Finola knew she should run.  Yank Broadsword down and drag him through the dried pine needles.  She didn’t.  Why she didn’t baffled her.  Instead, she allowed Broadsword to lead her to the grass like some sort of prized lamb. 

She planted her feet and didn’t move another inch.  The rope pulled against her waist, the rough fibers scratching her skin.  “Sweetling, why do you tarry?” 

“Don’t call me that.”  Hands on her hips, she continued.  “What do you intend to do with me?” 

Broadsword sauntered back to where she stood.  He took her face in his hands, stroking the corner of her mouth with a thumb.  “You frown.  Have you not been treated well by me?” 

The question played around in her mind like a squirrel jumping from limb to limb.  “I currently have no argument with your treatment of me.  Suspicions, though, as to why you tease me plague my thoughts.” 

Needing some sort of answer, she pinned him with her stare.  “One moment you can’t seem to keep your hands to yourself, the next you look shocked at how we respond to one another.” 

“Ah.  You don’t trust me.”  He paused.  “Were our positions reversed, I would have the same doubts.  Let me assure you that it is in both your and my best interests that you arrive in Hamre in good, no, near perfect condition.  No matter how you flaunt your wares, no matter how much I would enjoy partaking of them, I intend to present you as the grand prize you are.” 

Flaunt her wares!  She squinted.  He might think so, but he didn’t know her motivation.  She’d done so in an ill-conceived attempt to earn her freedom.  “How can you do that when I am abased by you and your underlings?  When I am refused the simple dignity of clothing?” 

“Come now, Sweetling, you expect me to believe you didn’t enjoy your release earlier?”  He kissed her, his tongue delving into her moist mouth, probing with gentle earnest.  The sensation of butterflies tickling her ran across her skin just before he broke the contact. 

“Besides, are we not both in an equal state of undress?  Your dignity needs no clothing here with me.” 

Gods, his kiss sent daggers of fire racing through her.  He dropped his hands to her shoulders and began to gently massage them.  The fire only continued, jumping from one nerve ending to another.  Somehow, her plan of seduction was failing.  She pushed back from him.  “Why?  Why do you do that?” 

His lips grazed her neck as he replied, “I find you quite desirable, despite your hellcat attitude.”  He paused, taking a deep breath.  “Maybe because of it.” 

“But you take me to the King,” she protested.  Hope trickled through her the way cooling water eased a parched throat.  

Emotion choked his voice.  “I am even now in the final preparations for your arrival to Hamre.  You will be clad in the softest leather, your hair adorned with jewels befitting a lady of your rank.”  He placed his mouth near her ear.  “Even if you are an unquenchable tart.” 

Lifting a strand of her hair, he caressed her face with it.  “It is far too sad a thing you should go to Hamre.  I doubt any there will appreciate your talents as well as I.”  

She felt him tongue her outer ear, and then he blew against it ever so slightly.  Shivers ran down her arms.  “When you go to him, remember me.” 

Abruptly, he smashed the romance of the moment as if he’d taken a mace to an enemy.  

“Now, come.  I will finish your ablutions, and dress you.”  He extended his roughened hand to hers. 

As if in a trance, she placed her smaller hand in his, fascinated by how his seemed to swallow hers entirely.  This was how he was, she thought.  He swallowed alive all those around him, in such a way they didn’t know they had been consumed.  He was eating her alive, ingesting her very soul, and she didn’t mind. 

In the distance, the birds sang their night songs.  The sun had nearly finished its descent, putting shadows on nearly everything.  Finola’s world had turned gray.  Where once she was sure she knew what was the right course of action, uncertainly reigned.  She thought she loved Calder but desire for Broadsword continually pushed him from her mind.