Barbarian Prince (10 page)

Drak scanned the woman assessingly. “Kadin’s clothing seems to fit you quite well. I will see that the tailor uses those measurements.”

Meaning she would be there and in need of clothing for a while?

That possibility at least eased some of her anxiety since he surely wouldn’t be planning to do anything horrible—like kill her or torture her—if he was going to have clothing made for her.

On the other hand, that also seemed to indicate he planned to hold her quite a while.

“
Kadin?” she asked, instead of posing the questions she really wanted to ask.

His dark brows rose. “My son.”

“
Oh.” She glanced around uncomfortably and finally headed toward the stool on the opposite side of the hearth since it seemed to her that the time had come for the interrogation she’d been dreading and she thought she might be too wobbly-kneed to stand throughout.

She wasn’t going anywhere
near
the bed!

Not that she was convinced she would find it appalling if he
did
decide to have sex with her, but she also wasn’t sure it
wouldn’t
be an ordeal and she saw no sense in doing something that might provoke him.

He propped an arm on the arm of the chair, bending that arm to support his chin on his fist. “You are not of Aiper’s sister world, K’naiper, and you are certainly not from this world. Where is it that you come from?”

Noelle stared at him owl eyed, trying to think if she’d worked up a believable lie to cover that particular question, but if she had, it abandoned her the moment he asked.

“
I suppose I should say, where are your people?”

Noelle blinked at him. Not for a moment did she believe he wanted to know so he could return her. She wasn’t sure why he did want to know, but it was certainly not for that reason.

More importantly, would it endanger the people of the colony if she told him?

She was pretty sure it would.

On the other hand, the colony was blatantly obvious if he should go looking—not hidden—and just as clearly alien so what would be the point in trying to lie and would it gain her valuable points in his favor if she simply went ahead and gave him information that he could easily obtain himself?

“
We have established a colony on K’naiper,” she responded after a prolonged moment.

Amusement flickered in his eyes and she was certain that was because of her garbled pronunciation of the name.

He looked away, studying the flames on the hearth. “So your people have decided to make a place for themselves there. You are warring with the villagers at Tealdim?”

It was news to her that the place had a name, but she supposed he knew it since he was obviously referring to the village where she’d been held captive. And he seemed to know she’d been a captive rather than a welcome visitor. “It would be more accurate to say they were warring with us. We sent a delegation to make a treaty, but ….” She broke off and shrugged. “That’s when me and Monica were captured.”

He frowned, as if trying to recall the incident. “The darkling that was with you?”

Indignation fluttered in Noelle’s chest. “My friend with the dark skin,” she responded tightly.

He looked at her in surprise and then with a mixture of amusement and anger. “You are offended by my choice of words and yet you use much the same description. Why is darkling offensive and dark skinned not?”

Uneasiness slithered through Noelle. He was way too big—and powerful—for her to simply dismiss the possibility of pissing him off. “You called her a name. I described her,” she said a little weakly, it having occurred to her that she didn’t have a clue of whether he’d intended the comment as an insult or not.

He looked genuinely puzzled. “We all have names—for ourselves as individuals, for our tribe or clan …?”

Noelle felt her face redden. She didn’t want to try to explain prejudice even if it wasn’t something complicated enough she didn’t feel competent enough to explain it. Instead, she searched her mind for something to change the subject. “K’naiper means sister to Aiper?”

The amusement was unmistakable this time, but he sobered at once. “Yes. More accurately, I suppose, she is the wandering sister. Long, long ago, in the distant memory of the people, she came. She brought much sorrow with her, much death and destruction. But then the god, Aiper, set her in her place and bade her to behave herself or he would cast her from the family once more and she would wander forever. She promised to behave and so Aiper made a place for her, taking this colder path for himself so that little sister could stay warm.”

Noelle stared at him as she absorbed the story of the twin worlds, trying to decide if it was a story he and his people still believed in or if it was just how his people, in their distant, primitive past had explained what must have been a cataclysm to end all natural disasters! It sounded as if he was saying the sister world was a rogue that had wandered into their system and taken up a place, shoving their world further from the sun and making it far less habitable, maybe, than it had been.

But was that true? Or was it just made up to explain things much as primitive humans had tried to come up with stories to explain things that happened around them?

And how had it come about that some of their people were here and others on the other world? Specifically, it seemed that the sexes had been separated and that didn’t seem likely to be accidental at all.

Of course, she supposed they might have been separated and the women thrived there but not here and the men, maybe, were being systematically killed off in the raids these tribesmen made for females? Maybe that explained why the ‘Amazons’ made themselves up to look androgynous? It was to throw off the raiders?

“
Your turn.”

Dragged from her thoughts so abruptly, Noelle stared at the Prince blankly. “My turn?” she echoed.

“
To tell me about your people,” he prompted. “You see, I have been trying to decide how you can be most useful to me and I thought you might answer that yourself.”

Uh oh, Noelle thought.

Noelle wasn’t entirely certain of how it happened. She hadn’t thought she was within reach of the Prince when she’d settled on the stool. Clearly, she’d been mistaken, however, for he simply leaned forward, grasped her arms, and dragged her to him. One moment she was trying to think of something ‘safe’ she could say that would make her sound useful enough to insure her safety without getting her into deep shit. The next, she was sprawled awkwardly across his knees, watching his face go out of focus as it descended toward hers.

She jumped when the heat of his mouth covered hers, sucking in a sharp breath. But that quick intake dragged his scent with it. A wave of debilitating dizziness followed. His taste, as he settled his mouth over hers and plunged his tongue into her mouth, lit her up like a Christmas tree. Electrical sparks zipped along every nerve ending, it seemed. Warmth flowed through her and became molten as he deepened the kiss and began to strum her body with his hands as if he was playing a musical instrument.

It occurred to her as he rose with her and strode toward the bed—she assumed—that she was about to get teased unmercifully—again.

Maybe it was his idea of torture, pleasurable but still miserable dealing with the unsatisfied aftermath?

It could’ve been a very great deal worse, but she wasn’t inclined to think so at that moment.

And yet she also couldn’t see much possibility of assuaging the hunger flowing from him and into her.

He was actually amazingly adept!

He had loosened the waist of the trousers and stripped them down her legs almost before she felt the tug.

Unfortunately, they hung there on the damned boots!

Plus her breasts felt achingly tight and full, throbbing for his touch.

He shoved one hand beneath the tunic and tormented her by plucking at her nipples with his fingers and massaging her breasts all the while he explored her mouth with his and made her drunk with need.

He broke the kiss, grabbed the tunic and jerked it over her face, burrowing his face against her breasts.

Noelle came up off the bed in a bow as he caught one nipple between his teeth and pinched it hard enough it took her a few seconds to decide whether it was more pleasure or pain she felt.

The muscles in her sex were not in doubt. They began to clench and unclench rather frantically, in a milking motion that pumped liquid want through her channel.

He sucked that tormented nipple hard after he’d teased it with the edge of his teeth and then switched to the twin to torture it as he had the first. Noelle grabbed two fistfuls of his long, golden brown hair, discovering it was amazingly silky to the touch.

His head felt absolutely
enormous
caught between her hands, making her suddenly acutely conscious of just how huge the man was—as if the hand and mouth that engulfed her breast wasn’t enough!

If everything on him was as big ….

He distracted her by leaning away and jerking first the boots off and then her trousers.

Actually, it wasn’t a distraction. It brought her to cold hard focus, ripped away the glow of heated desire.

According to sex class and social protocols, a woman didn’t let a man get that far and then say ‘I’ve changed my mind!’—not if they were smart and wanted to avoid what might turn into deadly opposition to her conflicted desires. Men—Earth men who weren’t savages—weren’t inclined to take rejection well at any point, but they could get really nasty if a woman let them make it almost to the finish line and tried to yank the rug out from under them.

She stared at him, wide eyed, trying to decide if it was possible that she could make it into the bathroom and bar the door before he could catch her.

No, she decided, wasn’t an option at this point if it ever had been.

His chest was almost as broad as she was tall!

The muscles on his upper arms were bigger than her thighs!

Oh my god!
The man was a monster!

Tossing his tunic off, he dove at her again, covering her mouth with his.

Noelle struggled to retain her sanity and ignore the lure of his taste and scent and touch.

It was a losing battle.

Everything about the man—including his size—made her drunk with need, hunger, desire.

The fear that he might rip her half—willingly or accidentally—played along the fringes of her mind, but she couldn’t make her body or mind see reason. The heat flowing through her demanded appeasement.

She struggled to see what sort of ‘weapon’ he had to work with when she realized he’d unfastened his own trousers and unearthed his ‘man thing’ but didn’t manage to get so much as a glimpse before she felt the probe of his flesh as he searched for the mouth of her sex.

The moisture that had made her slippery wet with need abruptly vanished. The mouth of her sex closed tightly the moment she felt the size of the thing butting against her.

The Prince thrust uselessly a couple of times and then reared upward to look at her.

He must have seen something of her doubts in her expression. He seemed to pause as if debating whether to continue or withdraw.

Apparently, he wasn’t ready to concede defeat. After that brief pause, he lowered himself against her and focused on kissing her senseless while he explored her with his hands.

Her treacherous body responded regardless of her conviction that whatever he was swinging hadn’t been made for her because they weren’t the same!

He seemed to think he could make it fit if he just lubricated it enough and pushed hard enough!

That was so very human of him that she managed to, mostly, forget he wasn’t!

He aligned his cock with her entrance and focused on distracting her. The moment she relaxed enough he thought it possible to breach her defenses, he thrust, wedging the head of his cock into the mouth of her sex.

For a handful of seconds, it seemed their heated flesh welded together and she wouldn’t be able to produce enough lubrication to break the deadlock.

But he kissed her again.

And drove into with relentless determination and her body yielded to the greater force—with burning reluctance!

He paused when he’d conquered the channel. She thought more to catch his breath than to allow her time to adjust, but the results were the same. Thankfully!

The burning eased and she was able to redirect her mind from the fear of tearing to the feel of his member inside her.

It felt indescribably good.

And when he withdrew and thrust again, setting a desperate rhythm to match the sense of desperation their mutual hunger had aroused, it felt better by leaps and bounds. She didn’t have time to wonder if she would manage to achieve climax. His girth left no part of her channel in want of stimulation. The friction of his thrusts against the walls, pounding against her g-spot, set her on fire. His own desire, clearly evident in his harsh breaths and the deep shaking she felt in his big body, drove her swiftly toward her peak. She paused at the summit, teetering maddeningly. Clenching her eyes tightly, she focused on grasping the prize and then gasped in a sharp breath when her body took the leap and the rapturous waves began to rattle her to her soul.

She was dimly aware that he followed her, reaching climax almost the moment her body began to shudder and quake, but she was too sublimely satisfied with her own pleasure to spare a lot of thought to his.

Well, beyond the satisfaction that she’d proven her ‘usefulness’ to him.

She tried not to smile at that thought, but she was so relieved that she’d not only survived the ravishment but had actually managed to enjoy it that she couldn’t completely contain it.

Fortunately, she didn’t have to worry about him noticing it!

He rolled off of her as soon as he’d finished and bounded off the bed as if he’d been ejected. Striding quickly toward the bathing facilities, he slammed the door behind him with a resounding bang that rattled her eardrums.

Dismay flickered through Noelle’s satisfaction. With an effort, she pushed herself up and stared at the door in consternation.

The sound of rushing water filtered to her through the wooden panel.

What the hell? There was running water?

Not only was there running water but a cloud of steam followed the Prince out when he emerged some twenty minutes later, still dripping water.

Noelle was torn. She’d tried every frigging thing she could think of to get that damned shower to work and had finally concluded that it must be fed by a cistern built on the roof to catch rain water and that the water was frozen solid!

She felt stupid. Obviously, she just hadn’t figured out how to work the damned thing!

Beyond that, she’d begun to get a sinking feeling about the whole sex business because she couldn’t help but notice the Prince didn’t seem particularly impressed.

Well! She
damned
sure wasn’t going to let on how impressed she’d been with his performance!

The asshole!

Trying to appear just as unmoved as he seemed, she got off the bed, gathered her discarded clothing and headed into the facilities.

If the damned shower worked, she could damned well figure it out!

She couldn’t. She tried everything and finally gave up and got dressed.

The Prince gave her a cool look when she left the bathroom. “You did not shower,” he said disapprovingly.

How
dare
the savage act like she was uncivilized! “I didn’t feel like it!” she snapped sulkily before she thought better of it.

His brows rose, but although he narrowed his eyes at her, he apparently decided not to pursue the fight she’d stupidly tried to provoke. “Well, you must give some thought to how you might be useful to me and we will discuss it later.”

Noelle turned to gape at the bastard in disbelief.

Unfortunately, or maybe fortunately given her circumstances, he was oblivious to her outrage since he’d already turned his back on her and strode to the door. By the time he reached it, she’d had time to recover enough to reconsider glaring at him, or worse, throwing something. She thought he paused and looked back at her, but she was glaring at the fire on the hearth so she wasn’t sure.

“
Fuck!” Drak muttered as he closed the door behind him, lifting a shaking hand to scrub it over his face.

He wasn’t sure of what had just happened beyond mind-blowing sex, but it had certainly been that and he was in no condition to think straight at the moment, let alone figure it out—or in fact anything! As in, whether or not he had just made a hell of a mistake in his handling of her.

Shaking his head, he considered heading down to the great hall and then reconsidered and headed up to the battlements instead to clear his head.

On the one hand, arriving in the great hall befuddled from a bout of great sex might more firmly impress upon his men that he was serious in his claim on the woman. On the other, it could be dangerous if he appeared to be vulnerable where she was concerned.

He trusted his men—to an extent and within reason. He didn’t trust
all
of his men with his life, however.

Noelle’s anger evolved into an urge to cry almost the moment the door closed behind the Prince. She wasn’t sure of why she felt the urge. It wasn’t from being just that furious—because she wasn’t. It wasn’t fear based, because she discovered she had lost the bulk of her fear.

It shouldn’t have been emotional wounding.

She had a sneaking suspicion that it might be, however—maybe purely injured ego and maybe disappointment.

She found him attractive—in a scary sort of way.

There was no getting around the fact that he was an absolutely magnificent male specimen—alien or not!

She couldn’t think of anything he’d done, however, to engage even a modicum of real affection—beyond seeing to her comfort and not killing her or raping and torturing her.

Were gratitude and admiration enough to sow the seeds of affection, though?