“It’s not how or why you did it that people will take exception to. It is the who.”
“She is a healthy, beautiful woman of childbearing autumns. That is all that should matter to them.”
Lindo snorted out a laugh. “You don’t believe that for a second.”
Sin threw back the rest of the liquor in his glass, taking it in one large swallow. He rose to his feet and walked over to the sideboard where an array of liquors of varying colors and potency sat. He chose the hussa again. It didn’t mix well with others. Not in flavors and not in the belly. He poured a healthy glass and took another swallow of it before turning to face his friend and advisor.
“Perhaps,” he said. “But it is the tactic I will take in the matter. As I said, I will make no apology for what I have done. And I trust none of my closest aides will gainsay the matter.”
Lindo had made no secret of the fact that he had disagreed with this entire act. But once Sin had set things in motion, once they had gone through with the capture of the triumvir, he had gone silent on the matter. Sin trusted that he would not be seen or heard disputing Sin’s judgment now that the deed was done. From now on all he would get was Lindo’s complete support. It just made him feel better to say it out loud.
“Of course not,” Lindo said, looking almost affronted.
“Good.”
Lindo regarded him silently for a moment. “Are you all right?” he felt compelled to ask.
“I’m delightfully perfect,” Sin said sarcastically. “I’ve just kidnapped the leader of another country. What could possibly be wrong?”
“If you are regretting—“
“No. I’m not regretting it. It’s just…it weighs on me. All of the potential ramifications weigh on me.”
“You already knew this would happen. You went over every possible ramification with me many times over the past few weeks. Ever since you decided to take her.”
“I know. But I had to do it. I tried for two autumns to rid her from my mind…to deny the craving I had for her. But it was to no avail. So now…this. This…insanity. And yet, having her here has made me feel the sanest I have felt in weeks. A part of me has relaxed. It feels comfort in the idea that she is mine now.”
“She is almost yours. You still need to win her over.”
“I am aware of that as well. I certainly don’t need you to remind me.”
“I am here as your sounding board Sin. You can share anything with me. You know it will go no further than me. If you have any doubts or fears, they would be only natural. This will be a trying time for you. You will need my support and I am glad to give it.”
“Thank you. I am very aware of those facts. And it means a great deal to me to know you will no longer judge me on these acts.”
“I never judged you. I only advised against it. Believe it or not I understand your reasons for doing this. What you have done is in the old ways. The ways of our people handed down through many generations. You are not the first to feel in such ways and you will not be the last. But I need only say that I hope it never happens to me. I wouldn’t want to go through what you are going through for all the gold and gems in our world.”
“That’s a pretty hefty sum to turn away,” Sin said with a small smile. “But I will let you know if it is worth all of the gems and gold in our world.”
“You do that,” Lindo said with a laugh. “Though you will have a hard time convincing me of it.”
“Mm. No doubt.”
Sin set his glass down on the sideboard and walked away from it. As he passed Lindo he clapped a hand on his shoulder.
“Go. Find your bed my friend, it has been a long journey and the ground was cold and hard to sleep on.”
“And you? Where will you sleep?”
“As I said…it has been a cold and arduous journey. We all require rest and soft beds in which to sleep.”
With that vague answer, Sin left the room.
Chapter Seven
Ariana awoke the next morning when she felt a light caress on her arm. She sat up with a gasp, but when she blinked her eyes she saw only Mariah there.
Damn him. He had let her pace with anxiety over seeing him all night, until, finally exhausted, she had fallen asleep. Now the sun was streaming in the windows.
The windows were at the tops of those very tall walls, and she had no way or hope of getting up to them, otherwise she might have thought about melting the glass and trying to escape that way. But the windows were also quite narrow. She would never be able to squeeze even her slight frame through them.
What was he waiting for? Was this on purpose, this anxiety he was making her suffer?
Yes. Of course it was. Everything he was doing had a purpose to it. He had clearly thought everything through to the very last detail. Including the room she now inhabited.
Just how long had he been planning this? It would have taken quite some time to build a room to these exacting specifications.
She slid out of bed and onto her feet. Mariah tsked as she saw the mess of her hair.
“Come, we’ll fix it,” she said.
After about a half an hour, she had put herself to right, changing into a different colored skirt and blouse, tying it with the scarf from the previous outfit. She was barefoot, bare handed. There were no stockings and no petticoats. There were no drawers. She felt naked without them. She wondered if they had been neglected for her in specific, or if Kiltian women didn’t bother with wearing such accouterments.
She had just finished when the lock in the door tumbled open with a clang. The door opened and…
The man himself walked in at last.
Ariana’s breath caught. He was so big. Bigger than she remembered. Tall…so tall it made her feel small in spite of the fact that she was of unusual height for a woman. His shoulders nearly took up the width of the wide door, and he was imposing in the weight of muscle he carried. And it was muscle. There was no fat on that body. It was common for majic users to go to fat from laziness, from taking their power for granted, when they reached the power level he was at. But whatever he did, it was not from laziness that he had achieved that body. It was a magnificent body. Male and potent it was worthy of note.
Damn him, she thought as her belly tightened from anxiety and her heart fluttered nervously in her chest. She would not let him get to her. Whatever his goals, he would not succeed.
“Mariah you may leave us,” he said to the lady maid.
Mariah hesitated, leaning her body back toward her mistress. Ariana reached out and gave her hand a squeeze.
“It’s all right. I’ll be just fine,” she encouraged Mariah.
“No you won’t!” she said defiantly. “Not with him in here! I won’t let him hurt you!”
He scowled at that and, fearing he would become angry and take it out on Mariah, she gave the young woman a push toward the door. “Go on. I can handle this.”
Then she saw amusement flicker through his eyes. She frowned at him.
Mariah was torn between obeying her mistress and protecting her for several moments, but in the end she left the room, with one final worried glance in Ariana’s direction. The door shut behind her with a clang and Ariana’s heart sank below her belly.
Lifting her chin high, she faced down her jailor.
“Why have you done this?” was the first thing she wanted to know.
“I should think that was obvious,” he said, moving toward her. But he stopped when she rapidly backed up several steps. Unfortunately, that put her back directly to the fireplace. There wasn’t much further she could go.
“That you’ve captured me to rape me and force me to be your concubine?” She narrowed cold eyes on him. “I had hoped it was something less barbaric. But what can I expect from you?”
“There will be no rape,” he said as he studied her. “And you will not be my concubine.”
She looked confused. “Then why…?”
“There will be no rape because you will come to me willingly
. And you will be much more than a concubine. You will be a wife. The mother of my children. You will hold a place of—“
“I will not!” she hissed. “I will never come to you willingly! You are a beast! And I most certainly will never be your wife! I am the leader of my country! I will not stand for this! The Sarens will not stand for this!”
“Think you they will go to war for you?” he asked mildly. “I don’t think they will. I don’t think you can afford another war so soon on the heels of the last.”
He was right but she wasn't going to let him know that.
“We are not so poor as that. After all, our coffers are full of Kiltian monies from the land sale.”
“Indeed? I would think you need a great deal of it to help relocated those who were ousted by the deal…and to pay your army which was woefully underfunded last my spies checked.”
“Spies. It figures you would have spies.”
“And you don’t?”
She didn’t reply. She folded her arms beneath her breasts.
“You have no power here,” he said to her softly. “And you are not the sort of woman who does well without having some power. But I could easily give you that power. As my raji…my wife.”
“I don’t need to be your trophy on your arm. Nor do I have any desire to be. I will be your wife when both hells freeze over.”
“Hmm. I see. You would rather be a concubine?”
“I would rather be home!”
“That is not an option for you. Your choices are between concubine and wife. I would give you the respect and power of wife. But if you prefer concubine then it can be arranged.”
“I loathe you,” she hissed.
“Do you? And what of the kiss?”
This made her hesitate and she felt a blush sweeping across her cheeks. She struggled to get the reaction under control but it was too late. He was well aware of it.
“Nothing was given. Like now it was only taken. I did not ask for it. Nor did I like it.”
He smiled with one corner of his mouth.
“I see. So someone else was in control of your tongue?”
She gasped and her blush grew more pronounced.
“I was just…it was just…I mean, there was no way for me to…deny you. You were completely running roughshod over me and I was just being…” She floundered.
“Polite?” he asked with amusement.
“Yes! I mean, no…I don’t know what I was doing. It was so long ago.”
“Two months is not so long as all of that.” He stepped closer to her and her pulse jumped into higher beats.
“It meant nothing to me.”
“I think you are a liar,” he accused her softly.
Another step.
She refused to back away. She held her ground though it took every ounce of her willpower to do so. Everything in her was screaming that she shouldn’t let him touch her. And she knew that was what he was working toward. Touching her.
“I am not a liar. You can fetch your little Jadoc friend if you like and he will tell you I am not lying,” she bluffed him.
He clearly wasn't fooled for a second.
“I do not need him. I know what I felt. And I know what you felt. And…I know you want to feel it again.”
Her heart was pounding at his words…because if she were being honest with herself, she might admit that that kiss had been the most alive she had felt in a long, long time. It had shaken her up. Right to her very foundations. And maybe she did want to feel that alive again.
However she wasn’t going to admit that. She wasn't going to admit that all of this, everything he had done, had put a lot of excitement in what had become a very predictable world. She wasn't going to admit it because he had robbed her of the choice of whether or not she actually wanted that excitement. Perhaps if he had gone about it differently. If he had wooed her as a Saren man would have.
But no. He had kidnapped her in some barbarous attempt at a seduction.
“I would rather kiss a goat,” she bit out at him.
“I shall fetch a goat and we’ll see whose tongue you’d rather have in your mouth,” he said silkily.
“You’re a pig.”
“From goats to pigs. A whole plethora of barnyard animals. What’s next? A goose?”
She yelped and jumped away from him when he reached out for her fanny, as if to goose her.
“Don’t you dare touch me!”
“Oh I’ll dare that and more,” he promised her, chasing her across the room, his steps slow and methodical. “I’ll touch you, kiss you…lick you…”
His words made heat broil under her skin and she couldn’t catch her breath. The thought of him licking his tongue against her skin sent rivers of desire right to her core. No! She couldn’t feel things like this! She wouldn’t!
“Stop!” she cried, holding out a hand to fend him off.
He grabbed hold of that hand and with a jerk sent her crashing into his body. She struggled as he wrapped one powerful arm around her, his hand in her lower back holding her up against him. They met chest-to-chest, belly-to-belly, and hip-to-hip. She tried to lean back away from him, but he was having none of it.
He bent his head to her neck and he drew in an audible breath through his nose. Was he sniffing her? Sniffing to smell his lotion on her skin and his soap in her hair. Everything just the way he wanted.
She turned her head and bit him on his ear.
He jerked back with a curse, but didn’t let her go. He touched his ear with his free hand and came away with a light streak of blood. Damn it, she hadn’t bit him hard enough. She should have ripped the thing off and spit it into his face.
“Let’s try that again,” he said with a wolfish grin. “Only this time let’s give you something else to bite on.”
He crashed his mouth down onto hers.
Damn it, what was he doing, Sin asked himself fiercely. This wasn’t what he had planned at all. He had meant to put her at ease somehow. To let her know he wasn't there to paw and manhandle or rape her. But it was going all wrong. He had seen her there, so proud and so painfully beautiful and he hadn’t been able to remain across the room. Then he had gotten close enough to smell her and he’d gotten instantly hard. Even her biting him had no effect on his raging libido. All he knew was if he didn’t taste her he would go mad. Just as he had been going mad every day since the day he had first laid eyes on her.
He kissed her deeply. As deeply as he dared without putting his tongue in her mouth. He had no desire to be bitten again. He would not give her his tongue until she begged for it.
Her body bowed back as she tried to lean away from him at first, but then she felt the heat of his mouth and was moaning softly against his lips. She had no idea that he felt the same thing she did every time their lips met. She had no idea that she was a fever in his blood that he could not make himself impervious to. She had no idea what it took for him to hold himself in check. That this was holding himself in check. If she knew the things he wanted to do to her right then, she would have pummeled him and screamed in fear. As it was he was shocked she was letting him kiss her with no savage reprisals on her part.
As he kissed her he felt her tense body soften…felt it go lax in his arms. The response of her mouth against his aroused him to blinding proportions. His hands went to the back of her waist, dragged up her back, pulled her in even tighter to his body. She could make no mistake about how much she aroused him. There was no mystery to the rampant response of his body.
Ariana pulled back from his mouth with a gasp. What was she doing? She couldn’t allow this! If she let him get away with this, then he would push for more and more! She had no desire to become his plaything. He tempted her with the title of wife as though it was somehow better and different than concubine, but the fact was for this man they would always be the same thing. They would both be a woman he controlled in all things.
She struggled in his grasp and she wrenched free of him, but a part of her mind realized th
at if he hadn’t wanted her to, there was no way she could have gotten free. He had let her go.
“Don’t touch me!” she gasped, her chest heaving for breath, her mouth burning from his kiss.
“I’m just reminding you of what you felt two months ago. What you will feel again. And again. And again.”
“I’ll feel nothing but being violated, for that is what it will be! A violation! A slow, methodical rape. Oh, you will couch it in terms like seduction, but it will still be rape!”
“I will not rape you!” he burst out, the first sign that she was getting to him. She didn’t realize that she’d been getting to him every moment of every day since he’d first met her. “Damn you, Ariana, it will not be rape. You will be warm and wet and willing. I’ll have you no other way! Think you I want to take you against your will? There is nothing in it for me if I can’t have you wanting me as much as I—goddamn it!”
He turned his back on her and ran a hand through his thick hair, mussing it wildly. She could see his jaw ticking as he clenched his teeth in frustration. She was afraid of him, finally realizing he was having difficulty keeping control over himself. There was something equalizing in that fact, but still she was afraid.
“If you only knew what I have—but you won’t. You never will. You don’t want to understand. Your only object in this world is to plague me. Harass me.”
“I harass you?” She scoffed. “I am not the one who has ripped you out of the only world you have known! Away from friends and family and those I love—“
“Ha! Those you love.” But here he hesitated. “I was told…I was told that you do not have any family living with you. I was told that you do not have a lover.” His head swiveled around and he narrowed his eyes on her. “Do you have a lover?”
“As if I would tell you!” she huffed. “It is none of your business!”
“It is my business. Everything the concerns you is my business now. I have made you completely dependent on me. There is nothing that will affect you that will not be my responsibility. Tell me if you have a lover you will be pining for.”
“Why does it make a difference to you? You will do what you want anyway!”
A Kiss of Fire Page 7
