He didn’t raise his voice. He didn’t have to with that tone. It was an order he fully expected to be obeyed, and Tedra had a moment’s inclination to obey him with all speed, which was crazy. She wasn’t a helpless female who was subject to a man’s will. She was sorry he was offended by her outfit, but that was just too bad. She wasn’t removing anything, not for him or anyone else.
“Are you going to tell me your women aren’t allowed clothing?” she asked suspiciously. If that was the case, she was leaving right now.
“They wear the chauri. ”
“Well, then,” she replied agreeably. “If you’ll just produce a chauri for me, I might consider changing. Otherwise, I’ll keep… what…”
Her words died off as his sword came up and around to slide into its scabbard before he started walking toward her. At that point she didn’t have a single doubt of his intention. Her reasonable offer was not being considered. He’d ordered her to remove her clothes, and since she hadn’t, he was going to do the removing himself.
“Now, look, warrior, I can’t let you… you’d better stop right… I said stop!”
He didn’t, and the distance was closing fast between them-too fast. She couldn’t think how to reach him with words, if anything could reach something that looked that determined. But she wasn’t about to let anything that big get close enough to get his hands on her.
“Farden fool,” she hissed under her breath before pointing her phazor and pressing stun.
He was stopped instantly. He even remained on his feet, as big and wide as they were. She was too furious to appreciate that. This wasn’t the way to start friendly relations. The barbarian wouldn’t realize what she had done to him when he came out of it, but that wasn’t the point.
She opened the computer link to demand, “Did you hear all that, Martha? Can you believe such arrogance?”
“Am I to assume you’ve put him on hold?”
“What else could I do? He was about to steal the clothes right off my body.”
“Maybe you should have let him, kiddo. It would almost guarantee some very friendly negotiations.”
“Very funny,” Tedra said, only the possibility wasn’t in the least revolting.
She couldn’t deny the strong attraction she had felt on first sight of the barbarian. She had been hit with a jolt of sensation similar to what she experienced when Kowan had kissed her, yet the barbarian hadn’t even been close to her. She felt it again now, staring at him. And now that it was safe to do so, she was drawn to him for a closer look.
All that bare skin and visible muscle was irresistible, and she gave into the urge, hesitantly placing her fingers to his chest, then more surely. The skin was warm, soft to the touch, but with no flexibility, like velvet-covered rock. As her exploration moved down to his hip, she discovered the leather of his pants was as buttery soft as it had looked, and she couldn’t help wondering how a backward culture like his could produce something of a manufactured quality.
The steel wrapped around his left forearm did indeed look like Toreno, but she couldn’t test that without firing at it when he was conscious, to see if the stun beam would be deflected or put him out again. She didn’t think he’d appreciate her using him for testing, and she felt bad enough already that she’d had to stun him at all. Her sense of fair play was outraged at having hit him with something he didn’t know was coming, especially since it had only been one on one, where she could have discouraged him in any number of other ways if she hadn’t panicked because of his size.
The upper arms, Stars, she couldn’t even get her hands halfway around the muscled expanse. Moving to stand directly in front of him, she felt small and vulnerable, an alien feeling it was hard to shake off. But her head likely didn’t even reach his shoulders, and that chest was so wide, she had nothing to compare it with.
He really was a good foot taller than she was, and it was a strain on her neck to try and look up at him that close. But when she stepped back to examine his face, the dark eyes made her uneasy. They were probably brown, but such a dark shade they appeared sable black, and they seemed to be looking right at her with an awareness that couldn’t possible be there.
“Let me take a wild guess at what all that silence means,” came Martha’s dry tone through the unit.
Tedra’s cheeks scalded. Damned computer. How in the farden hell did she do that, when the unit had been pointed away from the barbarian so she couldn’t see what Tedra was doing?
“I’m only human,” Tedra grumbled, knowing it was useless to deny she’d taken advantage of the barbarian’s unconscious state. “He can’t be offended by what he doesn’t know, can he?” Silence met that question, and Tedra felt a certain dread, staring at those dark eyes that continued to stare right back at her. “Martha?”
“I hate to break up your party, kiddo, but I seriously doubt the stunning worked properly on such a large specimen as that, not on the low setting I’m reading on your unit. There’s something in the atmosphere down there-”
“What didn’t work?” Tedra cut in, shouting, “He’s immobilized!”
“Yes, but I don’t think his mind was put on hold. I think he can hear you, feel you-”
“You’re heading for the junkyard, Martha, I swear you are! Why in hell didn’t you tell me immediately? Are you trying to get me raped?”
“Would it be rape?” Martha came back placidly. “I didn’t miss that ‘oh, my,’ doll.”
Tedra was so furious she slammed her fist down on the link button, afraid she’d stomp the unit into the ground if she heard another word from Martha. But worse than her fury was her mortification, and that increased to the limit when she met those sable eyes again, and did feel that they were seeing her with perfect clarity. Awake. The barbarian was awake and aware of everything she had done, and that thought made her jump back so quickly she stumbled. But landing on her backside didn’t embarrass her any further. Nothing could be worse than what she already felt.
Looking up at him again, she saw that the eyes had even followed her to the ground, and all she wanted to do was roll over and bury her head. She got up instead and came back to him. She had to take advantage again to explain while he still couldn’t move and was forced to listen to her.
“Look, I’m sorry, I really am. I shouldn’t have examined you like that, warrior. I had no right, and my only excuse is… curiosity… yes, that’s what happened. My curiosity got the better of me. The men don’t grow as big as you where I come from. They’re more my size, which can’t mean much to you, but was pretty big to me until I began meeting Sha-Ka’ari warriors, but even they weren’t as big as you. Wouldn’t you be curious about something you’d never seen the like of before?”
He was listening. He couldn’t help but listen. And that was another thing. People coming out of stun usually felt just a slight disorientation, but no remembrance of being stunned or even of a time lapse. They might wonder about the scene around them being different, like missing people who had been there before, but unless they saw the phazor beforehand and recognized it for what it was, they passed the incident off as being unexplainable and dismissed it. The barbarian, however, being awake, knew he couldn’t move, knew something had been done to him, and was probably experiencing a lot of confusion and even some fear. He had probably never in his life been so confined, and he wouldn’t be liking it one bit, but he had brought it on himself. She wasn’t taking the blame for that, too.
“If you had just stopped when I requested it, warrior, I wouldn’t have had to stun you. But the condition is only temporary. You’ll be as good as new when you come out of it. It was supposed to render you unconscious, but my setting was too low, and you’re too big… and I figure you’ll probably try to take it from me now, though I can’t let you do that. I’ve already raised the setting. Next time it will knock you out, and I’m only telling you this so there won’t be a next time. I don’t like stunning people any more than they like being stunned, so if you’ll just keep your distance from me until we can come to some sort of agreement, I won’t have to use the phazor on you again. Is that too much to ask? I’m not here to cause trouble or hurt anyone. I’m here to trade with you people, and maybe more, but that’s for your shodan to decide. If you could agree to take me to-”