Keeper of the Heart (9 page)

Suddenly Shanelle realized that if she proceeded, she might be letting herself in for some unwanted pain—and not just the kind that went along with losing one’s virginity. Stars, why hadn’t that occurred to her sooner? But look at him! He was absolutely gorgeous. And he was the one who had knocked her socks off. There was no getting around that.

She bit her lip in indecision. Dared she take the chance? Damn it, yes! It was incredible that she’d found him at all and so soon, so she wasn’t going to press her luck by looking any further. And he might be big, but that didn’t mean he wouldn’t be careful with her.

She stepped back a little to relieve the strain on her neck that staring up at him was causing. He caught her hand, however, and pulled her right back. And he did not release her hand now that he had it. She couldn’t complain about his wanting to touch her. She wanted to touch him, too. But she could complain about the close proximity.

“You’re going to have to give me some space if you want me to look at you. My neck won’t bear up very long under this strain.”

It took only one of his thick arms to lift her and hold her up against his chest. She felt a thrill of alarm at his aggressive boldness, but they were now eye-to-eye, and Shanelle had a new problem, one with her senses. Stars, it felt wonderful to be pressed against him like this, so wonderful that she didn’t want to recall that they couldn’t stay this way, not here anyway. But she did recall it.

“You know this won’t work, big guy, not in public.” But she compromised. “Put me down and give me an arm’s length. You can keep my hand.”

“My name is Falon Van’yer,” was how he responded to her order.

“I’m glad to know it, but you’re still going to have to put me down until we aren’t so public.”

“You say that as if you expect to have it your way. Do you often have your way?”

She sensed his amusement over the subject. Nor was he putting her down.

“I don’t always get my way, no,” she admitted carefully. “But a good deal of the time I do, especially when I’m using common sense and others are not.”

He laughed, a bass rumble she felt clear to her toes. “I, too, am accustomed to having my way, but all of the time. And I have a small advantage over you.”

Was that supposed to be his idea of a joke? “Why be modest? You have a
big
advantage over me.” And then her eyes narrowed. “You aren’t going to put me down, are you?”

“No.”

“Not even if it causes problems when a warrior demands that you release me? I
am
protected, Falon Van’yer, and this cloak I’m wearing is well recognized.”

His other hand came up to finger the cloak at her shoulder. “I am aware of this, woman, though I could wish it were otherwise. Yet have you given yourself into my care for the while, so there will be no difficulty with these Kan-is-Tran warriors.”

She wasn’t going to point out that the warriors who might stop him were her father’s warriors who knew her. She still didn’t want him to know who she was until it was absolutely necessary. And there was only one alternative just now.

She suggested it. “How about you put me down long enough for us to leave here?”

“So you still try to have it your way even though I have refused you? Is this going to be a problem, woman, your being unable to accept my will?”

Shanelle had a feeling that question was too important by half. If she said yes, would he put her down and walk away? But she couldn’t say no, because it just might be a problem. And maybe she’d better find out right now if it would be.

“I had hoped we could spend some time together to get to know each other. That does not mean I belong to you, Falon. Even if I did belong to you, I might not agree with everything you say. I’m not a slave who will obey without question. I have my own opinions and feelings, which may or may not be contrary to yours. If your will is reasonable and justified, of course I can accept it. But if it is not, don’t expect me to keep quiet about it. And I think I would like to know now if it is against your principles to take what I say under consideration.”

“Have I not just listened to everything you had to say?” he said.

“That’s true, you did. And you haven’t run like hell on finding out I can be a tiny bit arbitrary.” He smiled at that. So did she. “Perhaps you might tell me why you don’t want to put me down.”

“Because I like the feel of you against me too much. Because I would rather fight every warrior here than lose this feeling for even a moment.”

Oh, Stars, with reasons like that, it wasn’t going to take her long at all to love this man as well as desire him. “Why didn’t you just say so?”

He grinned at her. “So my will has suddenly become acceptable to you?”

“You’ve managed to—justify it. And I never said
I
couldn’t be reasonable. Perhaps if we disappear real quick, the problems I foresaw won’t materialize. Would that tent you left earlier happen to be yours—and vacant?”

“It is both, though I am not sure this brazenness of yours pleases me. When and where I take you is for me to decide, you to anticipate.”

She stared at him incredulously for a moment before she burst out, “Stars, where have I heard
that
before?” And then she asked suspiciously, “You’re not from Kan-is-Tra after all, are you?”

“No—and neither are you, which I forgot for a moment. Your brazenness is acceptable.”

She grinned at him, wondering just where he thought she
did
come from that her brazenness was suddenly okay by him. But she wouldn’t correct him on his assumption that she wasn’t from here. She didn’t want to deny who she was if she didn’t have to, and the less he asked right now, the better. And she was nothing but relieved to have it confirmed that he wasn’t a warrior, after he’d started sounding too damn much like one. But these were little problems they could work out after they got the main one of compatibility out of the way.

But she was curious enough to ask, “Do the women repress their desires where you come from?”

“They are more circumspect.”

“Then maybe you ought to think of living elsewhere.”

“I do not think so.”

She sighed at that quick answer. “Why don’t we work on the principle that there is an inducement for everything and leave it at that for now?”

“Of what do you speak now?”

“Never mind. This isn’t the time to—”

“Shani!” Caris called.

“Farden hell,” Shanelle muttered, then looked ruefully at Falon. “That’s me being called. I don’t suppose you might reconsider and put me down long enough for me to talk to my friend?” He merely stared back at her without answering, which was his answer. “Maybe your arm is getting just a little tired holding me up?” she tried next.

“You weigh nothing,
kerima
.”

She made a face at that. “I’m a
big
girl, not a little one. Little describes my friend Caris.”

“The female who was with your earlier is no more than a child.”

“She’s not a child, she’s just short and—”

Caris had reached them at that point, her warrior in tow. “Shani, I—” She paused when she noticed Falon. “Oh, my.” But then she took in Shanelle’s position and the implications of it, and added, “Oh,
my.”

Shanelle didn’t even try to deny what her friend was now obviously thinking. “We’ll keep this between ourselves, won’t we, Caris?‘”

“If you insist, but Yari and Cira will be just as pleased for you as I am. It certainly took you long enough, Shani, but now you can find out—”

“Not now, Caris.”

“Sure.” The younger girl grinned. “I just wanted to let you know I will be busy myself for a few hours. Komar here wants to show me his tent.”

“Did you remember to tell him you are protected by the
shodan
?”

Caris grimaced. “As a matter of fact, I forgot.” She glanced back at the large warrior holding her hand. “Is that going to make a difference, that I’m protected?”

“It keeps me from claiming you, had that been my thought,” Komar stated.

“Notice how he doesn’t confirm or deny if that was his intention,” Caris said to Shanelle.

“That’s to keep you from being disappointed either way,” Shanelle replied.

“How sweet. I
knew
I was going to like this warrior. So I’ll see you later, Shani.”

“You know where to meet me?”

“Sure do.”

“Why is it you wear your protection and she does not?” Falon asked as soon as they were alone again.

“I knew I was coming here. For Caris, it was a last-minute decision.”

“Also are you well acquainted with the customs of this place.”

That was an observation, not a question, and he was getting too close to the truth for comfort. She needed to get him thinking along different lines, and there was one sure way to do that quickly and completely. She just wished she had more experience in the area.

She lowered her lashes, displaying a shyness that was only half feigned, and twirled a lock of his hair about one finger. “You’ve been holding me a long time, Falon,” she said softly, peeking up at him quickly, then away again. “Is that all you want to do with me?”

Shanelle was amazed that she could suddenly feel his heart beating against her chest. But even as she felt it, her legs were being gathered up, so that she was now cradled in his arms and he was moving, quite rapidly, in the direction of the tents. She held on to his neck, though it wasn’t necessary, because he held her tightly, protectively. She was merely trying to hide her face so that whoever noticed them wouldn’t recognize her. The one thing she didn’t want was someone who knew her following right now.

But she had learned something. Maybe she shouldn’t have tried being sexually provocative with a man she knew nothing about, but it had proved that his attraction to her was possibly as powerful as hers was to him. He hadn’t even answered her question. He was
showing
her instead.

Shanelle had told herself she wouldn’t protest if Falon Van’yer dragged her off. Being carried off amounted to the same thing, and she wasn’t protesting. But she certainly hadn’t expected it of a visitor.

Typically, if a people were advanced enough to travel from planet to planet, rather than merely from town to town, there tended to be a high level of sophistication in their social practices, too. Even if a planet were discovered and advanced by its discoverers, the people tended to broaden their way of doing things as well.

There were only a few planets that Shanelle knew of that doggedly clung to their old traditions even after discovery. Century III was one, nearly medieval in culture, yet taking to space because it now could. Sha-Ka’ar, evolved from Sha-Ka’an more than three hundred years ago, was another, where not a single woman on that planet was anything but a slave. But the men visited other worlds. Sha-Ka’an was also a good example, yet with another difference. It had been discovered, but the people had no wish to visit the rest of the universe or take advantage of what that universe could do for them.

Falon Van’yer, wherever he was from, was again treating her like a warrior might, and it was again beginning to worry Shanelle. And he had reached the white tent that was his, shouldering his way through the slitted opening, then through another opening deeper inside which divided the tent into separate areas.

This second area was strewn with fat pillows and different colored and textured animal pelts, and onto a thick bundle of these was Shanelle put down. Falon had gone to his knees to place her there, and he didn’t rise from them now.

Her worry was triggering a certain nervousness, or perhaps it had been there despite her earlier brazenness. This
was
going to be her first sex-sharing experience. Some trepidation had to be expected, she supposed, no matter how much she wanted this to happen. But his actions said it was going to happen too quickly.

Shanelle came up on her knees to face him, hoping that would slow him down, but already he was reaching for the ties of her cloak. “Can—can we talk about customs, you and me?”

“Whatever you wish to call it, woman, we have begun it.”

“I didn’t mean—”

“There is only one thing I object to,” he said with a kernel of annoyance in his tone and expression. “Thus do we rid you of it now.”

Shanelle watched her cloak sail through the opening into the front half of the tent. Out of sight, out of effectiveness?

She felt she had better clarify. “That doesn’t mean I’m no longer protected.”

“I am aware of this, yet was it inhibiting me.”

Inhibiting him, when his eyes had already been filled with that wildly turbulent emotion she’d seen earlier? If that was going to now be released . ..

It was purely instinctive at that point for her to draw back from him when his hands came toward her again. He noticed, though that didn’t stop his intent.

His fingers were now delving into her hair to loosen it. “Why is there fear in your eyes now, when before there was none?” he asked.

“Not fear, just—you seem a little too intense now, Falon, like you’re about to lose control.”