembling.

“Did it…” she whispered, suddenly more saddened than angry. She cleared her throat, staring at the door, feeling his heat close to her back. “Did it really mean that little to you?”

She didn’t know what possessed her to ask. Maybe because she was tired of beating around the bush with Dravka—for five years now—or maybe because she realized he would be gone soon. Maybe she realized that for once, she wanted straight, honest answers from him. Then she’d know if she had made up the last five years in her mind or not.

“Did it mean anything at all?” she continued, turning around slowly to face Dravka. His brow bone was furrowed when she looked at him. And his expression was thunderous, but at least he wasn’t giving her that amused smile anymore. “Or was it just because you were drunk and…I was there?”

The anger that stole over his face was enough to steal her breath.

“Do you really think that little of me?” he asked quietly.

“What am I supposed to think?” she whispered, dashing away more tears. “You come here now and it’s like you’re amused about the whole thing.”

“And what am I supposed to think, Val?” he asked, running a hand over his smooth scalp. “You ran away that night and avoided me for two days. I was beginning to think it was you who wanted to forget that kiss ever happened. Or that you regretted it. Or you were ashamed of it.”

Valerie’s eyes went wide. Her mouth opened, closed, opened—but no sound came out.

“I don’t regret it,” Dravka said after a lengthy silence, his voice soft yet deep.

His words seemed to echo around that small space, bouncing off the walls until they were all she could hear. He took one, two, three steps closer until Valerie had to crane her neck to meet his eyes.

“You don’t?” she questioned.

“Veki,” he murmured down to her. “I remember every moment.”

A soft exhale escaped her.

“The only thing I regret,” he started and she tensed slightly, “is that we kissed for the first time when I’d been drinking. I should have kissed you long before that. Because it was a long time in the making, don’t you think, mellkia?”

Valerie imagined that the expression on her face was part bewildered, part dazed, part wary, part elated. But when Dravka’s hand came to cup the side of her throat, a small breathy gasp escaped her, her nipples pebbling hard underneath the dress she’d slipped on.

Then that hand slid up to her cheek, his thumb brushing her bottom lip, his eyes going to them. She watched his eyes flare and a muscle tic in his strong jaw.

When he spoke again, his voice was huskier, gruffer. “Which is what I came down here to rectify when I saw you’d returned.”

“What?” she whispered.

A million voices were screaming in her mind why it wasn’t a good idea to be alone with him right now, down in her basement room, when he was looking at her like this, and talking to her like this.

Dravka didn’t answer her. Not at first. Instead, he stepped into her, dropping his head down while guiding her face up.

A hushed quiet descended over them when his lips met hers. Another kiss. Only this time, he didn’t have the taste of brandy on his tongue. Only Dravka.

A shuddering sigh left her. As for all those voices inside her head ringing warning bells, she silenced them. Against her better judgment, her hands gripped his shirt to keep him in place…and she kissed him back, moving her lips with his.

Dravka made a rough sound in the back of his throat when she pressed closer. His tongue met hers and he worked it expertly against her, drawing little sounds from her throat, building up heat in her belly. His palm left her cheek and then his arms were around her, pulling her closer, as Valerie’s head swam.

“This is how I wanted to kiss you for the first time, Val,” he rasped against her lips. “Just likethis.”

“Dravka,” she whispered, her hands sliding down his chest, taking liberties she’d never allowed herself before. Because she knew they had little time left? Perhaps.

His hands gripped her harder and she felt his length pressed to her belly, thick and impressive. Dravka groaned, biting out something in Keriv’i when she brought their bodies even closer.

She felt his two hearts throbbing endlessly. She heard her own blood rushing in her ears. She heard the gentle whisper of clothing across flesh. She heard the rough rasp of his hands against her as they slid down and down.

Which was perhaps why she didn’t hear the clicking of high heels down the corridor in the basement. Which was perhaps why when the door to her room opened, it was already too late.

“How darling,” drawled a familiar voice.

With a ragged gasp, Valerie broke away from Dravka, jerking her head to the door.

Madame Allegria stood there, dressed in a floor-length, silky black dress that molded to her ample curves. Her painted red lips—that had always resembled the color of blood in Valerie’s mind—were curved in a mocking kind of smile, though there was a sharp, icy glint in her gaze when she saw Dravka’s hands curled around her hips.

Valerie pushed at Dravka’s chest until he reluctantly released her.

“You’re back,” Valerie said, as if it weren’t obvious. Her voice sounded breathless even to her own ears.

“And you’ve been playing while I’ve been away, Niece,” her aunt taunted, her eyes returned to Dravka’s, before trailing down his body with a possessive, knowing gaze that made Valerie’s stomach churn.

Valerie stepped in front of him, forcing her aunt to look at her instead.

Madame Allegria smiled again as she assessed her kiss-reddened lips, widened eyes, and heaving chest.

She tossed something at Valerie, something encased in velvet and on a silk hanger. A dress of some kind. She managed to snag it, just keeping it from falling on the floor.

“Get dressed and make yourself presentable,” her aunt said, her eyes narrowing. Her gaze flicked up to Dravka behind her, that smile turning mocking, and then said, “We have a dinner with your fiancé and your future in-laws tonight.”

Behind her, Dravka stiffened, a harsh breath escaping him.

“I’ve done you a favor and cancelled all the clients for tonight since you won’t be here to receive them,” Madame Allegria went on, which surprised Valerie. “Aren’t you going to thank me?”

Valerie didn’t say a word, only stared across the short distance between them, her hands clutching the dress harder.

“Be upstairs in twenty minutes,” Madame Allegria said, her voice hardening. “You don’t want to keep Gabriel waiting.”