to experience pleasure. And now he wanted more —more than she was willing to or could give him. Her body tingled with a strange, gripping madness.
"Wait," she whispered. He looked down upon her as a wolf would upon his prey. "Please. . . . wait."
"Don't be afraid," Tabor said in that throaty whisper that was warm and sensual and made Tanaka want to trust him. "I can take you back there. I can make it happen again very soon."
But Tanaka did not trust his words. He was too big in too many ways, and she was convinced that to take him into herself would tear her apart.
He can give you back to Ingmar the Savage if you don't please him, an insistent voice inside her head warned.
A shiver passed through Tanaka as she realized the truth of the warning. She closed her eyes, turned her face aside, and whispered, "Do whatever you will. Ill not try to stop you."
Tabor got down beside her again, hungry for the taste of her mouth, aching for the release of his own passion. But her eyes had turned cold and fearful. He had seen this before. Often, when he'd brought a woman to the summit of pleasure for the first time in her life, it frightened her. But he had always been able to allay the fears, and satisfy both himself and the woman.
When Tabor tried to kiss Tanaka, she turned her face away, but his desire was too intense for him to be easily dissuaded. He wedged against her, manhood meeting thigh, and the heat of her flesh urged him closer to her fire.
"Look at me," he coaxed. "I want to see your soul when I take you to that special place again."
Shamed by the pleasure she'd felt —pleasure at her own defilement, she spread her thighs apart with cold detachment. "Do what you must," she said. "I am your slave and can deny you nothing."
She could have cut him with a knife and not have injured him more deeply. Tabor was not a rapist. His jaws clenched tight in rage, and he bolted to his feet, pulling on his clothes with feverish haste.
"Cover yourself, wench!" he snapped at the woman in his bed. "My warriors will be coming in soon, and I don't want them driven mad by the sight of you."
Tanaka sat up, raising one knee to hide herself as she crossed her arms over her bosom. "Have I displeased you? I would have done whatever you commanded."
Tabor picked up the blanket by the corner and tossed it partially over Tanaka. "Displeased me?" he asked tersely. "I doubt you have the knowledge and skill to please me."
He left the hut abruptly, and Tanaka lay trembling, wondering what punishment would be hers when the Viking warrior returned.
Chapter 6
T anaka awoke into the disquieting reality of nearly a dozen broad-shouldered, heavily-armed Viking warriors. Adding to this confusion was the unsettling fact that she was nude, with nothing but a heavy, coarse-textured blanket to cover herself.
Sven noticed first that she had woken. He smiled. "Morning, miss," he said respectfully. "We didn't wake you, I trust. If so, let me apologize for myself and the others."
Tanaka shook her head, realizing how extraordinarily quiet Tabor's men really were. She knew that this was testimony to their discipline and training.
As she tried to form a question about Tabor, the leader strode into the hut. It was the first time she had seen him fully armed, and the sight was as pleasing as it was disturbing. He wore woolen trousers with soft, knee-length boots with leather strappings from ankle to knee, a dark blue shirt beneath a leather jerkin, and a vest of leather-plating for protection against swords and arrows. At his left hip was a long scabbard for a sword, the haft of which glittered with an enormous ruby embedded in its crown. At his right hip was the fighting axe that Tanaka had become all too familiar with. He wore no helmet, and his blond hair fell across his broad shoulders. His arms, bulging with muscles, were adorned with leather gauntlets at each wrist.
"She is awake," Sven said, then moved away, allowing Tabor some privacy.
Tabor knelt
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