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He studied me for a moment, then sighed, resigned. That was too easy. He looked too relaxed, too at ease. He radiated satisfaction, not the frustration of a man denied. It appeared Falcon’s trick had at least gotten me out of this snare, but Rogue had something else up his sleeve.
“It’s late and you need to sleep. We can continue tomorrow.” He gathered his hair into the tail again. “Take your bath and get your dress washed—the dragon blood is a little much.”
I watched him, trying to crank my thinking back into gear. “Tomorrow? What’s tomorrow?”
“Why, my lovely Gwynn—more flirting!” Rogue gave me a wicked smile and lightly tugged on my hair where it spilled over one shoulder.
“Wait…” Geez, I seriously needed to clear my head. Rogue looked suspiciously alert and unaffected by our little tryst. “More flirting? I didn’t agree to more than tonight.”
“In point of fact—” Rogue stood and held up a professorial finger, “—you did not place a time limit on the bargain. You said, and I quote, ‘we can flirt all you want after you deal with Darling.’ It’s still after.”
I stared at him, trying to assemble a coherent argument. I could not go through this all day, every day. I knew myself. I’d cave eventually. An image of myself begging him to take me, promising all sorts of things, asking for that green silk binding, crossed my mind. Like a dose of cold water, it hit me. Here I was, hurtling toward another slavery.
“But,” he allowed in a generous tone of voice, “I’m willing to settle for the standard night and a day. At sunset tomorrow you may return to denying and sniping at me with the bargain fulfilled.”
I pulled my knees up to my chest under the skirt, wrapping my arms around them. He looked entirely too pleased with himself.
“I might have a battle tomorrow.”
“No.” Rogue shook his head, pulling his boots on. “Falcon and I will be meeting. He can pursue his war later.”
“Don’t forget your flower.” I nodded at the lily still lying next to me, beguiling me with its scent.
A slight frown creased Rogue’s brow. “It is a gift for you—I’m hopeful you won’t destroy this one so willfully.”
“I’ve learned to be wary of gifts. And this is no magic chamber pot. Is this one also a spying device?”
“If you’re with me, lovely Gwynn, why would I need to spy on you?”
“I’ll be with you?”
“After tomorrow,” he said, with great confidence, even smugness. “Falcon will have no choice but to cede possession to me early, after this stunt.”
“The stasis spell in the necklace?”
“Oh yes, that, too. But he broke the rules by damaging you, foolish Gwynn.” He smiled at me fondly. “Also he failed to safeguard you during battle today. You were nearly killed, so I’m entitled to safeguard my investment.” His smile faded.
“What if I don’t wish to cede possession of myself to you?” I asked in a steady voice, trying to keep the pissed-off out of it. He hadn’t called me on not-flirting, yet. In fact, he seemed like the cat that ate the canary.
Rogue dropped down beside me, running his hand over my hair and down my bosom to toy with the nipple on my uninjured breast. I made myself hold still for it. “Seductive Gwynn, you can’t fight your nature. After a day of my…attentions, by tomorrow night you’ll be begging me to take you.” His eyelids lowered in intent pleasure as he massaged my breast and I leaned into his hand. “Once we have bedded one another, you will know what we can have. You will never want to leave me.”
I believed it, too. He filled my head like the lily, sweet and bewitching. Bewitching indeed. An image of that dream bedchamber crossed my mind, the green sash lying on the bed.
“I won’t lose myself to you,” I whispered.
“What’s to lose? This isn’t much of a life. I’ll keep you safe, lovely Gwynn,” he promised. “Not even the passage of time will touch you.”
I shuddered, and it wasn’t sexual this time. The prospect of timeless imprisonment congealed in my belly with a chill. Despair filled me. A gilded cage was still a cage. No matter how appealing my jailer might be. A captive breeding program for exotic human sorceresses. Was that why he wanted the baby I would possibly have?
He was right that I would cave. The physical longing to have him inside me, possessing and filling me, washed over the caution. I needed something else to keep him from that moment when I would collapse and let him in.
Then I caught an idea, glimpsed a path through.
“There’s just one thing.” I opened my eyes and smiled dreamily at him. The cat with cream on his lips indeed. “I think you were right the first time. Our bargain did not have a time limitation. It would be unfair of me to require you to end it after only a night and a day. We should stick to our original agreement.”
Rogue stilled. Then anger began to filter through his eyes, amber sparking in the lapis.
I smiled sweetly and pressed my breast more firmly into his hand. “Outside the clothes, one hand, no body parts…forever. You might be able to make me go with you, but, crafty Rogue, however do you plan to impregnate me?”
