Free Red Sky at Night (Home in the stars, #0.5) by Jolie Mason

Chapter One
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    She was the most beautiful thing he'd ever seen. From top to bottom, a machine built for a man to hold onto. Curves in all the right places. He dropped the heavy bag on the ramp decking as he stared at her a moment.
    The Aurora stood tall and beckoning to him from the space dock about a click away. Long, sexy, sleek lines. Thrusters now dormant, but, when she'd take off, dear gods, she was beautiful; raining down her own kind of harmless fire and lighting up a night sky, or a day one, in a deep red halo, the likes of which could only be seen in a sunset off the plateau. Her nose angled up to glint in the sun. She was lovely , he thought for about the hundredth time.
    He looked back over his shoulder at the beat up transport he'd come home on and gave a wry grimace when he returned his gaze to the sensuous space liner. He dreamed of flying one day, and he wanted to fly that, or something like it.
    The noise of the space dock was like the sound of home; clattering, chattering and crowded. The small tenement housing unit his family occupied was large enough for the three of them, his mother having passed years before. The mining colony of Taarken Prime circled, in its own sweet time, a larger star. It created a very hostile environment on Taarken. There was one ocean, and a significant portion of arid, rugged landscape. Dust blew everywhere. Without the terraformers, he doubted Taarken would support life.
    Arden hefted his large bag on his shoulder and pointed his steps toward home. It wasn't far. He turned on one of the side streets only to be slapped in the face with a swirl of dust blowing through between squat buildings that had never seen better days. They’d begun as they continued, worn and well used.
    Wiping the dust from now tearing eyes, he spat sand out of his mouth and cursed a little at the reminder of how dirty it was here on Taarken. He rounded a corner and found himself suddenly facing the building that he'd grown up in. To his surprise, he saw his sister.
    She'd spent all of her sixteen summers running barefoot through the streets and chasing the dust devils that swirled through periodically. Today, however, she leaned against the light exterior of the wall, her body covered by a man's taller, slim form. The whole scene was entirely too intimate for an overprotective big brother.
    Arden stared as the man turned his face to nuzzle closer to her neck. She wore a long, flowing skirt in an off white shade and wrapped up sandals, that he could clearly now see wrapped high around her calves, because the man in question had twisted his hand in that skirt and was sliding it up in a bunch to her hip, in broad daylight in the middle of the street. “Oh, my gods,” he whispered.
    "Ari!"
    What in Hell was going on? His sister jumped guiltily, then stared at him in surprise. "When did you get home?"
    "Not soon enough apparently. Who is this character?"
    Shamefaced, the other man had the grace to look like he'd been caught in the cookie jar. He pushed his near black hair back off his forehead and then stuck out a hand to Arden.
    "Caden Carnes," he answered. Arden stared in disbelief.
    "Caden Carnes? You're joking."
    The younger man looked uncomfortable, as they stood there in the beating sun. Arden pinned a pink faced Ari with his glare. "Does Da know what you're up to?"
    Ari put her hands on her hips, her long braided hair spun in swirls as the wind grabbed it again. "Just what am I up to, Arden Badu?" Her temper was in full glory. Uh oh, he thought.
    "I love Caden. He loves me. That's no crime, nor do you believe in something so archaic as sin."
    "You are entirely too young to be running around with someone like this." He gestured at the other man. "Carnes. I suppose your Daddy runs this planet? Never heard of a Carnes didn't try to own everything he touched. That apply to my sister?"
    That got his back up. "What are you, Carnes? Eighteen? Nineteen? Aren't you off to fulfill your