Captive Mail (7 page)

Inga thought about the deep blue eyes of her captive, the sense that he was honestly trying to communicate with her.

But how could she tel ? Like most men, he’d probably do anything to escape his destiny.

“He said he saw me in his dreams,” Inga whispered.

“Your male?” Sigrun smiled. “How wonderful. Perhaps he wil accept his fate more wil ingly than most, then.”

“But what if he is right and things have changed? What should we do about it?”

“We can send out a search party to the summer palace where he claims the queen is residing and see if he speaks the truth about that at least.” Sigrun paused. “Is that what you want to do?”

Inga met her mother’s sympathetic gaze and simply nodded.

“Wake up, male.”

Harlan opened his eyes to find Frytha standing over him with two guards behind her. He yawned and tried to stretch the stiffness out of his limbs. He needed to train, but there was no room in his cel for him to do much more than climb the wal s in frustration.

Frytha tugged at his arm. “Get up!”

He frowned at her as he swung his legs over the side of the bed. “I’m doing my best, female.”

She snorted something at him and waved the guards forward. One of them took the chain attached to the col ar around his neck and tugged on it.

“Where are we going?” Harlan asked as they escorted him out into the quiet hal way.

No one answered him and he resigned himself to walking quietly between the guards. They led him toward the central atrium where he could hear voices and the sounds of running water. Steam shimmered in the air above the water and the scent of perfume teased at his senses.

“Firstly, you wil bathe,” Frytha, ordered.

For once, Harlan was more than happy to obey her. He stepped down into the first of the pools and sighed as he realized the water was warm. It was deep enough for him to immerse himself completely and he immediately ducked his head under the water. A tug on his chain reminded him that he was not free and he reluctantly surfaced, letting the water drip down his face.

Frytha scowled at him. “Behave yourself, male.” She pointed at the side of the pool. “You wil be chained to the wal so you cannot escape.”

Harlan watched as the guard tethered the other end of his chain to the ornate fitting. It was obvious that he wasn’t the first male who had been kept captive within the temple.

He wondered about his predecessors, what had happened to them, whether they stil lived? But worrying was a fruitless exercise. The pool was quite large and he had some freedom of movement and he intended to enjoy every moment of it.

Ignoring Frytha, he sank below the surface again and trod water, enjoying the warmth seeping into his tired muscles and the sensation of weightlessness. Eventual y, he became aware of some muted shouting and another body joined him in the water, grabbed his shoulder and forced him to surface.

As he shook the water from his face, he realized that a crowd of women had gathered around the edge of the pool and that al of them were shrieking and pointing at him.

Frytha was shouting too, but luckily he couldn’t hear her over everyone else.

“You fool, did you think to escape your fate?”

He swiveled around to discover that it was the princess who had jumped into the water and dragged him to the surface. Her thin silk tunic was soaked through and plastered to her skin. He could clearly see the hard tips of her nipples and the curve of her ample breasts.

“Princess, I had no thought of escape. I was just enjoying myself.”

She blinked at him. “By trying to drown yourself?”

“I was simply holding my breath and treading water.”

She narrowed her brown eyes at him. “You lie.”

He slid a hand around her neck and drew her close. “No, let me show you.” Ignoring the crowd of women, he drew in a deep breath and then kissed her open mouthed, drawing her down under the water. She tried to push him away, but he wrapped himself around her, making it impossible for her to escape. When she tried to pul her mouth away from his, he kissed her even harder, sharing his breath with her until she started to kiss him back.

Her thighs clamped around one of his and he slid his other hand down to caress her ass and press her firmly against him. Even in the depths of the water, he felt her shiver and squirm, her nipples now hard against his skin.

By the gods, he wanted her, wanted his cock deep inside her cunt, making her come al around him.

Patiently, he shared his remaining breath with her, kept his cock from ruining everything and gently pushed off from the bottom of the pool to bring them back to the surface. He kept kissing her and slid one hand lower between her ass cheeks to find her wet and open to his questing fingers.

She moaned into his mouth and he pressed two fingers deep inside her in a rhythm that matched the languid thrust of his tongue. Her thighs tightened around his and he was even aware of the swol en nub of her clit rubbing against him. If only he could make her come like this, wrapped around him, her body open for the taking.

He growled as another hand grabbed him, nearly tearing his arm out of its socket.

“Let go of the Princess, male, or we wil kil you.”

Harlan reluctantly opened his eyes to find that two of the guards had joined them in the pool and that one of them held a dagger to his throat.

Inga pushed at his chest and he reluctantly let her go.

She turned to the guards. “I am unharmed. You may resume your duties.”

She turned back to Harlan; her mouth swol en from his kisses, and licked her lips, her eyes wide and ful of passion.

“When you have finished here, the guards wil bring you to me.”

“Aye, my lady.” He inclined his head, aware of the ache in his cock and his strange need for this beautiful, aloof,
difficult
stranger who had captured him purely for his seed.

Perhaps now she would al ow him to get to know her as a woman, rather than as a tyrant. Perhaps now she would trust him enough to get to know him.

Inga paced the training room, her thoughts in a whirl as she remembered the sensation of being pressed against the male. After she’d unthinkingly jumped into the water to save him, he’d kept her safe, even provided her with his life breath when he could have broken her neck or drowned her. And what was even more perplexing was that she’d let him, had clung to him and rubbed herself almost to a climax against his muscled thigh. Thank the goddess that the guards had stepped in or she’d stil be in his arms while he fucked her.

“Princess?”

Inga spun around to see Lady Hilda approaching. “Yes?”

“Are you sure you want the male to train with the women today?”

“Why shouldn’t he?” Inga asked.

“Because of his behavior in the pool earlier,” Hilda reminded her. “Surely he deserves to be punished for handling you so roughly?”

“He didn’t hurt me. In truth, he kept me afloat and stopped me from sinking to the bottom.”

Lady Hilda sighed. “I suppose that is true. I must admit, my heart was in my mouth when you jumped in the pool when we thought he was drowning.”

Inga strapped on her armor. “I only started to worry when I realized how my clothes were dragging me down. I don’t swim very wel at al .”

“Then perhaps he has good instincts at heart.”

Inga raised her head to look at Hilda. “Do you truly believe men have those?”

“Some do.” Hilda blushed. “My first husband was very kind and gentle. It was only after his death, when the other males started to fight over me, that I lost my trust in them.”

She passed Inga her sword belt. “Your father was a kind man as wel .”

Inga bit her lip. She never discussed her father, not even with her mother. He’d abandoned her just as much as al the other males in her life.

“Send the male to me when he is ready. I’l make sure he behaves himself.”

Lady Hilda bowed her head. “Your mother told me to tel you that the search party has left for the summer palace.

They should return tomorrow.”

“Thank you.” Inga smiled and turned to the far more pleasurable task of polishing her weapons.

*

She was indeed the warrior princess of his dreams.

Harlan paused at the entrance to the large empty room and contemplated Inga, who was dressed in a short leather tunic and metal armor molded to fit her body. Her long fair hair was gathered in a single braid down her back and she was examining a workmanlike sword. She was tal for a female, which suited him wel . He imagined her long legs wrapped around his waist as she fought him for dominance in bed and felt his cock kick up.

A shove from one of the guards sent him farther into the room. Inga looked up, unsmiling.

“You wil train with us. You wil show the women how easily a man thinks to overpower a weaker woman and
I
wil show them how to overcome your supposed advantages.”

Harlan bowed. “As you wish, my lady.” He was looking forward to the exercise and more than wil ing to demonstrate how careful he could be with a woman.

“Where do you wish me to stand?”

She pointed at a central spot. “There.”

The guards walked him over there and attached his chain to the floor.

“Am I to have no weapons?”

“No.”

Harlan tested out his range of motion. “But I hardly have room to move.”

“Exactly.”

“Then how is this fair?” He frowned at the princess. “You might as wel bait a tethered
wulfran
.”

She stood up and for a moment he forgot his complaints as he marveled at her lithe grace and the elegant flow of her muscles.

“Perhaps that is what they need to see you as. Some ‘thing’ that can do them no harm.”

“A
thing
that they can take revenge on?” Harlan held her gaze. “I am not responsible for every male who has wronged one of your women. And I certainly don’t want to hurt anyone accidental y.”

“Yet you represent them.”

“And does treating me like that make you any better than the males you profess to despise? Deliberately hurting a defenseless being?”

She stormed up to him until they were nose to nose. “You are insolent!”

“And you are going to use me as a punching bag for al the past il s of Valhal a.”

“So?”

He let out his breath. “I wil not fight.”

“You must. Al men fight for no reason at al .”

“Not al of us.”

She shoved him hard in the chest. “You wil
fight
!”

He regained his balance and stared her down. “Nay.”

She drew back her arm and slapped him hard on the cheek, making his head snap back. “Fight!”

He shook his head and she stepped away, cradling her hand against her breastplate. “Lady Hilda. Send the first four females in.”

He waited, fists clenched at his side, as the women approached him. They had cudgels and wooden swords and he had nothing but his wits and his stupid desire to prove a point to the princess to protect him.

The first tentative poke of the sword made him back away, but he couldn’t go far and the woman pursued him, her expression intent as he sidestepped again to avoid her.

He winced as she caught him again. He was a trained warrior. It would be easy to disarm al of the women in a second, but what would that prove? A cudgel caught him on the hip and he went down and set his teeth, expecting a beating he had no intention of avoiding. He could only hope it wouldn’t leave too many scars.

“Princess, why won’t he fight back?”

Harlan stayed where he was on his knees, the women gathered around him.

“He says he doesn’t want to hurt any of you,” Inga said reluctantly.

There was a smal silence. “He doesn’t?”

“Apparently not.”

Harlan grimaced at the princess’s unconvinced tone and then slowly looked up. “I wouldn’t hurt any of you, even if I was free.”

More silence fol owed and one of the women dropped her sword to the ground. “He doesn’t look very dangerous.”

“No, he doesn’t,” agreed another. Harlan let out his breath as they al looked at Princess Inga.

She sheathed her sword and marched across to him, making the other women draw back.

“Stand up, male.”

Harlan got up and wiped away a trickle of blood from his lip.

Inga gestured at the guards. “Release his chain and give him a sword.”

Lady Hilda stepped forward, “Princess, are you sure you…?”

“I’m sure he’s lying. Watch him try to kil me.”

“I don’t think your mother would approve,” Lady Hilda said frantical y.

Inga ignored her and waited as the guards released the chain at Harlan’s throat. Harlan stretched out his shoulders and flexed his muscles. He was free for the first time in weeks. He reckoned he could overcome Inga and be away before anyone could stop him. But would that be the right thing to do? If he ran, he’d only reinforce her views that al males were the same. Harlan sighed and weighed the sword one of the guards placed in his hand. He’d have to lose to the princess. At least none of the king’s companions were around to see him fail. They’d find it highly amusing.

His musings were cut short as the princess attacked him.

He only just managed to step out of range as her blade whistled perilously close to his chest. In truth, they were evenly matched. She was ful y protected by her armor and had a sword and a dagger. He had a sword and nothing to protect his skin at al . She was also a good fighter. He wondered, as she circled him, who had trained her. Had it been a former lover or her father?