There were a number of great carved chests in the same dark wood up against another wall, each a good five feet long and several feet high, with padded tops in the same white material as the couches making them suitable for sitting on. Chairs were conspicuously absent, but there were more of those comfortable-looking backless couches set before two of the open windows, with smaller tables about them, and what Tedra imagined to be gaali stone stands.

What she found the most impressive, and personally delightful, was a ten-foot-high tree in the corner between the windowed wall and the balcony, fully green-leafed though well contained, sitting in a beautiful black glazed urn. Smaller plants sat beside it, filling that corner with greenery in differing heights, and before all of this was a sunken pool, perhaps eight feet round, with bright red flowers floating on its surface.

“A pool in a bedroom?” Tedra turned around to locate Challen and found him where she’d left him, by the doors, doing nothing else but watching her. “It’s kind of small, isn’t it?”

“It is for bathing, not swimming.”

“Oh, that’s right.” She turned back toward the water before he could see her grimace. “I forgot I’m going to have to do without a decent bath for a while.”

His chuckle was close and getting closer, telling her he was moving up behind her. “My bath is one thing you will not find complaint with, kerima,” he said, misunderstanding her comment. “So which do you care to test first, the bath-or the bed?”

“I’d opt for the bed if that pause was meant to be significant, but are you really up to helping me test it out-after what I did to you?”

She turned to catch his rueful smile. “Perhaps not.”

Guilt stirred, but she quickly stomped it down. “I’ll wait to test out the bed, then. I’m afraid I’d get lost in it by myself, it’s so big.” The thing had to be at least ten feet square, and was covered with a soft, billowy blue spread that looked like it might swallow her up if she lay in the center of it. “But I’d rather pass on the bath, if you don’t mind. It’ll take some nerve building before I’m ready to experience that novelty of your world.”

His humor returned when he heard that. “It is true it is not a normal means for bathing, but it is not so deep you need fear it. And it has been prepared for my arrival.”

“I wasn’t worried about the depth, though I suppose I should have been. But don’t let me stop you from enjoying it. I’ll-watch.”

“You will do more than that, kerima. ” He was chuckling again, which should have given her warning. “You will join me.”

She hadn’t felt him untying her rope belt, but she couldn’t very well miss the fur blanket being lifted off her. “Now wait a-” She was picked up in strong arms and on her way toward the sunken pool before she could complete that protest. “Put me down, Challen! I mean it! I don’t want-no!” She found herself dangling directly over the water, held out at arm’s length. “Don’t you dare…”

He did; simply let go of her. Tedra screamed on the way down, but it wasn’t that far a drop, and he’d been right about the water not being very deep, only hip-deep for her. Her scream of fright quickly turned to several more of rage as she held her arms up and away from the now swirling, lapping, clinging water-uck!

Challen was laughing outright, watching her. “Did I not know better, woman, I would swear you have no liking for water. Is it not warm enough for you?”

She noticed it now that he mentioned it, warmth, clinging to every inch of her that it touched, surrounding her, seeping into her pores. It wasn’t as terrible as she had thought it would be, kind of like standing in a vat of thin gel or thick air, but it would still take getting used to.

“Is is supposed to be warm?” she asked, finally looking up at him.

“Is it supposed… you would prefer a cold bath?”

“I would prefer a solaray bath, but that’s beside the point, since I’m not likely to get one here. My question was legitimate, warrior. Warm, hot, cold, what’s the norm?”

He didn’t answer. He started taking off his sword belt, still without answering. She finally got the message that she’d annoyed him somehow, and she figured she knew the “how.”

“You know, warrior, things like this are going to crop up now and again during our time together, you thinking I’m taking you around the block or teasing, when I’m not. When one person has never been in water before, but the other has, it’s kind of natural for the one to ask questions about temperature and such-”

“Enough, woman. You have not a body that has never known water. Think you I could not smell the difference?”

She nearly choked. She did laugh. “Somehow, some way, before I leave this planet I’m going to get you on my ship and into a solaray bath. You won’t be touched by water, but you’ll be cleaner than you’ve ever dreamed of being, and it only takes about three seconds. That’s modern technology, efficient, quick, and easy. And I’d say by that expression of yours that you think I’ve just handed you another ‘tall tale.’ That’s all right, babe. To each his own.”

He gave no reply, but he did extend his sword toward her raised wrists. Fortunately that disgruntled expression of his didn’t intimidate her, so she knew it was the rope he was after, not her heart. She positioned her wrists, slid the underside of the rope along the blade, and was free of restraints at last, hopefully for good.

She tossed the severed rope to the floor by his feet, then waited for him to join her. If her questions about bathing were going to bother him so much, she’d just wait and watch, thereby learning how to go about it without asking.

There was a bench of sorts nearby that she hadn’t noticed sooner because it was tucked in among the plants, even with several small ones resting on one end of it. A tall stack of towels sat next to this, and Challen used the other end to sit on and remove his boots. He was still watching her rather than what he was doing, and slowly but surely, the annoyance left his expression.

“Sit down, kerima, ” he finally told her.

“And drown? If it’s all the same to you, I don’t mind standing.”

“There is a ledge behind you, there for sitting on.” This with a sigh.

“I’m sure it’s a fine ledge,” she allowed, glancing back at it. “I’ll still stand.”

He made a sound she could have sworn was exasperation-caused, and then the bracs were being peeled off his long legs. Tedra was suddenly feeling more warmth than from just the water, more like real heat as she watched him put a hand to the floor to lever himself over the side of the pool. But then the water rushed at her, distracting her as it slapped against her stomach. Yet in the next moment Challen was standing before her, and it wasn’t only water touching her now.

“These you could have covered with the water,” he said, his large hands circling her breasts.

That was an outright lie she couldn’t help making a rude sound over. “Get off it. You can see through this water.”

“Not as clearly as I see you now. But I do not mind the invitation, woman.”

“I wasn’t… So that’s why you wanted me to sit? Well, why didn’t you say so? I can be more adventurous if it’s for a good cause, and I’m sure this is a good cause… or are you feeling-better?”

The large hands on her breasts slid around to her back to draw her up against him, and she caught his smile just before his mouth moved over hers in a very delicious way. That was really all the answer she needed. Her own arms moved up to lock around his thick neck, and in the course of the next few hours, she found out that a primitive bath had other, more enjoyable uses than just bathing.