Part 23 (1/2)
When his choking fit was over, he let his gaze travel over her, intimately, and he told her, ”Too
aggressive? There is no such thing in loveplay.” ”Then you are not upset with me?” ”My warrior princess, I think I have died and gone to Viking heaven.” Tyra exulted that she could affect a man so... nay, that she could affectthis man so. She felt as if she'd crossed some important line in her life, and not only because of the incredible pleasure she'd just experienced at Adam's wicked fingers. She fought through the fuzziness in her brain to understand just what it was.
Pactor no pact, Iam going to make love with this man.
He still held her hand and stared at her, as if understanding her inner turmoil. Perhaps it was an important step for him, too. As the effects of the ale began to wear off, she hitched her bodice up till she was decent. She prayed that sanity would return... not so that she could change her mind... just long enough for her to understand the implications of this momentous decision.
”Tyra?” Adam inquired.
”If I do this thing...”
”If...?”
She smiled at the distress in his voice. ”After the taste of loveplay you have given me, I would be a fool
not to want to sample the full meal. But I am not an impetuous person. I need to think things out. To
study-” ”Oh, nay, nay, nay! The worst thing you can do when in a l.u.s.tsome mood is to think. Thinking is a sure l.u.s.t killer.”
She smiled at him. ”Are you saying I am l.u.s.tsome?”
”Hah! If you or I were any more l.u.s.tsome, we would be drooling.”
”What I'm trying to say is you have convinced me to make love with you, but there still must be some
rules.”
”Rules?” He groaned.
”Just because I choose to couple with you does not mean I consent to marriage.”
Adam turned three shades of purple before he said, very carefully, ”I do not recall bringing up marriage. Not even once. And, really, Tyra, men are the ones who are supposed to fear that dreaded word, not women.”
”I am not like other women. You already know that.” ”So, aside from scratching your crotch and spitting, you have other masculine traits... such as aversion to marriage?” She could tell he was trying to make light of what she considered a very serious subject. ”You already know that I am being pushed from all directions to wed. Well, you will be subject to the same pressures if anyone suspects our naked bodies have touched.”
”Naked bodies?” He grinned at her.
”Do not try to change the subject.”
”All right, so we must be secretive. And we must avoid pressure to wed. Agreed. Any other rules?”
She nodded. ”I intend to leave Stoneheim soon... definitely within the next month. I cannot wait till the
fjords freeze over. Then it will be too late.”
”To Byzantium?”
”Yea, it is the best thing for me. My mind is made up, regardless of my father's fate. Rafn is ready to step
into his shoes if the worst should happen.”
”I cannot say that I approve. It seems a hard life for a woman.” He raised his hands in surrender when he
saw she was about to protest his characterization of females as being softer than males. ”But if that is what you want, that is your decision.”
”Will you be leaving Stoneheim, or will you stay the winter?”
”Hah! I'm not staying here if you aren't. Actually, no offense intended, but even if you are, I have no
intention of wintering in this land of ice.”
”Perhaps you could travel partway with me... you and Ras.h.i.+d. He speaks often of a yearning to return to the warmer clime of his homeland.”
Adam shook his head. ”Nay. Ras.h.i.+d might go with you, but I am for England. The only home I have is
there.”
”One last thing,” she said, and took a deep breath for nerve. ”If there should be a babe, you give up all
rights.”
He dropped her hand and stared at her incredulously. ”Nay!”
At first she was not sure she'd heard him right. ”Nay?”
He stood and glared down at her. ”You heard me. Nay! My lady, you offend me deeply. How could
you think that I would abandon my child?”
She tilted her head and studied him as he clenched and unclenched his fists with anger.
”My sister Adela and I never knew our father. We were adopted by Sehk and Rain, who opened an orphanstead in Jorvik. I saw over and over what the lack of a father does to a child. That will never happen to mine. Never!”
”But, Adam, you are not making sense. You have said you do not want to wed.”
”I don't.” He gave her a direct look, which carried some hidden meaning.