“Do you know what your problem is, Gryph?”
“I’ve got all kinds of problems. Which one are you referring to?” He tossed a pack down onto the sandy beach and glanced back at her.
Sariana regarded him from the gently bobbing sled, her hands on her hips, her eyes militant. “Your problem is that you don’t know how to deal with others on an equal basis. You’re arrogant and undiplomatic in the extreme. You’re always giving orders. Especially to me.”
“For all the good it does me.” He studied her for a long moment. “Why did you leave the windrigger this morning, Sariana?”
Sariana eyed him warily. She had been hoping that he had forgotten about that piece of business. His silence on the subject during the river trip had convinced her he had decided not to reopen a sore subject. “I didn’t feel like staying on board.”
“You’re lying.”
“I am not lying!”
He regarded her closely. “All right, we’ll compromise. You’re not telling me the whole truth. How’s that?”
“That sounds just fine to me,” she retorted. She was beginning to feel cornered already and the knowledge made her angry.
“So what’s the rest of the story? Why did you leave the windrigger? Was it just because I’d given you orders to stay on board? Are you so stubborn and temperamental and defiant that you’d disobey a reasonable request just to prove you don’t have to take orders from me?”
“What do you think?” she challenged.
To her surprise, he appeared to consider the matter. “I think,” Gryph finally said, “that you are independent and stubborn and irrational enough to do something like that just to provoke me, but I don’t think that’s why you disobeyed me this morning. I want to know why you went into town this morning, Sariana.”
“Personal reasons.” She sat down and began unlacing her walking boots in preparation for going ashore.
“What personal reasons?” Gryph waded back into the water and bounded onto the sled.
Sariana looked up and realized he had decided he wanted an answer and he wasn’t going to leave her alone until he had it. “Why does it matter?”
“It just does, that’s all. I’ve been thinking about it all afternoon and I’ve decided it definitely does matter.” He put one bare foot on the low railing that went around the edge of the broad, flat sled and waited for her response.
Sariana dredged up a bright smile. “How about simple curiosity? I’ve never been to Little Chance before and I wanted to see what the place looked like.”
He exhaled slowly, clearly doing his best to hang onto his patience. “Stop it, Sariana. Just tell me the truth. That’s all I want. For the past few hours I’ve told myself it was your curiosity that took you ashore. Or else it was your desire to assert yourself. But something doesn’t ring true about either one of those answers. That’s why I want the whole story.”
Sariana finished removing her second boot and sat quietly for a moment. “All right,” she said at last. “It’s simple enough. I went into town to find a medic.”
“A medic?” Alarm flared in his eyes. “You didn’t tell me you were ill.”
“I’m not ill. I went to see a women’s medic. One who could give me a contraceptive device. There. Does that answer your question?”
“You went into town to get something to use for birth control?” There was genuine shock in his tone.
Sariana stirred uneasily and rose to her feet. It didn’t help much. He was a lot bigger than she was and they were very much alone out in the wilderness. “Why not?” she said bluntly. “I got the feeling you weren’t going to do anything about it, and if it’s true that for some reason you can…can make a baby with me then I have to protect myself, don’t I?”
He didn’t move, but Sariana had the impression that it was only an incredible willpower that kept him still. The image of him grasping her shoulders and shaking her was so strong that she was startled into wondering if it had seeped into her mind from his. It enraged her and frightened her to realize that such transference might really be possible between them. With all her heart she longed to deny the link and with each passing hour it became more difficult to do so.
“Sariana, I’ve warned you, you are going to push me too far one of these days.”
Her temper exploded and she threw up her hands in a wild gesture. “What about me? I feel as though I’ve already been pushed too far. Don’t my feelings count?”
“I know exactly what your feelings are when you lay in my arms and believe me, I take them into full account,” he shot back. “You want me as much as I want you.”
“All you really want is a good breeder,” she snapped, someone you can turn into a mother. How do you think that makes me feel?”
“It should make you feel needed and wanted and very important to me,” he flung at her as his own control began to slip.
“Well, it doesn’t. It makes me feel like a farm animal.”
“That’s ridiculous.”
“You’re telling me! And I’m tired of feeling ridiculous, do you hear me, Gryph Chassyn? I didn’t think I could feel any more useless and ridiculous than I did the day I got word I had failed my academy entrance exams, but I was wrong. That was just a feeling of intellectual failure. You’re trying to make me feel like a failure as a woman and a human being.”
“Are you out of your mind?” he snarled, still not moving. “I’m more than willing to turn you into a success as a woman. It seems to me I’m offering you a better deal than any you’d get from a routine business marriage. At least with me your real talent as a woman will be fully appreciated.”
“Having your babies is supposed to be a sign of my success?”
“You could do worse, lady.”
“I could also do a whole lot better.” Recklessly she took a step toward him, her eyes flashing with pride and outrage. “Do you hear me, Chassyn? I said I could do a whole lot better than you.”
“How? By forming a marriage alliance with someone like that banker friend of yours? What do you think the chances are that you’d find any real passion in his arms? What do you think the chances are of him bringing out the real woman in you?”
It was too much. Sariana went over some invisible edge. “What do you think the chances are that you can make me into a real woman when, from all accounts, you may not even be a real man yourself?”
Gryph stared at her disbelievingly. “What the hell are you saying?”
“I learned a lot about Shields from the medic this morning and I learned even more at the fair. There seems to be some question about whether or not you and your kind are even human! That severely diminishes your potential usefulness to me as a husband.”
“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 surfa
ced. She pushed her hair back off her face and blinked away the water that was streaming into her eyes.
Gryph 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 Lightstorm, 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 rubbed 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 me 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 clearly 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 learn 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 t
o 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.