Chapter 8 #2
Was he actually going to be reasonable? she wondered. “Yes.”
“Then hear mine. You will remain here after all, until the new rising.”
She just stared at him while all the implications of that statement ricocheted through her mind; then she wailed, “You haven’t listened to anything I’ve said, have you?”
“Indeed I have, and what I hear is your fear. It is you who have not listened.”
“Well, here’s some more fear for you,” she said with rising panic. “If you touch me again, Falon Van’yer, I’ll farden well scream my head off. I’ll have every warrior in this park here in a matter of moments.”
She’d do no such thing. She didn’t want the stubborn man to die, just to let her go.
But he wasn’t being reasonable. Not even a little.
He wasn’t even being rational. He ought to know he couldn’t get away with keeping her against her wishes, even for a short time.
Had he lost sight of where he was and what laws governed here?
His next words answered that question and said he didn’t care. “Does it become necessary to fight for you, woman, this I will do.”
That utterly infuriated her. “That’s right! Be civilized about this, why don’t you? For once I almost wish you were a warrior, when that is the last kind of man I’d want. But at least they don’t fight over women unless it is to protect them—and what the hell are you grinning about?”
“You have a temper.”
Again she stared at him. Her temper amused him? Was there no avenue for reaching this man, then, not even anger?
Shanelle took a deep breath and tried calm reasoning. “Look, you had your fun, Falon. Why can’t you just let it go at that?”
“Is it your thought that I took pleasure of your unconscious body?”
“Well, didn’t you?”
“No, I did not.”
He sounded offended now. Shanelle was merely horrified by his answer.
She’d thought all that turbulent emotion of his had been expended, released within her body.
She had the aches to say it should have been.
But he’d been deceiving her with his calmness.
That intensity was still there, hidden, just waiting to finish her off.
“All right, so it’s been a disaster all the way around,” she said, hearing the anxiety back in her voice, but unable to help it. “I’m sorry, Falon, but I’m not going through that again—not with you.”
This didn’t disturb him. He merely pointed out, “You have admitted to wanting me. When your fear is gone, you will want me again. Then do we see your first joining ended properly.”
“No…we…won’t! I won’t. And in case that still isn’t clear enough for you, that means I refuse to share sex with you again, flatly, no mind-changing about it. I’m also through trying to convince you of that fact. I have people waiting for me. I’m leaving.”
“You are welcome to try.”
Once again she recognized the “don’t bother” in those words.
And he said it so calmly, unaware or uncaring of the avalanche of trouble that was going to roll down on his head if she didn’t return to her father’s pavilion before the end of the day.
All her mother had to do was get to her own computer-link unit and ask Martha where she was.
Martha…Stars, how could she have forgotten?
Shanelle bent and swept up her belt with the attached computer link before Falon thought to stop her, then hit the voice-activator button. “Martha, I need help!”
Out of the unit came a very bruised voice. “So now I’m nice to have around, am I?”
“Get out of sulking mode, Martha. You can rub it into the ground later all you like; just do something now!”
The last word was said as Shanelle dodged Falon’s reaching hand. She’d spoken in Kystrani, but that could be a language he understood. Whether he did or not, he’d heard Martha’s voice and wasn’t too happy about it. Martha was amused, however, and chuckling to show it.
“It looks like warriors aren’t the only hardheads around this place,” she purred goadingly in Sha-Ka’ani so Falon would understand.
“Don’t get him angry!” Shanelle snapped.
“But men are so amusing when they get—”
“Martha, please!” Shanelle was still having to dodge Falon’s hands.
“Oh, all right,” Martha said grudgingly. “Pay attention, Mr. Van’yer. I’m a Mock II computer. If you haven’t heard of me—”
“I know computers,” Falon almost growled.
Martha gave a perfect simulation of a sigh. “And here I thought I was going to get to brag a little.”
“Turn it off, woman,” he ordered Shanelle.
She slowly shook her head. She knew he was angered by Martha’s inclusion in their little party, but she wasn’t sure he understood what a Mock II was capable of, especially one in control of an entire spaceship. She almost felt sorry for the frustration he was going to experience—almost.
“Turning Martha’s voice off won’t make her go away, Falon.
She’s been with me all along because she’s housed right now in a Transport Rover and is in control of all the ship’s systems, including scanning and monitoring.
That means she’s able to hear me and anyone around me, and keep track of our movements, whether this computer-link unit is on or off. ”
“She has heard—?”
“Everything, big guy,” Martha cut in with another chuckle.
“And I must say I was impressed, especially since only warriors are known to possess your kind of barbarian dominance. You never got around to saying, but I’d sure like to know what planet you hail from, because probables tells me it’s either this one or Sha-Ka’ar. ”
Falon didn’t appear the least bit embarrassed over knowing that their joining had been monitored, but Shanelle had assumed Martha had given her a little privacy for that, especially since she hadn’t been Transferred out of Falon’s tent when she had first wanted to leave.
She was red-cheeked now, but not so embarrassed that she missed the deduction Martha had drawn.
She didn’t know why it hadn’t occurred to her, since she knew the Sha-Ka’ari had come here to visit their mother planet before.
Tedra always hated it when they did, despising the Sha-Ka’ari for what they had done to her own planet all those years ago, and she always had Martha keep tabs on them until they left Sha-Ka’an.
But Martha hadn’t been here to do that for these competitions.
And Sha-Ka’ari warriors might not reach the seven-foot category after so many years of mating with slaves from their planet and those captured from others, but they were still exceptionally big and tall men—and they could be black-haired and blue-eyed.