Not that anyone objected to the hunts! Or the raids for what they could take from their neighbors to fill their larder!

That was men’s work! He mentally shrugged. Even if it was work they enjoyed, it was still work, and dangerous at that.

Maybe what he needed to do once the snow thawed was to put some of the young men together to clean the place out thoroughly while everyone was out rieving?

He shook the thought as visions of rebellion filled his mind. It might make everyone somewhat more comfortable, at least in the short term, but the resentment could be a long term problem that could escalate into all out rebellion.

In any case, why change? It was not pleasant, but they were used to it. It was the way things had always been.

It was the woman, he decided, who had put such crazy thoughts in his mind.

Her people were different.

They had come from the stars and they were nothing like the tribes he knew.

He had sensed that she was repelled by the filth. But then she was ignorant of the ways of his people and therefore judgmental.

For although he, also, found the foul smells and filth repellent, he knew that there was little that could be done to change the situation. It was all they could do to feed themselves and stay warm. They could not be letting what little heat they had out by constantly flopping the doors open and closed!

He was sure, within her tribe, it went beyond the fixation the women of the plains of K’naiper had with bathing and cleaning.

Anger flickered through him. There were choices in life and many other things that simply were and had to be accepted because they could not be changed!

Shaking his thoughts, he headed back inside to warm his extremities before they fell off.

Drak thought for several moments that his captive had managed to elude him. That thought caused a chaotic surge of emotions within him, primarily anger, although disappointment and even an unwelcome and uncomfortable jolt of fear for her safety was part of it. When he had scanned the dimly lit room, however, he saw the chain led to a furry mound in front of the hearth.

Shaking his head with annoyance, he moved to the mound and crouched down to examine it. He found her ass first. She let out a muffled complaint. He dropped the fur and straightened. Moving to the hearth, he stoked the fire and placed the screen close enough to catch any embers that might explode and fly out. Taking the bed-warmer from the wall beside the hearth, he scooped hot coals into the pan, secured the lid and then moved to the bed to warm the surface.

When he was satisfied he had thoroughly warmed the sheets beneath the heavy wool cover, he returned the bed-warmer to the hearth and bent down to scoop his captive off the floor, an awkward endeavor since she was determined to remain curled into a ball, and then settled her on his bed. She was still curled into a tight ball when he had undressed and climbed into the bed himself.

Sighing his impatience, he snatched the fur off of her, dragged her close, and forcibly uncurled her so that he could fit her against his length. She was shivering, he discovered, her skin cool despite the fur she had been bundled in.

He also made the unpleasant discovery that her feet were like chunks of frozen ice.

Uttering a curse under his breath, he caught her feet and pulled them up. Gritting his teeth, he tucked one foot between his thighs while he worked to warm the other with both hands, using friction and the warmth of his breath. When that foot ceased to feel like ice, he tucked it between his thighs and worked on the other.

She relaxed and began to straighten out as he warmed her feet and when he had managed to thaw both and lay back, she scooted closer and curled around him.

A jolt of stunned surprise went through him.

Which, nevertheless, did not prevent an instantaneous reaction by his body. The blood rushed from his head to his cocks so fast he almost passed out.

He struggled with the urge to roll over and find the spot to plow for several moments and finally managed to cool his ardor with the realization that, as familiar as the female body was that was pressed against him, it did not belong to any of the tribes of Aiper or his sister world and he did not have a clue of whether they were sexually compatible or not.

Beyond the fact that he did not want to chance alienating her by taking something he did not truly need and thereby losing something he did need—desperately.

Those thoughts cooled his ardor enough to allow reason to reassert itself.

She was cold and seeking warmth. He was in no doubt about the reasoning behind her actions, and yet it was the first time in his life a female had actually sought his touch for any reason.

With the exception, that was, of his mother whom he only dimly remembered.

He did recall, though, that he had felt uncomfortable when his mother had tried to embrace him, fearful that his father would consider it weak and hold him in contempt if he allowed it.

And he had avoided her touch as badly as he had wanted to return it tenfold, to hold her so that she could not let him go.

And he still regretted that he had not taken comfort in his mother’s arms when she had been there and willing to coddle him.

After a brief hesitation, he gathered her closer, carefully tucked the heavy fur covers around her to make sure there were no drafts and then settled back once more, staring at the flickering shadows on the ceiling and completely unable to find the sleep he had sought when he had headed to his chamber.

There was a halo of warmth around her and ice beyond it that discouraged Noelle from moving. As she came closer and closer to full awareness, however, it began to be harder and harder to ignore the muscles cramping from her position. Finally, she shifted as much as she could while remaining mostly in the warm zone. The minute she touched the cold area, though, it was like her body sucked the ice in and she curled up tightly again.

She was fully awake by that time, however, and with that alertness memories flooded back.

She’d been asleep when Drak had awakened her by dragging her up from her warm spot near the fire and plopping her down on the bed and she’d been unwilling to fully surface. She’d struggled hard, first to stay asleep, and then to crawl back under as quickly as possible after he’d roused her. Discomfort had brought more awareness of her surroundings than she’d wanted.

And then he’d thoroughly stunned her by warming her freezing feet!

She had to suppose the blocks of ice hadn’t been something he’d wanted in his bed to freeze him to death. She couldn’t think of any other motive for what would have seemed like an act of kindness if it had been anyone else, but she’d still been grateful for it.

And she wasn’t completely convinced it had been entirely for his comfort and had nothing to do with thoughtfulness for her comfort and wellbeing. It didn’t seem likely, given that he was a barbarian, but it wasn’t entirely beyond the realm of possibility.

Truthfully, she’d thought at the time that it was a weird sort of warm up for sex.

She’d expected sex to come next. She’d braced herself for it even though she’d spent hours and hours before she finally passed out from exhaustion mentally preparing herself to ‘endure’ and he hadn’t even tried!

But could she put that down to thoughtfulness? Or had he just not been interested?

That was a disturbing thought!

As uneasy as it made her to think about being used as a sexual slave/receptacle for lust and/or brood female, if he hadn’t brought her/captured her for any of those reasons, exactly what were his intentions?

And were they worse than the ones she’d imagined?

Chapter Seven