Little one, or little girl, he’d called her, and however she cared to take it, she felt both at the moment. He was so farden big. And she’d already had a taste of his full weight. She’d never survive sex-sharing with him, she knew she wouldn’t, and yet who was there to stop him? She’d found out the hard way that she couldn’t. And even if she could, honor demanded she not try.

“There’ll be no assuming here, warrior. I want it spelled out, and to know how long it’s to last.”

“Very well.”

He rolled to the side now, telling her at least that the service wouldn’t begin just yet, for which she was more than grateful. She really had worn herself out trying to beat him. And then it hit her with the force of a blow. She’d been beaten. For the first time since she had become a Sec 1, she’d been beaten, and by a man she found utterly desirable.

A wave of vulnerability washed through her, and a thrill that flushed her cheeks and weakened her limbs. Here was a man she couldn’t walk all over, one who wouldn’t fear her abilities or worry about riling her temper. It seemed as if she’d waited forever for him, and she looked at him now wide-eyed, with a little awe and a lot of anticipation. She’d know sex-sharing at last. Even if it killed her, she’d enjoy every minute of it.

“What is it?” he asked, intercepting her look.

“I… Nothing.”

She sat up and wrapped her arms around her drawn-up knees. He was sitting next to her, his legs crossed. She couldn’t meet his eyes again, but he was having none of that. His hand turned her face to him.

“You agreed to honor the outcome,” he reminded her almost sternly.

Flustered by his touch, she pushed his hand away. “Don’t go doubting my honor again. I’m still waiting to hear what the outcome is.”

“For one month you will give me the service of a claimed woman.”

He said that with a certain amount of triumph. But then that was why he’d been so delighted about the challenge, because she couldn’t resist his claiming of her. And no matter how much she was looking forward to sex-sharing with him, that rubbed her a little on the raw. He ‘d known he couldn’t lose, even if she hadn’t. If that wasn’t underhanded, she didn’t know what was.

“You said this means I must yield to your will? In all things?”

“That is so.”

“That sounds a bit much, warrior. You also said this service could be a specific task or a certain type of labor, but just one kind only. If I have to clean your cave, cook your meals, and warm your furs, I’m afraid I’m going to have to protest. That’d be more than one service, wouldn’t it?”

He had to be annoyed with her for pointing that out, but damned if he showed it. She wanted a reaction from him. In fact, she wouldn’t half mind if he’d do some of that claiming right now. But all he did was seem to thoughtfully consider her point.

Finally, he said, “Very well, I will choose the service you have yourself named. Your words were ‘labor in the bedchamber’; thus wherever I sleep, woman, you will deny me nothing. Is that specific enough for you?”

She almost laughed. He actually thought he was making her regret protesting his first choice, that she’d like this one even less. She’d got a reaction out of him after all, not a typical one, but then he could in no way be called a typical man.

Not to disappoint him, she gave a long sigh. “What can I say, warrior? But you’re passing up an excellent floor sweeper.”

He grunted. “You would have done better as a claimed woman. It at least is a position of some respect.”

Her reaction had obviously been too mild to suit him. He’d wanted her angry, as angry as she had apparently made him by disputing his first choice.

“And a bed-warmer isn’t?” She smiled, then shrugged, unconcerned. “Well, then, since I’m having the job forced on me, you’ll just have to defend my honor, won’t you?”

He shook his head. “You will accept what comes, with no recourse. Service through challenge loss is not meant to be agreeable.”

She didn’t have his ability to conceal anger when it did show up. Her eyes glittered with it. Her teeth gnashed with it.

“Nice of you to tell me that after the fact,” she gritted out. “What other unpleasant surprises do I have in store for me? Some chains and whips maybe?”

Now he smiled, the farden beast. “I cannot know what would surprise you, when you knew so little of challenge.”

She waited for him to go on, but he didn’t, so she demanded, “What about the chains and whips?”

“For what reason would such be needed, since you have agreed to accept my will as yours?”

“In the bedchamber only,” she reminded him.

“Wherever I sleep,” he reminded her. “But-” and now he grinned. “You are still a woman, not a warrior.”

He seemed much too delighted by that fact. “Is that supposed to mean something in particular to me?”

“A woman, any woman, highborn, servant-or challenge loser-must defer to warriors, especially to the warrior who protects her, whom she must also obey. Until your service ends and you are again a claimable woman, I must give you my protection; thus will you obey me in all things.”

For a moment Tedra was too furious for words. Then she shot to her feet, snarling, “Like farden hell! That’s what you said about claimed women. Are you telling me every woman on your planet is claimed?”

“I know not the customs in every country,” he said as he also got to his feet. “But in Kan-is-Tra, very few women are claimed, since they need only apply to a warrior for protection to avoid claiming. This you were told, and this they gladly do, because Kan-is-Tran women do not care to lose their rights to claiming.”

“What rights?” she demanded. “It sounds like they have none if they must still obey-Stars, how I hate that word-every warrior who snaps his fingers!”

“Defer to, woman, not obey,” he replied with a sigh. “A warrior can make no demands of a woman under another’s protection. He can request such and such of her, but she need not obey him if the request is unreasonable or abhorrent to her. This is her right.”

“But she does have to obey the warrior who protects her? I see no difference.”

“He who protects her cannot have of her the service you will give to me, not unless it is her wish to give such service. Is that difference enough for you, woman?”

Tedra pinkened. “It still sounds too slavish to suit me, but I didn’t come here to live, only to trade. Though I’m not forgetting that you wanted me in the ‘without rights’ group.”

He shrugged. “You could have requested my protection instead.”

“I didn’t know about it!”

“Ignorance of the law is no-”

“Don’t rub it in the ground, warrior,” Tedra snapped. “You’ve already taken more advantage of me than any other man ever has, so let’s drop it, all right? Now, are we going to stand around here all day, or what? Why don’t you get on with whatever you were doing when I showed up to brighten your day. What were you doing out here on your lonesome anyway?”

She got a very clear look of chagrin out of him, which was heartening, proving he didn’t always keep his emotions to himself. “I was hunting the taraan you killed.”

“So that’s a taraan?” she asked. “Hey, I didn’t kill it. It’s only in a deep stun, which I wish to Heaven’s Stars you ‘d been in, and stayed in.”

His only response to that was to ask, “How is it you know of a taraan but have never seen one before?”

“Because it’s one of your words that needed a picture to go along with it, but Sublims don’t supply pictures, just words.”

“Explain, woman.”

“It’s how I learned your language, with a Sublim tape. I know all the words, just not all of their meanings. Your animals, foods, things like that will give me problems until I can match them up with the words I have for them. You’d have the same problem if you were given my language.” She grinned then. “Now there’s an idea. Would you like to Transfer up to my ship to learn my language? It would only take a few hours of your time, and the culture shock would do you a world of good.”