seeing how much you've accomplished." She held out the wine again. "One drink. That's all I ask. Perhaps you'll discover I have something to offer in return."
Appeased, Lex accepted the goblet. The pride thing was bullshit, but a proposition... That made far more sense. "I'm listening."
Cerys circled to take a seat on a low, sleek couch. "You've come far since I last saw you. For the longest time, I thought you weren't going to make a move at all." Cerys's gaze dropped to the collar circling Lex's throat. "Having Dallas O'Kane in hand makes you a powerful woman. More powerful than you realize, since he's just doubled his territory."
Sector Three. The news only compounded Lex's already surreal disbelief. "You think I'm playing him."
Cerys froze with her glass almost to her lips. "Playing is a crude description of what we do, but yes, Lex. I assumed you were seeing to your own interests as well as his dick."
And of course, those two things had to be intimately connected. "Good thing you're sitting down, because this might shock you, but any attention I lavish on Dallas's dick is for its own sake. I take care of my interests in other ways."
"So defensive. So vehement." Cerys sipped her wine, and from the amusement in her gaze, Lex could tell she didn't believe. Not yet. "You don't need to be ashamed of who you are. You're exactly what I need. A woman strong enough to carry on the work I've started."
Lex's blood chilled. "You've got to be shitting me."
"Your time in Four may have honed your edges, but it's been abominable for your vocabulary."
Fuck my vocabulary. Even thinking the words put a grin on Lex's face. "I ran like hell the first chance I got. What makes you think I'd ever come back here for more than a grudging visit?"
Cerys set aside her glass and crossed her legs, her posture relaxed and easy. "Because for all that you hate me, you're not stupid. It doesn't matter whether you hold his leash or he holds yours. Maybe you truly love one another, but that's even more reason to consider my offer. Dallas O'Kane is hungry for power, and you could give him an entire sector."
It was what he wanted--he couldn't have worked his ass off for so many years if ambition didn't drive him--but at what cost? "He wouldn't take it. Not like this."
"Not without a battle? Without bloodshed? Wealth, influence and information, served up on a silver platter." Cerys quirked an eyebrow. "Perhaps you don't know him as well as you think you do."
"He knows how I feel about this sector." She took a step closer to the couch. "I can't run it unless I'm here, and I'd rather die."
Cerys's face froze into a polite mask. "I see. I'm sorry you feel that way, Lex."
The words held just enough threat to send a shiver up Lex's spine. "Don't be sorry," she snarled. "Find someone else to carry on your little legacy and leave me the hell alone."
"If you insist." It seemed too easy an acceptance, but Cerys rose and changed the subject. "I heard you visited your sister today."
Rage. Lex went with it, let it explode in a hot rush of temper as she threw her goblet at the wall beside Cerys's head. The delicate crystal disintegrated, raining wine and sharp little shards all over the couch.
Even Cerys couldn't mask her shock. She tried, struggling to compose her features, but her hands trembled and her voice, when she spoke, was strained. "You always did have a temper. It's a pity you've abandoned your lessons in self-restraint."
"I missed on purpose." Lex's voice wavered, and she steeled it before continuing. "My sister. If you fuck with her life, make things hard, even breathe funny in her direction, I'll kill you. Slow and painful, with my bare fucking hands. Count on it."
"You've become shrill, darling." Cerys smoothed a hand over her hip and turned away. "It's a sign of a weak will."
"Test me, Cerys. I'm begging you."
"Begging. Another bad habit you've learned from Dallas O'Kane." She'd regained her cool by the time she turned, and her words sounded bored. "If you've run out of things to throw, you may take your leave."
"Gladly." On her way toward the door, Lex ran her hand over a small statue on a side table. It was porcelain, pre-Flare, almost certainly worth more than Cerys had paid to buy her all those years ago.