Keeper of the Heart (41 page)

She blushed at the reference to that morning’s punishment. “No, that’s one worry you won’t have,” she grouched, making him chuckle and hug her.

“Do not begrudge your lifemate his duty. Better if you ensure that it is a duty he need not be burdened with very often.”

Excellent advice she intended taking to heart.

Her mother had some advice of her own to impart later that day. “Now that you’ve grown up, Shani, try keeping a lid on your newfound courage. A lack of fear comes in handy on occasion, but it can also get you into the damnedest predicaments.”

Shanelle just stared at her. “What courage?”

“The courage that stands up to your lifemate, quite frequently, I hear. The courage that socked that Sunderian witch on her ass—”

“Did Brock tell you about that?”

“No, Martha did. She was quite proud of you, actually.”

“Martha did,” Shanelle repeated with a frown. “You mean Martha was
there!
She could have— Martha!” Shanelle exploded. “You misbegotten metal—!”

“Take it easy, baby. You were found, remember. There wasn’t anything else Martha could do at that point except let matters take their natural course. I understand you weren’t complaining about it on the way home.”

“That’s beside the point.”

“No, that’s exactly the point. Martha usually knows what’s best for you, whether you think so at the time. I’ve learned that firsthand over the years, to my own exasperation. She allowed your father to claim me when she could have prevented it, because she knew he was what I was missing in my life. Well, she allowed Falon to find you because she knew your fears had to be faced before you believed they
could
be faced.”

“And was I right or was I right?” Martha purred from Tedra’s waist.

“Oh, shut up.”

And then Shanelle’s
fembair
wandered into the hall that evening and had warriors leaping to their feet and drawing swords. Shanelle had to quickly assure everyone that he was a pet and not to be confused with wild
fembairi.
Drevan was fascinated and, with a child’s lack of caution, was the first to approach the animal to pet him. The boy didn’t know it, but he gained the respect of quite a few warriors by doing so.

Shanelle joined them to say, “He likes to be scratched behind the ears.”

Drevan looked at her, then quickly away. “I—I thought you would not speak to me again.”

“Why on Sha-Ka’an would you think that?” Shanelle asked in surprise.

Drevan looked positively miserable. “I sent for your lifemate when you went to fight my mother. I have seen her fight. I had not seen you fight. I feared she would do you serious harm.”

“It’s all right, Drevan, I understand.”

“It is
not
all right. Everyone could hear your screams after.”

Shanelle’s face burst into heat. “Well, I’m not surprised,” she tried to joke. “You should have heard it from my vantage point. I’m not sure, but I think I broke my ears.” He gave her a stricken look. She sighed. “Really, Drevan, it’s okay. I shouldn’t have let your mother goad me into losing my temper, and Falon was just making sure I’d think twice about it the next time. I might not have appreciated it at the time, but I knew it was only done for my own good. And I’m not mad at him any longer, so why should I be mad at you?”

“Truly?”

“Absolutely.” She grinned.

He smiled back at her before he said, “Then I would tell you, my mother, she has been looking at me very strangely since the fight, as if she does not know me.”

“She
doesn’t
know you, Drevan, but maybe something I said to her actually sunk in.” And then she asked carefully, “Would you like her to get to know you? She owes me a challenge loss, and I’ve got nothing better to do with it.”

He shook his head. “I would not force an interest on her that is not there.”

“Could be it’s there now. But you’re right. Forcing the matter wouldn’t count for much.” She grimaced, adding, “Of course, that puts me back, to wondering what I can demand of her for her loss. Knowing me, I’ll probably just settle for an apology and leave it go at that.”

“You are much more merciful than I would have been,” Aurelet said behind them.

Shanelle turned with a raised brow. “Oh, I don’t know. Some people find apologies almost impossible to get out.”

“That is true, yet have I come to say I am sorry. Your mother has assured me that you could have done me serious damage with or without a sword. She also said she would ‘wipe the floor’ with me if I ever ‘bad-mouthed’ either of you again. I was not sure what that meant, yet was it unnecessary. I am able to learn from my mistakes.”

“Are you?”

Aurelet was staring at Drevan when she replied.

“Yes. I would like a word with my son, if you do not mind.”

“Sure.”

As Shanelle walked away, she noted Drevan’s surprise at hearing himself called “son” by that woman. She couldn’t begin to guess what might come of Aurelet’s newfound awareness of Drevan as an individual, rather than as an extension of the man who had long ago hurt her. Nothing, probably, but you just never knew. Children were much more forgiving than adults.

It was late when Shanelle finished with her bath and entered the bedroom to find Falon there waiting for her. He was already in bed, a muted glow from the gaali-stone shelves on each wall showing him watching her. She was wearing a two-piece sleep suit of softest Morrilia silk. He lifted a brow at this, for it was the first time she had come to bed other than naked.

“Do you mean to sleep in that, Shanelle?”

“That was my intention, yes.”

“I think not,” he replied, adding with a wolfish grin, “yet you are welcome to try.”

The familiar taunt made her snap, “I just might do that, warrior.”

He sighed. “So you are still angry with me? I will not touch you, if that is your wish.”

“That isn’t my wish,” she said in exasperation.

“And I wasn’t angry when I came in here, but you sure make it easy to get that way.”

She moved to her side of the bed and shrugged out of the sleep suit, then quickly tried to get beneath the covers. She wasn’t quick enough, not when his blue eyes were so intent on her. She heard him draw in a sharp breath, and then she was being rolled onto her stomach.

“Now do I see that you merely meant to spare me from knowing the results of my handiwork.”

His tone was filled with self-loathing, forcing Shanelle to assure him, “It’s not as bad as it—” She stopped as she was lifted into his arms and Falon started from the room. “Where are you taking me?”

When he didn’t answer, she trusted him enough not to ask again. And then she found out as he entered a room and she glanced back to see the meditech stored there. She was amazed to find herself laid in it.

“I don’t understand, Falon.”

He bent down to kiss her gently before he closed the lid, again without answering. A minute later gently the meditech opened by itself, the last effects of her punishment now gone. Falon lifted her out and started back toward their rooms. Shanelle wrapped her arms around his neck, well pleased with her warrior at the moment.

“I guess you changed your mind, huh?” she said, grinning up at him.

“A warrior could wish the skin of his lifemate was not so delicate.”

He gave a long-suffering sigh, as if she had managed on purpose to have skin that bruised easily, just to thwart him. Shaneile chuckled and squeezed his neck a little tighter.

“It really wasn’t so bad,” she told him. “By this evening I’d even stopped flinching when I sat down.”

“You think to assure me you can withstand future punishments? This is already known to me,
kerima,
in closely observing you this rising. Merely will you go straight from the crying to the meditech next time, before your bruises appear.”

“Why, you farden jerk.” She hit his shoulder even as she laughed. “You’re all heart.”

“You would prefer it did I speak to your brother?”

“No! No, don’t do that. Actually, you’ll probably find that you never have to punish me again, so why don’t we bury that subject in the ground, okay?”

He smiled almost wickedly as he laid her back in their bed, then leaned over her. “I have another thing that needs burying first, woman.”

“Don’t bother explaining, warrior.” There was no “almost” about the wickedness of
her
smile. “Just show me.”

“Why did he call your mother warrior woman?” Shaneile twirled a lock of Falon’s hair about her finger as she lay curled into his side. He didn’t seem any more tired than she was, but it had been quite a day, filled with so many extremes in emotion, so that was understandable.

“Because she’s an expert in weaponless fighting, the serious, deadly kind,” she answered him.

“She’s taken on warriors before and bested them. Why do you think you ended up with a dunking so easily?”

Falon stiffened. “How did you know of that?”

“Brock told Martha and Martha told me. Get used to it, Falon. It’s almost impossible to hide anything when there are Mock IIs around.”

“They will not be around for longer than your parents’ visit.”

Her eyes widened. “Are you kidding? How do you think my mother knew to come when she did? Martha has been monitoring me ever since I got here.”

Falon closed his eyes in defeat. “Tell me how I may put an end to this monitoring.”

“I’m not completely happy yet here, Falon. Until I am, I doubt Martha will stop keeping tabs on me. Hell, she may not even stop then.”

He was no longer interested in the monitoring. “You are still resentful of your punishment?”

“No.”

He raised himself up to demand almost angrily, “Then why are you not happy?”

She almost smiled, he looked so exasperated, but this was no subject for amusement. “I told you, there is something that you haven’t got around to telling me.” A sadness entered her voice when she added, “You may never get around to it.”

Gently now, cupping her cheek in his hand, he said, “Shanelle, I would not deny you mere words if they will make you happy. You are the keeper of my heart, the only one I can ever love. Tell me what I must say—”

“You just said it—I think.” And then, in wonder: “You love me, Falon? Ba-Har-ani warriors actually experience love?”

“Those fortunate enough to find the keepers of their hearts do. But do not tell me this is what you waited to hear, woman, for this was told you.”

“It wasn’t. I wouldn’t have overlooked something that important to me.”

“When I asked you to be the keeper of my heart, I was asking you to accept my love.”

“Well, how was I to know?” she complained. “It’s not as if your country and mine are exactly alike. You have to
explain
these things to me, Falon.”

“Then let me explain this,” he said as he rolled her over again to assume the position he was most fond of. “My life is yours. My heart is yours. Now do I also give you my child.”

Shanelle gasped at the words, then again as he entered her with exquisite slowness. Then she couldn’t make another sound, for he was kissing her as deeply as he was buried within her, and the feelings that had only just died down from their previous joining rose again with raging swiftness. And it was not long before she climaxed in a starburst of sweet passion, having no doubt at all that her warrior had done as he said and given her his child this night.

When he rolled to his side this time, she crawled onto his chest to assume the position
she
was most fond of—at least for afterwards. “Don’t you want to hear me say it?”

“Say what?”

“That I love you, too?”

“This is already known to me, woman. I am not as lagging in intuition as you.”

“Is that right?” she growled in mock anger. “Then I guess I don’t need to say it again.”

“I would not mind hearing it on occasion, as well as being shown.”

“Don’t try to make amends now—”

The teasing died abruptly as Shanelle heard a scream, a very frustrated scream that she easily recognized as her mother’s. She groaned and covered her ears, hiding her face against Falon’s chest.

“I am sorry,
chemar”
he said, holding her tightly, trying his best to soothe her. “I should not have put them in a room so close to ours.”

No sooner had he said that than they both heard Tedra laugh. Shanelle gritted her teeth and made a sound of disgust over the discomfort she’d been made to feel. “I swear, I don’t think my father takes punishment very seriously these days.”

Falon could not help laughing. “When you have had a lifemate as long as he has, you know when she is sufficiently remorseful.”

Shanelle reared up to give him the benefit of a dark scowl. “Are you telling me I’ll have to wait that long before you start easing up on the strength behind
my
punishments?”

“That is very likely.”

Wanna bet
? she said—but not aloud.