Page 32 of On a Barbarian World

She shook her head, which made her lips rub against his chest. He swallowed a groan.

“No, I have this body pillow in my cabin on the Sky…where I live with my brothers. I always wake up curled around it like the constrictor serpents of Dagus Prime.” She looked up again, her eyes wide. “Why can I hear two heartbeats in your chest?”

“Because I have two hearts. All Markarians do. It gives us added stamina. You don’t have two?”

She shook her head. “Only one.” She shifted against him. “Anyway, I’m sorry…you know, about your discomfort.”

He nudged her with his “discomfort.”

She shifted against him, and he felt the tight nubs of her nipples rub against his chest.

“Aurina,” he murmured, his hands tightening on her skin.

“Don’t say my name like that,” she groaned.

“Let me pleasure you. Let me bring us both pleasure.”

She sat up abruptly, pulling her sleep shirt down. “No.”

“Why not?”

“I’m not staying. It’s best we don’t get entangled.”

“I’m talking about pleasure, not taking you to wife.”

“Sex makes things messy. I still think it’s best we don’t.”

“That’s not what I see in your eyes.”

She pushed at her tangled hair. “Enough, Kavon. We have work to do.” She climbed to the edge of the bed. “We have an e-beacon and a sword to find.”

He lay back for a second. He really was used to getting his way, and really used to women happy to do his bidding at the slightest murmur.

Aurina was as aggravating as she was fascinating.

And it was time he told her the truth about her e-beacon.

“I have your beacon.”

She spun fast. “What?”

“It looks like a round metal ball.”

She licked her lips. “Yes. It’s intact?”

“Yes.”

Her face tightened. “Why didn’t you tell me?”

“Because I chose not to.”

Her eyes sparked. “And you’re the great warlord and get to do as you please. You had no right to lie to me. God, you lied all day yesterday.” She turned away from him.

Kavon leaped out of the bed. “Nothing yesterday was a lie, Aurina. Least of all how much I want you here and not rushing off somewhere else.”

“You mean leaving for my home? You have no right to keep me trapped here.”

“We have a deal, remember?”