Chapter Fourteen
The promised stream Tedra wasledto was reached through a stand of trees and down a short, brush-laden path. A moon had risen, a large yellow thing that gave a hazy light through a mist of clouds. The water glittered and bubbled softly between two grassy banks, each set with small white flowers that looked silvery gold in the moonlight.
It was a romantic spot, secluded, perfumed by flowers, the stream providing a tinkling serenade, a perfect spot for sex-sharing, but all Tedra could think about just then was cutting her escort up into little chunks and feeding him to the fish, if there were fish. But if her mindhadturned toward amorous thoughts, they would have been wasted, since the barbarian tactfully left her alone to her ablutions, which she made short work of. Roughing it was for the birds.
“If you’re picking up any of this, Martha, I hope you blow a fuse laughing. Water. They actually wash with water here. And I’ll wager there’s not one single toilet on the whole farden planet. If I wasn’t a history buff and knew a smattering of how our own primitives managed this sort of wilderness living back on the mother planet, I’d really be embarrassed right about now.”
She didn’t get an answer, nor would she without her phazor unit. But if Martha was listening, then she had a fix on her and could have Transferred her out of there. Since Tedra remained where she was, Martha either was still playing games or hadn’t found her yet. She hoped it was the former. She seriously doubted she could take more than a month of this.
She made her way back to the camp without incident, since there was no one else about, and back to the tent she had spent the afternoon in. The big barbarian was there waiting for her, stretched out on his fur blanket, his arms behind his head, perfectly relaxed.
“You took a big chance that I’d come back after that little bomb you dropped on me about tomorrow,” Tedra said abrasively, but her look alone would have told him she was still in a slow simmer about it.
“I have decided to trust in your honor. It is a rare thing in a woman, but a quality you have shown you possess.”
She hated that bubble of calm he was cocooned in. She hated his magnanimous gesture at the moment, too. So what if he trusted her to abide by the terms of her defeat? Fat lot of good it would do her tomorrow, when she was being gawked at by a whole town of barbarians.
“Is that why you’ve sent the beasty away? I didn’t appreciate having him for a guard dog today.”
“Sharm has grown lazy living with me. He stalks his food during moonrise, when most of it sleeps.”
“How nice for him,” she retorted.
He chuckled at her expression. “You grow more womanly by the moment,kerima.”
“Why? Because I object to being trussed up and put on display for the amusement of your people?”
“Because you sulk over what you cannot change. A warrior does not expect a woman to behave otherwise.”
“Doesn’t he?” she snarled. “And you call it sulking? I’d call it killing mad, at least in my case, and since I’m a Sec 1 and trained to demolish people with my bare hands, I wouldn’t exactly call what I’m feeling right now womanly.”
“But so it is when you have no control over it. Or can you control it—as a warrior would?”
“Of course I can. I’m not stomping all over your body, am I? What is that, if not perfect control?”
“Wise restraint, for which I commend you. But can you practice it while you give me service?”
“Service?” She stared at him blankly for a moment, then hissed through her teeth, recalling the massage he had requested. “You must be joking. I’m in no mood to give you service—of any kind.”
“But you will,” he said simply. “And you may begin now.”
She watched incredulously as he turned over and rested his tawny head on his folded arms. He actually expected her to go to him and put her hands on his body, to gently knead the soreness from his muscles. And what if she didn’t? Would she be punished again? She shivered, recalling his kind of punishment. She wasn’t ready to tempt that again, not when she wasn’t guaranteed relief anytime soon.
She slowly approached him and knelt down at his side, but so he wouldn’t have any doubt that this was definitely service under protest, she said, “There are massages, warrior, and then there aremassages.The one you get isn’t likely to be the one you were expecting.”
“Then you may begin with the one you now wish to give me, but you will end with the one you say I was expecting; thus will I know the difference.”
Why the farden hell had she given him warning? Talk about spoiling some perfectly subtle revenge. And he’d made it an order to be obeyed. She wished she’d never heard of the word “honor.”
But she had his permission to have at him for a while, his golden back there for her to work her frustration out on. This she did, pounding, gouging, and giving anything but a soothing, pleasurable massage. The trouble was, her hands didn’t last very long giving out that kind of punishment, yet she heard not a single grunt of discomfort from her victim. He should have at least tensed up when she worked over the areas where her blows had landed that morning during the challenge.
“Did I really hurt you today?” she wondered aloud.
“No.”
Tedra sat back on her heels, her hands going to her hips, and glared at the back of his head. “Then would you mind telling me why I’m doing this?”
He rolled easily onto his back, and those dark eyes held amusement as they locked with hers. “Why you did what you have been doing is because you are still upset with me. Why I requested a massage was so you would the sooner become accustomed to my body. Do you now show me the difference.”
