“Then let me put it another way,” Tedra replied. “What do you want?”
“Just to congratulate the heroes.” He grinned. “By the way, that is a stunning outfit you’re wearing.”
Tedra’s face went up in flames. “You jerk, you farden jerk,” she gritted out before she stomped off to find something to wear, leaving both males laughing behind her. When she came back in a convenience robe, she was still glaring, and they were still laughing. “That wasn’t funny.”
“Yes, it was. You didn’t evenknowyou were sitting there—”
“You’ll change the subject, Rourk, if you know what’s good for you.”
“Very well.” But he really had to fight to get that grin off his lips. “I hear you’ve got at least two hundred prisoners, and more coming in by the hour with your warriors sweeping the city. Did Garr reward you properly?”
“He was very generous, to both of us. Didn’t you stop in to see him, to find out what he has in mind for you? I told him that I would never have escaped without your help.”
“You did?” He was surprised.
“Come on, Rourk, without you I’d probably be a slave on Sha-Ka’ar right now.”
“Instead of a double occupant on Sha-Ka’an?”
“Who says I’m going back there?”
“Well, aren’t you?”
“Yes, but I hate it when people take things for granted,” she grumbled. “I really do.”
“I’m guilty.” He sighed.
“So am I.” She finally grinned at him.
When they both looked at Challen, he snorted, “I never take anything for granted.”
“The hell you don’t,” Tedra scoffed, but she was still grinning. “You never had a single doubt that your warriors wouldn’t win the day. Admit it.”
“This is so, but I did not take it for granted, since no other thing could have happened.”
“Arrogant, isn’t he?” Tedra said to Rourk.
“It sounded like just plain confidence to me.”
“Oh, he’s got barrels full of that, but who can blame him? They don’t come much bigger than he is, you know, at least not in Centura.”
“So what’s the word on getting our women back?” Rourk asked to distract the frown Tedra was getting from the big guy. “Has Garr made contact yet?”
“Certainly.”
“Well? Is there going to be a problem? There shouldn’t be, when you have their warriors as hostages.”
“Actually, they were willing to sacrifice these guys to keep the women. But Garr pulled a bluff at my suggestion.”
“What?”
Tedra chuckled. “They were told to return the women or Sha-Ka’an would make war on Sha-Ka’ar. A few of them remembered where they came from, and so they decided not to chance a hostile visit from barbarians of their mother planet.”
“Wasit a bluff?” Rourk asked Challen.
“No. All must be finished here before I can take my woman home. Does this mean we must go to Sha-Ka’ar first, then there we would go.”
“Well, Ithoughtit was a bluff,” Tedra said, smiling at her warrior. “Would you really make war on a whole planet for me, Challen?”
