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“What do you care about, Samurai?” she asked. “Besides honor.”
“My Shogun. My family. My warriors. The mountains and the river. The sky and the rain. My birds. My sword.” He turned and glanced at her. “And you.” Hana’s breath caught and her wooden sword tumbled from her slack grip.
“What do you care about, my flower?” he asked.
She thought of her brother, so strong and proud. He was gone and had left behind a gaping hole in her heart. “Nothing,” she said, her vision swimming with tears. “I have lost the only thing that I ever cared about.”
When his hand brushed her hair, she did not flinch away. She leaned into his touch, craving his strength because she had none. “You care,” he whispered, drawing her along his solid length. “You care because I demand it of you.” Her head snapped up in defiance and he captured her face between his hands. His lips claimed hers with the passion he’d introduced her to the night before and she was instantly enslaved by this man’s kiss. After several blissful moments of her surrender, his mouth released hers and he stared down into her eyes.
“You care about the people of your village,” he said forceful y.
She nodded, her heart swelling in her throat.
“You care about a bountiful catch and a plentiful harvest.” Those things meant survival to her people, so she had to nod in agreement again.
“You care about me.”
She opened her mouth to deny it, but he kissed her again and she went limp in his arms. His hand cupped her aching breast and she moaned in his mouth. Did she care about him? She wasn’t sure, but she did love the things he did to her body. His free hand moved to the swell of her bottom and he pressed her lower belly against the hardening length of his cock. Oh, she wanted him. She could not deny that at al . She rubbed against him and instantly found herself straddling his lap on the ground.
“Join with me, Hana,” he said, fumbling with his clothes and hers.
Hidden beneath a tangle of loosened kimonos Hana sank down upon his engorged cock. His eyelids fluttered and he leaned against the boulder at his back, his fingers pressing into the flesh of her hips beneath her clothes. She rode him slowly, lost in his gaze, realizing that when they were joined like this, power and honor did not matter. Al that mattered at that moment was the two of them lost in mutual surrender. A few moments later al that mattered was the pleasure shared between their straining bodies.
In the aftermath, he held her against his chest, his body still buried within hers.
“I do love you my little demon flower,” he whispered.
She almost believed him. Something substantial was stirring within her own tattered heart as well.
Chapter Twenty
Reece’s arms tightened around Lara, drawing her closer to his weary body. He was in great physical condition, but the drills of the morning had been intense. A bit perturbed that Kojiro had decided to give Reece’s consciousness the upper hand only after he’d sated his lust, his hands began to wander freely over Lara’s soft curves.
“I just don’t get these two,” Lara murmured. “One minute they’re fighting and spewing hatred, the next they’re making love and spouting mushy sentiments.”
“It keeps things exciting,” Reece said.
Lara chuckled. “That’s for sure. I think I’d like to stick to learning to play the koto and how to pour tea. Hana can continue with the sword fights on her own.”
“What about the love making?”
“Do I get a choice on that one?” Lara murmured, her lips brushing the sensitive skin of Reece’s neck. Her hands found their way into his gaping kimono and explored the contours of his chest. “With you, it’s my favorite pastime.”
“Kojiro-dono,” someone shouted about ten feet from where Reece and Lara were fused together in an intimate embrace.
“Shh,” Reece whispered in Lara’s ear. “Maybe they won’t find us here.”
“Kojiro, there is a large group of peasants at the gates. They are demanding you release Hana from her imprisonment.”
“So I’m your prisoner?” Lara whispered.
“I do hold the key to your heart and I refuse to set it free.” Lara leaned back and rolled her eyes at him. “Very sappy, Reece. I suppose we have to go see to this situation before it gets out hand.”
“I’d rather sit here buried in your warmth and say things that make you rol your eyes at me.”
She giggled. “You’re so sweet to me. That must be why I love you so much.” Reece’s heart gave an unpleasant pang. He didn’t deserve her. His thoughtlessness had resulted in her death and this leaping from one time period to another wasn’t an easy life. Adventurous, yes, but difficult. She deserved to know the truth and make a decision about how they should proceed. He only prayed that she would see things his way and agree the most important thing was keeping her alive and in his arms.
“Lara, I really need to tel you something.”
She tilted her chin and looked up at him impishly. “Is it that even though your current host is a jerk, you’re glad you have bal s this leap?” His jaw dropped and then he laughed until he got a stitch in his side. “No.” He hesitated. “Well, yes, I am glad I have balls, but we need to talk about what happened when the amulet was first activated.”
There was a loud crash on the opposite side of the compound near the huge front gates that protected the Shogun and his people from the outside world. “It’s going to have to wait,” Lara said, rising from his lap and adjusting her kimono. “It seems we have company.”
By the time Reece and Lara reached the front gates, the samurai were in ful battle dress. Frightening masks in red and black concealed their faces. Armor made of smal , square overlapping plates covered them from shoulder to mid-thigh. About half of them were standing on the top of the wall with arrows notched in long bows. The rest stood inside the gate, their long katana unsheathed and ready for battle.
“Who is it?” Reece called to one of the archers.
“A group of about fifty villagers. They’re armed and determined to penetrate the fortress, but al they have are farm tools and kitchen knives.”
“Hold your fire,” Reece said.
He couldn’t see the man’s face beneath his demon-like mask, but he shook his head slightly as if to say, Of course, what do you think I am? Stupid?
Lara stepped up to the gate. “Let me out. I’ll talk to them.”
“Let Hana talk to them,” Reece suggested to the masked samurai in a whisper.
“Do you trust her not to send her village racing through the gates to meet certain slaughter?”
Reece nodded. “She’s reckless, but not ignorant. She knows her people don’t stand a chance if they insist upon a battle.”
“Your daughter is safe and not being held against her will,” one of the samurai cal ed down to the group standing on the opposite side of the gate. “She would like to come out of the gate to talk to you. Step back.”
The six warriors on the wall lifted their bows and pulled their bowstrings taut. “Step back!”
A few tense minutes passed and then a smal door next to the gate opened. Hana was ushered outside.
The door closed behind her.
Kojiro’s heart sank into his toes when he heard Hana shout, “These are not my people! Let me back inside,” before all hell broke loose.
