way her arms looked with her elbows bent.
After positioning her on her back once more, he scooted away a little so he could study what he’d done. Having her arms behind her had forced her to arch her back, which prominently displayed her remarkable breasts.
The last time he’d touched them, he’d been rough and masterful as befitted his stature. Now, despite the demands his cock was making on his ability to concentrate, he lightly ran his fingers over the smooth flesh. Women were remarkable creatures, soft where men were hard, filled with moist, sleek passages a man could die in.
He didn’t like that that made him feel weak, damn it! She was a Wilding, a lesser being equipped with a primitive mind in sharp contrast to her magnificent body. It wasn’t fair! An animal-like creature should be ponderous and slow or so fragile he could easily snap her bones.
Still gliding his fingers over her breasts, he glanced around, half believing he’d spot Wilding men sneaking up on him. Surely the men wouldn’t allow her to walk about naked and alone.
Alone?
Maybe they’d deliberately sent this female out to seduce him.
Pondering the possibility, he again stared down at her. Her black eyes were open, but unlike the first time, they weren’t filmed in incomprehension. Judging by the way she studied him, she understood exactly what had happened to her.
It shouldn’t be like this! The poison wore off slowly. It didn’t suddenly melt away.
Warned by the hatred she made no attempt to hide, he expected her to start fighting. Fortunately, he was out of reach of flailing legs—legs he should have already restrained.
Not taking his eyes off her, he picked up a short length of rope. She strained upward, lifting her back off the ground. Impressed by the way the tendons stood out at the sides of her neck, he thanked the spirits for the hand they had in his saving her life. Even with her body full of fight, he felt close to her. There were just the two of them on this deserted stretch of land in a country he might never understand or feel comfortable in. He had no doubt that this resolutely silent woman had no intention of giving up. In addition, she didn’t appear to be at all ashamed of her nudity. Quite the opposite: unless he was mistaken, she was proud of her body.
“You can try fighting,” he said, wondering if she understood a word he said. “But it won’t do you any good.”
Her cheeks and throat glistening from the strain of keeping her shoulders off the ground, she continued to glare at him. She was a wild animal, and more. Savage and sensual at the same time. What would his shaman and lord do with her?
“What are you thinking?” he asked. “Maybe you believe I intend to keep you for myself, but if you do, you’re wrong. You have value beyond a man’s need for a woman’s body, value the Ekewoko leaders know how to make the most of.”
He waited for her to react. When she didn’t, he continued.
“Do you know what I’m saying, wild one? I’m speaking the common language of travelers but maybe it makes no sense to you. Maybe my words are beyond your comprehension.” He reached out as if to touch her, only to withdraw his hand when she tried to scoot away. “My shaman says that Wildings are little more than animals. If that’s true, you are valuable for only one thing.”
Fury flashed in her eyes and, although she settled back down, he sensed no lessening in her resolve. Her reaction also told him a great deal about her comprehension.
“I saved your life. If I hadn’t come after you, you would have drowned.”
“You tried to kill me.”
Hearing her voice for the first time caused a lightninglike current to slam into him. Her voice was low for a woman, soft and yet resolute. “So you understand what I’m saying. Maybe I underestimated you.”
“You tried to kill me.”
“No, I didn’t.” The current continued to tease his nerve endings, prompting him to caress the rope he was holding in order to have something to do. “If I’d wanted you dead, you would be.”
“Your arrow—”
“Had been treated with the sap from a bush with the ability to paralyze.”
A blink was all she gave him in the way of a response, but he had no doubt she was waiting him out, studying him to see what he was going to do. Without the use of her hands, she had no option but to react to his actions; but what would happen if she was free? Strange, he didn’t see her trying to run away.
She was a worthy opponent, one with legs designed for running and a secret place where those legs joined. One moment stretched into another as he stared at the soft curl of dark hair standing guard over her woman’s place. He’d soon have access to it and wouldn’t turn her over to the others until he’d rewarded himself for having captured her.
His cock, which he’d been struggling to ignore while taking his measure of her, tightened. Wanting to gauge her response, he adjusted himself under his loincloth. Clenching her teeth, she shook her head.
“Yes,” he countered. “I will have you. When and how I want.”
“Unless I kill you first.”
“You, kill me? With what, your weapons?” He punctuated his sarcasm by sweeping his gaze over her nude form. “Where have you hidden them?”
She didn’t answer, and something in her expression made him wonder if she wasn’t certain what she was doing here alone wearing nothing. Maybe she was even more animal-like than he assumed.
The wind had picked up. It brushed morning cool and sharp over his still-wet skin, causing him to shiver. Certain she must be even more uncomfortable, he studied her, but she gave no sign of being cold.
Damnation, he didn’t understand her!
And what he didn’t understand, he didn’t trust.
Determined to make sure his captive realized how profoundly her life had changed and how much power he wielded, he held up the rope for her to see.
“No.” She scooted back a little.
“No?” he taunted. “How are you going to stop me, slave? How?”
“Do not call me—”
“I’ll call you what I want,” he said as he stood up. Not sure how to best restrain her legs, he loomed over her. If she was afraid, she gave no indication. “Because you belong to me.” For a while.
“No,” she repeated albeit not as forcefully as the first time. “I will never—”
Just then a shadow passed over her face, and she glanced upward. Prompted by the change in her expression, he did the same. A bird, maybe the same one that had alerted him to her location in the lake, drifted overhead.
She muttered something that was either nonsense or in a language he’d never heard, and although he wanted to see what the bird might do, his attention was drawn back to her. The sharpness was gone from her features, replaced by a softness, a love even. Although he longed to know what was responsible for the change, he resented the notion that
