Shields Lady (30 page)

            "Why you mouthy, bad-tempered, perverse little easterner. You really don't know when to shut up, do you? I'm as human as you are, lady, and tonight I'll prove it. What's more, you can damn well forget about using whatever contraceptive device that medic gave you. Is that clear?"

            Sariana decided that he was right. She didn't seem to know when to shut up. She also didn't know

when to quit. Her frustrated fury boiled over. Without any warning, not even a shout of anger, she launched herself at Gryph. Her spread hands caught him full on the chest and she shoved him backward with all her might.

            Automatically Gryph tried to steady himself against the unexpected assault, but the low rail caught the back of his leg and he lost his balance. He didn't waste time trying to save himself after that. He simply wrapped one hand around Sariana's wrist and pulled her over with him.

            The scarlet-toe wisely leaped from Sariana's shoulder to the safety of the sled rail. Sariana gasped as she hit the water with a splash. The river was chilly but it wasn't freezing. She found

herself floundering in water that only came up to her shoulders. Her skirts billowed out around her as she righted herself and surfaced. She pushed her hair back off her face and blinked away the water that was streaming into her eyes.

            Glyph was surfacing a short distance away, his eyes glittering with a mixture of emotions that ran the gamut from fury to desire.

            "So you've come to the conclusion I'm not a real man, Sariana?" Gryph started to glide slowly toward her through the water. "That's an interesting deduction. How do you define a real man?"

            The plunge into the river was having a very sobering effect on Sariana's temper. "Calm down, Gryph. I was just feeling very provoked a few minutes ago. I'm sorry if I said anything to offend you." She retreated cautiously as he approached. She would have turned and tried to dash to shore, but she knew the weight of her clothes would hamper her too much. His sleek trousers and shirt were far less of a hindrance in the water. Gryph would catch her easily if she tried to escape.

            "You're sorry for offending me? That's hard to believe. You seem to be making a career of offending me. You go out of your way to do it, in fact. It's going to take a lot more than an apology to calm me down this time." He began to close the distance between them. He did it with excruciating slowness, a hunter closing in on his prey. "Now tell me what your definition of a man is."

            A shiver went through her that was not caused by the chill of the river water. "Gryph, this is hardly the time or place to discuss philosophy!"

            "You're wrong. This is exactly the time and the place, What's more, I'm in the mood to discuss such matters."

"Well I'm not," she sputtered.

            "Too bad. You started this, remember. As usual, your tendency to run off at the mouth has gotten you into trouble. Let's see how you get out of it. Tell me exactly where I fail to measure up to your standards for a man. I'll do my best to correct any problem areas."

            Sariana eyed him warily. She was cold from the water. She was nervous about Gryph's intentions. She was still angry with him and she was determined not to let him win this battle. But into that chaotic mixture of emotions came another, familiar sensation of hungry excitement.

            She could have fought that last feeling, Sariana realized. She was more aware of it now. She could control an unwanted passion if that's all that was involved.

            But as she watched Gryph coming toward her through the water she realized what the real problem was.

            She was falling in love with the man. She had been falling in love with him since the night she had set out to coerce him into helping the Avylyns.

            She was falling in love with him and she wasn't even sure now that he was wholly human. "Gryph, stop this. I don't have to answer your foolish questions. You're just trying to make me

nervous. Admit it."

            "I'm not trying to make you' nervous. You're already nervous. With good reason. Answer my question, Sariana. What does it take to make me a man in your eyes?"

            "By the Lightstonn, you are a man! I've already apologized for implying otherwise. I told you, I was angry at the time. Stop tormenting me. Now let's get out of the water like sensible people. It's getting very cold,"

            "Don't worry, Shieldmate," he growled softly. "I'll warm you. I'll warm your backside so thoroughly you won't be able to sit down for the next few days. I think it's time you learned there are limits to my

good nature. I'll teach you to imply I'm not a man. Your fast tongue has run away with you this time, Sariana. I'm going to help you learn to control it."

            He swooped down on her, catching her up in his arms and lifting her high against his chest. Then he started wading toward shore.

            "Gryph, put me down. Damn you, you're not going to have everything your own way." "Neither are you." He set her on her feet in the sand and began stripping the wet clothing from her

body.

"Then we've got a problem, don't we?" She shivered in the evening air.

            "Nothing we can't resolve." Gryph let the last of her soaked garments fall to the sand. Then he reached for a blanket from his travel pouch and wrapped it around her. "Dry yourself," he ordered. "The last thing I need on this trip is for you to get sick." He went to work on his own clothes.

            Sariana's temper rose once more. "Damn it, we certainly wouldn't want that to happen, would we? Mustn't interfere with the mysterious Shield's inscrutable plans by catching a little cold."

            He dropped his shirt onto the sand and peeled off his wet trousers. "Sariana, if you have any sense you will close your mouth. You've said enough for one day."

            "I haven't got any sense," she declared as she realized he was fully erect, his body hard with desire. So much for the lauded effects of a cold bath. Apparently it wasn't universally effective. "If I did, I wouldn't be here." Sariana clutched her blanket and watched as Gryph briskly nibbed himself dry.

            "If I'd had any sense I would have left Serendipity the night you first sank your sharp little nails into me."

            Sariana was unaccountably hurt. "What a terrible thing to say. I never sank my nails into you." "The hell you didn't. You poisoned me and had me kidnapped. Then you tried to blackmail me into

taking a job I didn't want. You've got a tongue like a razor and you've used it on the morning, noon and night. You won't follow simple, reasonable orders designed to keep you safe. You refuse to believe the legends I've tried to tell you." He finished drying himself and wrapped the blanket loosely around his waist. "And you are so damn stubborn you won't believe facts even when they hit you in the face. You hear only what you want to hear. The rest of the time you're talking so fast a man gets lost in the words. Maybe you'll think a little more cleariy and behave a little more rationally after I've turned you over my knee."

            An exhilarated sensation swept through Sariana as she realized that beneath the blanket Gryph was more aroused than ever. His temper was vying with his passion. The two made a very potent combination. Sariana could feel his sexual energy. It was lapping over her in waves,

            "What makes you think I haven't still got my nails sunk into you?" she asked throatily. Gryph, about to reach for a fresh shirt, paused at the new note in her voice. "What are you up to now,

Sariana?"

            "I think," she said musingly as she let her blanket slide slowly off her shoulders, "that I'm about to prove something."

            "Are you?" He watched her intently as she walked slowly toward him across the sand. The blanket slid down a little farther. Now it only partially concealed the curve of Sariana's breasts and the dark triangle between her thighs. In the evening shadows she was all slender, graceful, feminine mystery.

            A pleasantly euphoric sense of power began to blossom in Sariana. Gryph was bound to her and, as far as he was concerned, she was bound to him. So be it. She couldn't seem to fight that and she was reluctantly admitting she didn't want to fight it. But if she was going to continue in this bizarre situation she was determined to show Gryph that the dynamics of the relationship worked both ways.

            "You're not going to use your belt on me and we both know it," Sariana murmured. He scowled. "Is that right?"

            "I think," she whispered as she paused in front of him, "that you need to learm what it feels like to be the one on the receiving end of all the orders."

            A slow, curious smile edged Gryph's mouth as he looked down at her. He raised one hand and lightly grazed his palm across one gently shaped breast. "You've decided to teach me that lesson tonight?"

            "Yes," she agreed thoughtfully, "I have."

"What makes you think you can, uh, drive the lesson home, so to speak?"

            She reached out and pulled the blanket from his waist. His heavy, thrusting manhood leaped into her waiting hand. "Feminine intuition."

            He sucked in his breath and his hands went to her shoulders. He started to pull her close. "You want me, don't you, lady? In spite of all your mouthy arguments and your temperamental ways, you want me."

            "You're right. I want you. And you want me."

            "Damn right." His fingers flexed on her shoulders. "I've wanted you from the first time I saw you. I've never denied it."

            "I think it's time you learned that this relationship of ours is a two-way street. Tonight we'll do things my way."

            He chuckled indulgently, the last of his temper dissolving into a blazing sensuality. "What is your way?" "I'm going to tell you what to do and how to do it. And you, for once in your life, are going to follow

orders. I'm going to teach you what it's like to be on the receiving end."

            "What makes you think I'll follow orders?" He eased his hands down her back, removing the blanket entirely. As it fell to her feet he pulled her lower body into the cradle of his thighs.

            She shook her head. "I don't know. Just a feeling." She nipped his shoulder lightly with her small, sharp teeth.

Gryph inhaled sharply. "Ah, a promising beginning. What's your first order, Lady Sariana?"

            "Kiss me." She stood on tiptoe, twined her arms around his neck and lifted her lips invitingly. "Gladly." He brushed his mouth teasingly across hers. "Harder."

            "No need to rush things," he murmured. "You'll enjoy it more if we take it slowly." "I said," she responded, her tongue touching her parted lips, "that I want you to kiss me harder." She

gathered herself and projected the image of a deep, passionate embrace blindly into the atmosphere around her. She wasn't at all certain what the reaction would be and the result took her by surprise, even though she had tried to prepare herself.

            Gryph's mouth came down on hers with sudden, shattering hunger. He groaned deeply and his arms tightened fiercely. His fingers dug into her rounded buttocks as he pulled her to him. The hard, searching shaft of his manhood was like sleek iron against her soft stomach. His whole body vibrated with the intensity of his need.

            Sariana realized he was reacting exactly the way she had pictured him doing in the image of the embrace she had projected. In another moment she would be flat on her back and he would be on top of her, surging into her. Frantically she altered the image in her mind.

            "Wait, not so hard," she gasped, wrenching her head aside. She sank her nails into his shoulders and shoved heavily.

            Gryph didn't seem to hear her for a moment. When she finally got his attention he slowly raised his head and looked down at her with a confused expression in his glittering eyes.

            "I thought that's what you wanted." His voice was a rasping whisper.

            "Not quite." Sariana realized she was shaking. "Obviously I have to do some fine tuning here." He watched her through dazed/narrowed eyes and raked a hand restlessly through his hair. "Sariana,

what do you think you're doing?"

            "I'm not sure yet." She gave him her most brilliant smile and sallied forth once more into the fray. She caught bold of his hand and put it against her breast. "Kiss me again. Not quite so fiercely. And this time' I want you to touch me."

            He swore softly but his fingers closed around her pert nipple as he lowered his mouth once more to hers. She painted a sensual picture in her head.

This time the kiss was just right.

"Exactly what I ordered," she said against his mouth.

            He ignored that, too wrapped up in the embrace now to pay attention to her self-congratulations. Sariana could feel his vibrating excitement. His desire was a tangible force that reached out to engulf her. When she deliberately projected the sensation of his tongue tangling with hers, she immediately found her mouth invaded. Once again the assault was a little too forceful.

"Easy," she mumbled.

            He backed off slightly. His tongue explored her softness while his hands kneaded the resilient flesh of her buttocks.

            An image popped into Sariana's head. It was similar to the picture of herself she had seen that afternoon on the sled, the view that seemed to linger on her backside. In this image the round cheeks of her buttocks were full and lightly flushed. The dark cleft that separated them was deep and shockingly mysterious. A familiar masculine hand was gliding around to explore the hidden valley.

            Even as she realized what was happening, Sariana felt Gryph's fingers sliding into that secret place, seeking its mysteries with a boldness that made her tremble.

            Sariana gasped for air and banished the picture with an act of will. This was her fantasy, not Gryph's. She would control it and control him in the process. He had a lesson coming and she knew now she could teach it.