“I won’t,” she assured him, holding him just as tightly. Yet after a moment she smiled to herself. “But why is it important to you that I don’t?”

“Why?” He looked up, and back came his frown. “Did I not tell you?”

She ran a finger across his chin, not at all discouraged. “You said something about dying if I died, but… why do you feel that way?”

“Because I treasure you more than my life.”

Her finger stilled as the warmth flowed through her. She forgot about hearing the words she was seeking. What he’d just said was quite good enough.

“Oh, Challen, I love you so-”

“Am I intruding?” Rourk Ce Dell asked innocently from the doorway.

“Hell, yes,” Tedra half growled, half groaned. “How did you get in here?”

“Obviously no one was in a hurry to change your identilocks when you moved out, babe, but then, of course, we were invaded not long after that. I gave it a try and found my prints were still on record.”

“Then let me put it another way,” Tedra replied. “What do you want?”

“Just to congratulate the heroes.” He grinned. “By the way, that is a stunning outfit you’re wearing.”

Tedra’s face went up in flames. “You jerk, you farden jerk,” she gritted out before she stomped off to find something to wear, leaving both males laughing behind her. When she came back in a convenience robe, she was still glaring, and they were still laughing. “That wasn’t funny.”

“Yes, it was. You didn’t even know you were sitting there-”

“You’ll change the subject, Rourk, if you know what’s good for you.”

“Very well.” But he really had to fight to get that grin off his lips. “I hear you’ve got at least two hundred prisoners, and more coming in by the hour with your warriors sweeping the city. Did Garr reward you properly?”

“He was very generous, to both of us. Didn’t you stop in to see him, to find out what he has in mind for you? I told him that I would never have escaped without your help.”

“You did?” He was surprised.

“Come on, Rourk, without you I’d probably be a slave on Sha-Ka’ar right now.”

“Instead of a double occupant on Sha-Ka’an?”

“Who says I’m going back there?”

“Well, aren’t you?”

“Yes, but I hate it when people take things for granted,” she grumbled. “I really do.”

“I’m guilty.” He sighed.

“So am I.” She finally grinned at him.

When they both looked at Challen, he snorted, “I never take anything for granted.”

“The hell you don’t,” Tedra scoffed, but she was still grinning. “You never had a single doubt that your warriors wouldn’t win the day. Admit it.”

“This is so, but I did not take it for granted, since no other thing could have happened.”

“Arrogant, isn’t he?” Tedra said to Rourk.

“It sounded like just plain confidence to me.”

“Oh, he’s got barrels full of that, but who can blame him? They don’t come much bigger than he is, you know, at least not in Centura.”

“So what’s the word on getting our women back?” Rourk asked to distract the frown Tedra was getting from the big guy. “Has Garr made contact yet?”

“Certainly.”

“Well? Is there going to be a problem? There shouldn’t be, when you have their warriors as hostages.”

“Actually, they were willing to sacrifice these guys to keep the women. But Garr pulled a bluff at my suggestion.”

“What?”

Tedra chuckled. “They were told to return the women or Sha-Ka’an would make war on Sha-Ka’ar. A few of them remembered where they came from, and so they decided not to chance a hostile visit from barbarians of their mother planet.”

“Was it a bluff?” Rourk asked Challen.

“No. All must be finished here before I can take my woman home. Does this mean we must go to Sha-Ka’ar first, then there we would go.”

“Well, I thought it was a bluff,” Tedra said, smiling at her warrior. “Would you really make war on a whole planet for me, Challen?”

“Do you not know I would do anything for you, does it make you happy?”

“I-ah-think that’s my cue to be going,” Rourk said.

“Good-bye, babe,” Tedra said without looking at him, already crawling back into Challen’s lap.

“Have I said something to please you?” Challen asked, settling her back into her previous position.

“What gave you that idea?” she teased him. “By the way, Garr is letting me keep the Rover.”

“I thought the Rover was yours already.”

“No, Martha and I stole it. Now it’s mine, which means we can go anywhere in the universe. And World Discovery was my second career choice.”

“You will not miss being a Sec 1?”.

“I’ll always be a Sec 1, babe. I just won’t be working at it anymore. After all, there’s this barbarian I know who gets nervous when I think of fighting-other guys. Of course, he’s delighted if I want to fight him.”

Challen chuckled. “Best you remember what happens when you fight him.”

“All I can seem to remember just now is his very gentle way of making me cry defeat. Why do you do it that way?”

“Because it gives me pleasure to cover your body with mine, chemar. I see it gives you pleasure to know that.”

“Not at all.” She managed the aloof sound she was trying for, but just barely.

Challen grinned wickedly. “Woman, you lie. I can smell your heat.”

“You can not! Can you? Now that’s not fair, warrior. You give so little away, and I give too much.”

Challen shook his head. “And this displeases you? You wish to hear that you have captivated me, bewitched me?” He started taking off her robe. “You wish to hear that I am whole only when you are near, nothing when we are apart?” He got his bracs off without disturbing her position, but then he repositioned her. “You wish to hear how much I yearn to join with you, how much I need you?”

He entered her slowly, exquisitely, and Tedra couldn’t hear another thing. She melted around him. He melted into her. Fused, joined, without separation-his. Stars, how she loved him, and loved loving him. But he knew that, the beloved jerk. And he had a right to be arrogant and cocky, didn’t he? Look at him. Where in the universe was there another man like him? And he was all hers.

She stayed right where she was, even after her breathing returned to normal. She’d like to go to sleep like that, with him still inside her, his strong arms about her, his heart beating under her cheek. But she wasn’t tired. The day had been too exciting.

“That wasn’t fair of you, warrior. You did that to distract me, didn’t you, because you know what I’m fishing for, and you just won’t say it.”

“Perhaps if you tell me what you wish to hear, you will hear it.”

“I want to hear only that you love me.”

“But warriors do not love.”

“That, warrior, is worth a challenge!” she growled, coming up to glare at him.

But he caught her head in his hands, and his mouth fastened on hers before she could say any more. It was a kiss worth a thousand words, filled with all the passion they felt for each other.

And then she had her words, whispered against her lips. “Warriors do not love… they should not… but here is one who does. I love you, woman. My heart cries with how much I love you.”

“Oh, Challen!” Tedra cried.

He sighed. “This was to make you happy.”

“I am!” she wailed.

“As you were at the giving of the fembair?”

“Yes!”

The warrior could only shake his head, grinning, but Martha was laughing her head off as the viewing screen behind them went blank.