That was what she wanted, but she’d backed herself into a corner where she wasn’t going to get it, unless . . .
“I—I think I’ve played enough, Challen. I thank you for obliging me, but I now give you back your challenge win, my challenge loss. You can—”
She didn’t get to finish, he came up onto his knees so fast and immediately dragged her against him, locking her in the vise of his arms.
“Have you forgiven me, woman?” he demanded.
“Yes,” she gasped, gasping because he was already thrusting into her.
“Place your hands behind your head.”
She didn’t even hesitate.
“You will now drop back,” he told her.
Would she? His thighs were spread wide to support her buttocks, hers clasping his hips. He was deep inside her, and the exquisite sensation of that almost made her miss the feel of his hands gripping her waist. If she dropped back, she wouldn’t drop far.
She dropped, and instantly realized why he’d wanted her to. The vulnerable position thrust her breasts up at him, and he swiftly bent to capture one. He didn’t bite, but he sucked so hard she thought he meant to swallow her. She cried out. He surged into her, and she exploded, dissolved, exploded, ah, Stars, the incredible beauty of it, the incredible ecstasy.
It left her so dazed, she wasn’t even aware of being gently laid down on the bed a while later, or of giving him the good-night kiss that had become a ritual between them. And only he noted that she first curled her limbs against him before she gave herself up to sleep.
Chapter Thirty-two
A pleasure, to wake feeling so marvelously refreshed—or so Tedra thought until the happenings of yesterday crashed into her consciousness. She flushed with the vivid memories and felt a distinct uneasiness that would have had her squirming, except she didn’t want to wake Challen, whose arm lay heavily across her upper chest.
Where in Stars’ universe had she got the guts to do what she did to the mighty barbarian last night? Was she nuts? A glutton for punishment? And where in the farden hell had the idea come from that she liked being dominated by a man so insufferably arrogant and inflexible in his ways that he was on the close side of being an absolute tyrant? And she had thought to give him a little tit for tat, when he was an expert at it?
She had his word there would be no reprisals, but in point of fact, she’d forced him to give it. She wouldn’t honor a swearing given under duress, so why should he?
She made a sound in her throat, and Challen’s arm moved, his hand coming up to turn her face toward him. “Do you not feel well, chemar?”
“I ... did I wake you?”
“No,” he said simply, leaving her all kinds of things to wonder about—like had he been watching her all this time?
She stared into his dark-as-midnight eyes, hoping they would tell her something, but they were back to being inscrutable. Not for the first time, she wished she had his warrior’s calm, his ability to appear unruffled even if he was hopping-around mad on the inside.
“Have you stuck around for—for a particular reason?” she ventured.
“No.”
There was no help for it with such enlightening answers. “Are you mad at me, Challen?”
It was funny from that angle, seeing one of his golden brows arch. “Should I be?”
She felt like telling him what a great communicator he was, but pushed down the urge, wondering where this suicidal tendency kept coming from. From one of her donators, no doubt, those two unknowns who had supplied the genes for her tube. One of them must have been unbalanced—probably the male.
“If you aren’t mad, warrior, I’m not going to bring up a subject that might change that. But if you are mad, I’d like to discuss it.”
“A sound strategy,” he replied, laughing.
“Well?”
“I will leave it for you to decide, whether I should be mad or not.”
“Do I look stupid?”
“You look, as always, very desirable.”
She frowned for about two seconds, then broke into a brilliant smile. “You really aren’t mad, are you? I’m glad, since I can’t say I didn’t enjoy the—ah— uniqueness of the experience. And if you didn’t mind it all that much, maybe we can play switching places again sometime.”
“Absolutely not.”
“Oh?” She grinned as she watched him sit up on his side of the bed with a degree of stiffness. “Need I remind you that there wouldn’t be any play to it if I decided to challenge you again—and won?”
“You are welcome to try,” he came back with supreme confidence.
“Well, thank you—I think. And as long as you’re being so generous, how about throwing in a handicap? Considering your size and gender, I’d say that’s only fair.”
He turned toward her, interested if nothing else. “What is a handicap?”
“An edge. A head start, so to speak. Or to put it another way, it’d be the same as if you had one hand tied behind your back to make the odds more even.”
He thought about that for a moment. “Very well, what then is the handicap you request?”
“The element of surprise would do nicely. That would let me attack without giving you prior warning. Would you agree to that?”
“You have already given me prior warning in the asking. How then do you perceive an element of surprise?”
“I didn’t mean I was thinking of challenging you this minute, babe. And you can’t be on guard every moment of every day, now can you?”
The warrior frowned, wanting to know, “You would attack while I slept?”
“No, I’d draw the line at that.”
She had the feeling he was actually considering it when he didn’t answer right off. She hadn’t expected that. She’d really been no more than teasing him. But, of course, if he wanted to be foolish enough to even up the odds between them, she wasn’t about to stop him from doing so. She was feeling quite pleased with her barbarian just now, but that could change so easily, and having him handicapped would definitely be a blessing if her feelings did change.
“I find your reasoning sound, kerima. ” He actually looked pleased that he could say that, which Tedra didn’t appreciate one bit. “Thus you need not declare your intent to challenge beforehand, if such is your intent.” He leaned down then to give her a short, sweet kiss before adding, “It is my hope you will find no reason to challenge me again.”
“You keep that up and I certainly won’t.”
They grinned at each other before he sat up again. She hated to see him go, especially when she had confinement in this room stretching out before her for the whole day.
She caught his hand when he started to get up. “You’ve been full of surprises this morning. And as long as I’m being surprised, I believe there was mention last night of a gift you had for me?”
“Indeed,” he said, and hauled her across the bed until she was sitting beside him. “Dress yourself and I will take you to it.”
“Dress myself, as in putting clothes on?”
Both of those golden brows shot up. “You find the suggestion unreasonable?”
“Sure it’s reasonable. I’m all for it. But I’m not setting myself up for further punishment just because you seem to be forgetting that already given.”
If she was annoyed at his obtuseness, he was fast catching up. “Woman, explain,” he demanded curtly.
“Explain what? I was only reminding you of the rest of my punishment. No clothes, remember? For the full duration of my confinement here?”
She expected him to look shamefaced at forgetting, not sigh and shake his head. “I begin to see you were not deliberately flaunting your body before me last darkness.”
“Flaunting?” she gasped indignantly, but ended snorting, “As if I would.”
“No, I see now that you would not be so brazen, though a warrior could wish it were otherwise.”
“Challen ...”
“I do but tease you, kerima, which I wi
ll not apologize for. But for the rest, in truth, I remember not the giving of additional punishment, nor was such called for. I have admitted what was done was overdone, thus would further punishment make it more so. You will ignore those additions and accept my apology that they were given.”
“I’ll ignore them, but accepting your apology should be mine to do.”
“As giving my word last darkness was mine to give?” he reminded her.
“Quits!” she cried quickly. She could debate commands later, when those she had given him weren’t so fresh in his mind. “Let’s bury this one and plant a tree on it, okay? Apology accepted as ordered. Now what was that about taking me to my gift?”
He chuckled even as he dragged her onto his lap, holding her loosely, but only for the moment. “You have sat too long beside me, kerima. The sight of you in your brazen nakedness has decided the matter. The showing of your gift will have to wait until other matters are seen to.”
“Such as?” As if she didn’t know.
He didn’t answer. He demonstrated instead.
Chapter Thirty-three
Tedra was still smiling over the barbarian’s bemusement as he escorted her down the wide hallway. She’d decided to wear her kystrals with a white chauri today, after Challen informed her they would take food with the rest of the castlefolk this morning. He’d given her enough clues, without actually admitting it, that he wanted her to make friends in his household. The warrior was looking at the long term, while she was still working on the temporary—which included not getting involved with the Sha-Ka’ani. She’d already made one colossal mistake in that area. It’d be foolish to make any more. But when the master spoke, the challenge loser had to obey.
So putting on her kystrals was for morale. But having them change color in front of Challen was “getting even” for this latest high-handedness she was annoyed with. And she was quite satisfied by his reaction.
His expression, watching the clear red rocks transform into a brilliant aquamarine, was truly comical. He simply didn’t know how it was done, but he was determined to find out. He’d taken the necklace off her without asking, without even sparing her a glance, and proceeded to examine each and every kystral. He spent a good long while doing it, too, but couldn’t find a single mechanism or device for operating them.
“How did you do it?” he finally demanded of her.
“Where were your ears, babe? Didn’t you hear me request the color to change?”
“The necklace is a computer, then, like your Martha, progalled to do as you say?”
“That’s programmed. ” She grinned, assuming she must have mentioned the word to him at some time or other. “And no, it’s not a computer, or any other type of machine that you can turn off or on. Kystrals will change color for you because they know they’re beautiful and they love to show off. They’re alive, sweetcakes.”
His expression said, “Sure they are.” But he wasn’t going to call her any more of a liar than that look did, nor was he going to ask again how the color changing worked. Yet he really wanted to know, was really fascinated, and holding that curiosity in check was amusing to watch. She might try again later to convince him that she’d told it the way it was, but right now she let it pass into the realm of tall-Kystrani-tales-not-to-be-discused.
They hadn’t walked all that far from Challen’s room when he stopped before a door that was only a mere eight feet in height, which was small as barbarian doors went around here. This he indicated she should open herself, which she did, finding she didn’t have to shove against the wood to accomplish it. Inside, there was the familiar blue carpeting of the castle, the usual white walls with their gaali stone ledges. That was where familiar ended.
It was the smallest room she had yet seen in the castle, no more than a quarter the size of Challen’s chamber. Of course, that still made it a pretty large room by Kystrani standards. The soft carpeting ran from wall to wall. There were several couches in muted lavender that actually had backs on them. And there were chairs, also with backs, and looking really comfortable with thick padding.
In a corner stood something that could have passed for a musical instrument, though Tedra had never seen the like. The recently absent fembair, Sharm, lay stretched out on the floor in front of one of the couches. She was surprised to see him, but more surprised by the miniature copy of him curled up asleep on the end of the couch above him. In another corner was an apparatus like what she had seen in the women’s gathering room, which Jalla had called a cloth maker.
There were shelves on one wall filled with vases in varying sizes and shapes, a few appearing to be made of gold. On the floor beneath them was a long chest, left open, and stuffed with the materials to make flowers for those vases: colored stones, colored metals, colored jewels. There were more jewels in another smaller chest, with silver and gold mountings and chains, and the tools necessary to create jewelry. In still another chest were small bottles and vials, some filled, some empty, and it didn’t take much to assume everything was there for the making of perfumes.
“It’s a hobby room, right?” Tedra guessed as she finished with her examination of the last chest. “The only things lacking are a computer terminal and a collection of Ancients’ tapes, since history is my hobby.”
“Perhaps you can find another to amuse you, since the room is now yours.”
“Mine?”
“A place where you may come to be alone or not, as you like. You may also make use of what is here for the occupying of your time. Did you not tell me once that a place of privacy was important to you?”
“Yes.” She was surprised he remembered that, but more surprised by his thoughtfulness. “It’s a wonderful gift, Challen. And I’d been wondering what I was going to do to keep from going nuts without my work to keep me busy. But I have to tell you, I’ve never in my life made anything with my own hands. I wouldn’t even know how.”
He smiled. “You now have the opportunity to discover hidden talents. The women will show you how. But this was not my gift to you, chemar. This you need to keep you from mischief when I cannot be with you.”
“Is that so?” she snorted, aware he was only half teasing. “All right, I’ll bite. What can be better than all this?”
“Sharm’s son.”
“Sharm’s wha—?” It hit her before she got the question out, and her eyes flew to the couch where the little fembair still slept. “Ooooh.” The tears started, but she couldn’t help it. “A pet, you’re giving me a pet, a live pet. Oh, Challen,” she whispered softly.
She threw her arms around his neck, hid her face against his chest, and sobbed her eyes out. Challen’s arms came around her, but hesitantly. He was totally confused.
“This was to make you happy, chemar. ”
“lam!”
“Then why do you cry?”
“I don’t know!” she wailed.
Now he understood. “Ah, a woman’s response. I had not expected to find the soft female inside you and set her free this soon.”
“I’m having a breakdown, so give me a break.” She pushed away from him to give him a reproachful look. “I’m a Sec 1. A Sec can’t be soft or womanish. The job doesn’t allow it.” She wiped the tears off her cheeks, then glared at the wetness on her fingers. “I don’t believe I did that.”
He was trying to keep from laughing. “Women often cry when they are happy. I must confess I assumed it would be otherwise with you.”
“That’s right, rub it into the ground,” she grouched. “One little slip ...” She broke off with a gasp, having forgotten the reason for it in her upset with herself. “Oh, Challen, is he really mine, mine to keep?”
This time he did laugh. “Yes. He has just been weaned from his dam, but as you see, Sharm has developed a fondness for this cub of his. It will not be easy to separate them.”
She missed the implied meaning in that statement, too eager just then to examine her wonderful gift. “What shall I call him?” she asked, bending over the end
of the couch to pick him up. This brought another gasp. “Stars, is this supposed to be a recently born animal?” The baby filled her arms and then some, and weighed at least thirty pounds.
“Does his size matter?” Challen frowned, not having considered that. “He will get bigger, much bigger.”
She glanced down at Sharm, who was watching her hold his son with a very attentive eye. “As big as that, huh? Well, I’ll make room for him. I do live in the country, you know.”
She would not have to make room for her pet if Challen had anything to do with it, for there was ample room right here, but he did not mention that. He watched her put her cheek to the baby fembaifs head, making weird little sounds of getting acquainted. The cat stood this abundance of affection only for a short while before squirming to get down.
Challen had to smile at Tedra’s reluctance to let the cub go. But then she was looking at him, and he caught his breath at the tender warmth in her eyes. There was a soft and womanly female hiding behind her gruff exterior. He understood this about her, and someday he would understand everything about her. Droda, how the woman fascinated him with the complexities of her nature. And how he wanted her to be the mother of his children, more than anything he had ever wanted before.
She had closed the distance between them, was standing before him now, and there was moisture in her eyes again. “I thank you for my gift, Challen.”
“It was my pleasure to give it, chemar,” he said deeply.
Her hands came to his cheeks very gently. “You’re such a sweet barbarian. No wonder I ...”
“What?”
She dropped her hands, dropping her eyes, too, from his intense gaze. “Never mind.”
He didn’t press her. She was not yet ready to admit her true feelings for him. But soon . . .
He placed an arm around her to lead her from the room. “Come, we will take food now; then I must leave to inspect the gaali stone mines. Perhaps you would like to come along?”
Warrior's Woman Page 25