set a different man between her thighs every night and let fate decide who will father it. Do you think your Lord Ware would take her back after a month of such treatment?”
“What if she’s not fertile? Am I to delay going on your mission to couple with a mere woman?”
Nasim’s smile disappeared. “Nothing will be permitted to delay you. When the message comes, you will go. I’ve waited too long already.” He turned and stalked across the courtyard. “The tower. Tomorrow, at nightfall.”
Kadar watched him until he disappeared into the castle. God’s blood, Nasim couldn’t have chosen to put him in a worse quandary. Selene was striving to distance herself from him, and he was to go to her and say they must couple until a child was conceived? She would throw more than a gown at him.
Dammit, and just when he had begun to see slight signs of softening in her.
But there was no hint of softness in him at the moment; he was rock hard, and a dark excitement was beginning to build. It was exactly the response Nasim wanted. But he wished he could be as sure of Nasim’s motives as he was of his manipulations. Did he really want an acolyte of Kadar’s blood, or did he want to pull Kadar deeper into the dark morass? In the past, sexual excess had been offered as a stimulus and a reward, and Kadar had reveled in it. Nasim would remember that fact as he remembered everything else. It was a potent weapon he would not hesitate to wield.
Kadar’s gaze lifted again to the tower.
“I’ll not do it.” Selene jumped to her feet, stung. “I won’t be a slave and do that man’s bidding. I’ll never be a slave again.”
“I’ve told you the consequences of refusing. You’ll admit I’m the least offensive of the alternatives.” Kadar grimaced. “Or maybe you won’t. But I swear this is not by my design.”
She knew it was not. Kadar might attempt seduction, but he would never force her to his bed. The realization did nothing to abate her anger. “He expects me to bear your child and then hand it over to him? Is he mad to believe I’d do such a thing?“
“He would take it-if it was a boy. If it was a girl, he would kill it.”
Shock surged through her. “You’re so calm. You accept this.”
He shook his head. “I’m calm because I would never accept it. It will not happen. No child of mine will ever be subject to Nasim’s will.”
A little of her anger ebbed away. “Then how will we prevent it?”
“I don’t have the answer yet. We may not have to prevent it. Two weeks isn’t a long time. Many women do not get with child immediately.”
“It took Thea years.” Another wave of anger hit her. “It makes no
“The child may not really be his aim.”
“What do you mean?”
He shrugged. “He knows the tower will bring back memories of the old life. He knows that I don’t treat you as other women. If he forces me to treat you in that manner in that chamber, it will be a victory for him. He may think it will draw me further along the dark path.”
“Dear God, he’s a devil,” she whispered.
“Yes.”
“And I’m to be the pawn in this battle between you.” Her eyes blazed at him. “I
“Very well. Then at nightfall tomorrow, we won’t go to the tower.”
“And what will happen?”
“He’ll send a man to get you and I’ll kill him. He’ll send two and I’ll kill them too.” He added quietly, “But I cannot fight all of them, Selene. Eventually they will kill me.”
“Nasim wouldn’t let that happen.”
“Perhaps they’d not mean to kill me, but I’m very good. They’d have to kill me to take you against your will.”
He meant it. “No, you should let them take me. Coupling is nothing. It would bring them no victory.”
“Perhaps not.” He added simply, “But I could not bear it.”
And he would die trying to prevent it, she realized in agony. “Is there no way to stop this? What if we go to the tower room and do nothing?”
He shook his head. “There’s a peephole in the chamber next door that allows Nasim to observe when he wishes.”
“How do you know?”
“I’ve watched too. Many times. Sometimes watching is exciting.”
Heat stung her cheeks as she envisioned Kadar’s gaze on naked, writhing-“You’re as depraved as that wicked old man,” she said tartly.
“In this, I may have been more depraved. That’s why he wants to lure me back to the sport.”
“Sport? With women as prey?”
He swore softly, “What do you wish me to say? Yes, I was hunter and women were prey. But I’ve never treated you as prey.”
“But Nasim hopes you will.”
“Of course, and I won’t lie to you. I don’t know how I’ll use you if you agree to Nasim’s demand. It’s too easy to lose control in the tower room.”
“And satisfy that hideous man?”
“And satisfy myself. I probably wouldn’t be aware of Nasim or anyone else.” He fell to his knees and curled up on his pallet on the floor. “There’s no value in talking any more. I’ve given you your choice. Think about it and give me your decision in the morning.”
Choice? What choice? Kadar’s death or letting him have her body. She slipped into bed, pulled her gown over her head, and tossed it on the floor. Not only letting him have her body but having that loathsome old man watching them…
Her gaze went to Kadar on the hearth. His eyes were closed, but he was not asleep. She always knew when slumber took him from her.
The thought had come out of nowhere. No one could take what was not hers, and she had rejected him. Thinking of Kadar in that manner was merely habit. They were not joined. She belonged only to herself, and so did he.
But if she went to the tower room, they would be joined in body if not in spirit. He would enter her as he did on that last night at Montdhu. He would touch her and ignite that odd, searing excitement.
But that excitement had not lasted long, and when he had left her body she was still Selene. The world had not changed because they had coupled.
But the world could change if Kadar was killed because she would not couple with him. If it meant so little, why was she refusing?
Because she feared getting closer to him in any manner, feared that the bond she had broken would mend itself. Well, then she would have to reinforce the barriers she had raised, because she could not face the alternative.
“Kadar.”
“Yes.”
“I will go with you to the tower room.”
She saw his muscles stiffen, but he made no response.
“But it must stop as soon as we see a way out.”
“What if you decide you don’t want it to stop?”
“I won’t do that.”
He turned his back to her. “Tell me that after a week in the tower room.”
The smell was sweet, musky, vaguely familiar, and coming from the tower room. Selene paused before she reached the top step. “What is that scent?”
“Hashish. Do you know what it is?”
