My Starlit Forever: The Sable Riders, #1.5

By Sky Gold

On the other side of a LTR with a galactic supermodel, Zaya is done with pretty boys who leave her high and dry - and ready for a real man.

A man with some serious cajones, a generous, kind heart and significant life experience.

A man she can love, respect and spend pyjama days with. A man who knocks her off her feet with a single touch. One who adores her back and lets her fly (being Miss Independent and all). And a man who doesn't turn down the AC during a heatwave to conserve coins or is cheap AF about booking an excellent restaurant for her birthday even when SHE has enough bank to cover it.

What she wants and desires is a forever kind of man. So she sends out a little prayer into the universe.

Let this be a cautionary tale to all you heart yearners: be careful what you wish for - you just might get it.

Because it's never too late to get your starlit forever!

• Language: English
• Publisher: Sky Gold
• Release date: Mar 31, 2023
• ISBN: 9798215070260

Sky Gold

Sky Gold is a best selling author, writer and lover of all things delicious, fun and courageously life affirming. She looks to her gorgeous husband, her whimsical kids,  her loyal friends, her sweet Russian Blue Cat,  and the stars themselves for her heavenly inspiration.

Book preview

Sky Gold

My Starlit Forever

The Sable Riders Series - Book 1.5

Copyright © 2023 by Sky Gold

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, scanning, or otherwise without written permission from the publisher. It is illegal to copy this book, post it to a website, or distribute it by any other means without permission.

First edition

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Contents

Preface

I. PART ONE

1. My thirst trap

2. My thrilling nightmare

3. My rakish wolf

4. My wistful explorer

5. My grouchy grump

6. My dreamy stillness

7. My starlit forever

Epilogue

Excerpt from ‘Stars on Fire’ - (Chapter 2): The Sable Riders Book 1

Excerpt from ‘Stars of Gems ’ - (Prologue) The Sable Riders Book 3

About the Author

Also by Sky Gold

Preface

This novella explores the love story of Rafe and Zaya, two characters on the periphery of The Sable Riders world.

Rafe runs a successful property development company and works closely with Zane Sable (our ‘Stars of Gems’ hero) on the vast infrastructure projects The Sable Group commissions across the lunar-scape of Eden II.

Zaya works at Eden II’s public housing commission, helping refugees across the system settle comfortably on the lunar rock.

Rafe is considered a close ally and friend to The Sable Riders, who are rumoured to be ghosts, wraiths, glimmers in the dark. Unseen. Notorious as some of the galaxy’s most lethal metahumans with exponential reach.

They’re ruthless ex-warriors who live in the Pegasi universe, where humans escaped after The Great Apocalypse. Their home world is Eden II, a sizeable lunar moon at Pegasi’s centre of commerce and business. Here, The Sable Group designs luxury flyers and racing yachts, but they also have a significant side hustle - high-tech surveillance, mercenary armies and military ships to help defend the System against the coming conflicts. However they rarely, if ever, talk about their enterprise. They prefer to keep their business to themselves and instead focus on raising bank for all the security, charity and rescue work they invest in.

But word and proof of their prowess is spreading and their growing dominance means their enemies and haters abound. They can’t stay hidden for long and are soon caught up in a battle for their existence.

At the same time, love comes knocking on each of their doors. One by one, these badasses meet their matches and find their prize possessions. Imbuing the Riders (and their brothers on the periphery) with passion, meaning and joy they each didn’t think they deserved, given their humble and tragic origins.

Together with their partners, they’ll reach for the stars, even as their enemies seek to turn their destiny to ashes.

I

Part One

1

My thirst trap

Two years ago, I was in an LTR with a Galician supermodel.

I’m reasonably attractive, but he was on another stratosphere. He could have passed himself off as a high-end luxe droid sculpted to perfection by genetic engineering and the latest surgical implants.

Despite his beauty, we fought a lot, and he was cheap AF, watching every dollar, pulling receipts out of the trash and constantly badgering me about spending money on dinner - for my birthday, no less!

If we went on vacation, he never wanted to stay at the resort by the beach. It always had to be the one five avenues away that accepted coupons.

Last I heard, he may have reformed his ways, as I’d recently spied some thirst trap pics of him on SysRom, Pegasi’s notorious dating platform.

He was posing in front of his new Sable Racer on his way to do a little star diving somewhere above the slopes of Mount Xibo on Sirius IV.

We’d stayed together for two years not because he was also gifted in the ‘looks and well hung’ department (not that he had any idea what to do with it), but because he was a great if not crude conversationalist with a good laugh and a love for adventure.

It didn’t help our situationship. On the contrary, the arguments, annoying habits and cheap habits overrode his college boy humour, six-pack abs and chiselled cheeks - leaving my heart and lady bits as dry as the rocky regolith plains on Eden II.

He was my line in the sand.

Because after that, all I wanted was a real man. A mature man, a man with some serious cajones. A man I could love, respect and spend pyjama days with. One who could pay his way while I paid mine (being Miss Independent and all). And a man who didn’t sweat the dinner tab - because he’d enough bank to cover it.

So, I sent a little prayer out into the universe.

Let this be a cautionary tale to all heart yearners: be careful what you wish for because you might get it.

But not in the way you think it.

It was a hot, sticky, sultry night on Eden II in the middle of summer.

I walked out of the ladies’ restroom at Mr. Lee’s Fine Dining, and there he was, seated on my chair.

From the start of the evening, I’d planned and plotted my spot with the utmost precision to avoid the detritus of humanity that were some of Asra’s friends.

She loved anyone and everyone, drawn especially to those who flattered her, resulting in a not-so-desirable entourage in and amongst the jewels.

I’d worked hard for that spot. As far away as possible from Thabo’s leering eyes and three chairs away from Mimi, gossip queen extraordinaire.

It was beautifully positioned between my girl Neesa, my best friend since high school and Rob, my favourite non-binary on the entire rock (we’d met at an abysmal relocation agency I’d worked in circa ten years ago. Irrespective of my miserable time there, I’d walked away with the friendship of an extraordinary soul).

Anyway, back to the central problem at hand. Who was this intruder?

I intended to find out, so I sauntered over to the table, swatting away Thabo’s elastic hand as I strode past him, hitting it so hard that I heard him gasp in pain behind me. Bullseye. On behalf of all the women he’d tormented with it, including me.

Back to the man who’d nabbed my seat.

As I approached, I noticed the dark hair neat against the nape of his collar—a significant physique.

The neck was covered in intricate emerald and black ink with an under glow that outed him as a meta.

A stylish sports jacket barely contained his broad shoulders.

Gold cufflinks.

What got me, though? A deep, rumbling voice.

Neesa saw me over her shoulder, and she gave me the look.

The same dazed and entranced look she’d given when she’d met her last celeb lookalike crush, a 100-metre glider extraordinaire (who’d done her a runner on her after a two-week whirlwind affair and taken off with some Falasian princess at lightning speed).

Oh, dear.

I finally got to MY seat and stood there, waiting.

For him to get with the program, get up and get moving.

He seemed imprisoned by Rob’s intense discourse on goodness knows what, so I widened my eyes dramatically at my friend, hinting loud and clear.

Which put the proverbial boot in Rob’s mouth because he shut up and returned my gaze with an apologetic glint, shrugging his sequinned shoulders in his brand of drama. This over-the-top pause alerted the intruder to my presence.

He looked up. And my brain instantly switched to a category five alert.

Deep hazel intelligent eyes.

Above a broken nose that did nothing to distil the impression that he was probably a not-so-distant cousin of the most handsome man in all Pegasi, the current King of Rhesia.

Below the slightly misshapen yet lean nose were two beautiful lips (I’m a sucker for lush lips) and a fashionably trim beard. His face was craggy, well defined, his skin baby soft, and his eyebrows were naturally full.

He reminded me of an animal I’d once seen in the wild.

That’s right, a golden-eye Axumite wolf - large, predatory, apex-minded.

He was swoon-worthy.

The most valid definition of a real man in his prime. That was clear to anyone with 20/20 sight.

It did nothing for me, though.

The enjoyment quotient at this dinner party was proportionally equal to where I’d plop my ass down for the rest of the night.

He, whoever he was, regardless of his lush looks, had to respectfully leave.

He gave me a mildly questioning glance.

There might have been a spark of something else in those hazel depths, but I put it to a play of light on their surface.

Was he reacting to my honey gold skin, long lavish curls, or voluptuous curves, which often got the wrong kind of attention to my constant annoyance?

Or was it my slanted, mixed-race eyes and high cheekbones?

Or the full lips I’d inherited from my father, which were now pursed up with impatience?

Nonetheless, his irises widened, and an eyebrow lifted slightly as he took me in.

I needed to make my intentions known that he was sitting in my chair and required him to move.

I leaned in, ignoring Neesa’s garbled and desperate attempts at sign language.

‘Sir, so sorry, but you’re seated in my place,’ I said, with a smile added in at the end for good measure, not wanting to come across as rude.

To his credit, he mumbled an apology and swiftly rose to his feet.

That’s when I saw the copper and silver cane against the other side of the seat. He reached for it, leaning on it to shuffle away.

Lord! I’d evicted an indisposed man from my seat.

‘Wait.’

My cry was heartfelt as mortification flooded through me.

I stumbled through an apology, my face hot and bothered under my skin.

The man nodded with some stiffness as Neesa explained to me that Asra herself had placed him there, i.e. he’d not just chanced