"We both need a bath. It may be our last chance for a long while, and I've no intention of beginning our journey in this filthy state."
"I don't want a bath, and most certainly not with you!"
Karic shot her an amused glance. "Have you had a chance to look at yourself? Believe me, you need a bath."
She clamped down on an angry retort, knowing further argument would be futile. He was so stubborn; he wouldn't listen to her. Perhaps she could find a way to escape once they were in the pool. If only she could get him to untie her arms . . .
That request fell on deaf ears.
Karic wryly shook his head. "I may be self-serving and insensitive," he said, "but I'm not stupid. I only want a bath, not a wrestling match."
"Then how am I to wash myself?" Liane sputtered as he strode into the pool with her still clasped in his arms.
"You aren't. I'll do it for you."
The concept was too mind-boggling for Liane to absorb. She gaped at him, speechless.
Karic stopped when he reached waist-deep water and lowered Liane to her feet. While she stood there, he proceeded to wash the grime from his hair and body, scrubbing the dirt out of his breeches as best he could. Finally he finished and turned his attention to Liane.
"Would you like your shift on or off when I wash you?"
"Neither!" She glared up at him with all the fierceness she possessed. "Don't you dare touch me!"
Karic shrugged. "Then have it your way. The shift comes off."
"No!" Liane backed away, frantically searching for some way out of her predicament, but there was none.
"No," she finally sighed, her shoulders drooping in defeat. "Please leave the shift on."
He was gentle with her, starting at her hair to accustom Liane to his touch. He could feel her gaze upon him as he worked, intently plucking the twigs and bits of leaves from her dark tresses before asking her to lower her head to rinse out the dirt. The long strands floated on the water like heavy, ebony silk. The feel of them, sliding through his fingers, was an experience like none Karic had ever known. His heart quickened in his chest.
When he was done Karic smoothed the damp tangles from her face, combing through the sodden locks with hands that had begun to tremble. He moved to her face and carefully washed away the dirt. His fingers lingered over her lips, outlining their rosy curves with soft, featherlike strokes, suddenly wishing his mouth was there instead. But never once did he look into her eyes.
Her arms, slim and graceful, felt like the petals of an arosa flower. Karic's breath came harder now, and he quickly turned her around to scrub her back. The sight of it, a sensuous undulation of bone and tender flesh, did nothing to ease the heat rising in his groin. Karic forced himself to go on.
He washed the dirt from her back, sliding his hands ever lower until they rounded the curve of her small buttocks. At his touch, she reflexively tightened. Karic thought he'd lose all control. With a supreme effort, he forced reason to return. He was here to wash her and nothing more, though he thought he'd go mad from the wanting.
She was pliant now beneath his hands, turning about to face him with only the slightest touch. Still, Karic wouldn't look at her. His fingers found the slim column of her throat, gently massaging it clean before slipping downward to her chest and the high, full swell of her breasts.
For the longest time he stared at her, fascinated by the impudent nipples straining against the thin, wet fabric. Her bosom rose and fell in an erratic fashion, the smooth, ivory skin flushed and gleaming. He felt his swollen arousal press hot and heavy against his belly. His hands moved lower still, slipping beneath her shift to ease it off her shoulders.
Liane inhaled a shuddering breath. "Karic . . . please, no."
He lifted his gaze. Liane's breath caught in her throat. His eyes had darkened to deepest jade, his pupils dilated with passion. But what captured her heart and sent it spinning was his look of hot, wild yearning. It was almost past the point of reason.
She didn't want to, her need for him so intense she could hardly bear it herself, but she had to put an end to this before it was too late. Instinctively, Liane knew her only chance was to quickly jolt him from it, and the best way was pain.
Liane swallowed back her self-disgust for the hurt she would cause. In spite of all that had happened she still cared for him and wanted him as badly as she knew he wanted her, but the preservation of her powers, her psychic healing skills most of all, was also important.
"That's enough, Karic," Liane began, forcing a self-satisfied smile onto her lips. "I've seen enough."
His eyes clouded with confusion, slowly banishing the mists of passion. "Enough? What are you talking about, Liane?"
"I've seen enough of your lovemaking. Cat Men techniques seem to vary little from other humanoid species."
He slowly pulled his hands from beneath her shift, as if still working through the implications of this latest twist in events. Karic's eyes narrowed. "Are you saying all this time you were studying me and my mating techniques?"
Liane forced herself to nod. "And why else? I'm a scientist. I take advantage of all opportunities."
He frowned with cold fury. "I don't believe you."
She faltered for a fleeting instant and knew he read it in her eyes. Kill it now, she silently cried, or you're lost.
Her eyes widened in feigned disbelief. "But surely you didn't think I found you attractive? You're a Cat Man, after all. I'd never mate outside my species."
Karic savagely pulled her to him. One hand tightened across her back, flattening her breasts against the hard planes of his chest. The other hand clasped her buttocks, pressing her belly into the still turgid swelling of his manhood.
"And what makes you think I care what you want or don't want?" he snarled.
Before she could protest, his mouth covered hers, hard, angry and cruelly ravishing.
Too stunned by the ferocity of his action, Liane stood motionless in his arms. Not until Karic's hand moved from her back to tear open the front of her shift did she rouse from her shock. She kicked, squirmed and bucked against him, but did little to deter the head lowering to her breasts, a head seemingly insensitive to pain as his mouth captured a delicate nipple.
Liane gasped, as much from outrage as from the unexpected sensations his touch sent roaring through her body. She fought back against the traitorous response. This was not the man she thought she'd known.
"Let me go!" she screamed. "Curse you, let me go! You disgust me!"
Karic lifted his head, a hard light flaring in his eyes. "It doesn't change anything."
She stared up at him with tearful eyes, desperate- ly clinging to the image of that other man, the man she'd begun to care for. "Youyou'd rape me then? Force me against my will?"
He exhaled a shuddering breath, a vestige of control beginning to replace his anger. "You were going back with me even before your mind seek, Liane. That sol I saw you in this pool, I intended to return and take you to my people. We need breeding females. If I don't mate with you, some other Cat Man will."
Karic smiled grimly at her look of horror. "Yes, I suppose it is disgusting, but you have your people to thank for forcing us to this." He stepped back from her, replacing the torn edges of her shift together as best he could. "But if I'm not to your liking . . ."
"And is that supposed to be a choice?"
His head snapped up. "I'm sorry. There don't seem to be many choices these days for any of us. It's the best I can do."
The harsh pain in his voice only goaded Liane further. "How very
kind
," she said silkily, "but I'll die before I let you or any of your friends rape me."
"You won't escape me that easily," Karic rasped, his grip tightening painfully on her arms. "I'll make sure of that."
Defiance burned in her eyes. "Will you now? We'll just see, won't we?"
Utter exhaustion flooded Karic. Now, not only would he have to drag her along, fighting him all the way, but he'd have to sharpen his vigilance to keep Liane from harming herself. By the three moons of Agrica, why had he told her his plans?
He knew he'd made it sound vile, that threat of offering her to the young males of his lair, but her wordsimplying that she found his race loathesome and couldn't bear the thought of mating with one such as hehurt. He had thought he knew her, thought she saw him as a man rather than some half-animal. He'd been wrong.
"Come along." Karic stepped aside and began to lead her out of the water. "The sol draws on, and we've a journey to begin. One way or another, you're still going with me."
Liane allowed him to drag her along, content to wait until a more favorable opportunity to escape presented itself. She'd seen the shadow of weariness in his eyes. Karic was not yet as strong as he'd like her to believe. There'd be time, perhaps even this nocte.
They returned to the hut and dressed in silence, Liane donning a pair of tan breeches and forest green tunic, which she fastened with a narrow domare hide belt. On her feet, she slipped a pair of loose, ankle-high boots. She twisted her still damp hair into a single braid down her back, then stomped over to resume making her bread.
Karic eased himself into a nearby chair, already battling the encroaching weariness. "How long will that take?"
She briskly stirred the liquid into the flour, not bothering to look up at him. "An hora or so. I plan to make journey bread. It takes a little longer to dry in the baking."
Hostile blue eyes were raised to him. "Have you any objections?"
It was the only kind of bread that would travel and keep well, though he had never been particularly fond of its flat, crunchy texture. Karic shook his head.
"No, none at all. What else do you have to take along? I can begin gathering it." "No dried meat sticks, if that's what you're wanting. You'll have to catch game along the way. But there's plenty of cerasa fruit and some fermented uva wine."
"That'll do." Karic tiredly rose from the chair. "Do you have any bags to pack it all in?"
She pointed with a flour-coated hand. "Over in the bottom drawer of that chest are two domare hide bags." She resumed her forceful kneading of the dough. "Anything else?"
He caught the hostile sarcasm in Liane's voice but decided it was not worth making an issue over. She was being more cooperative than he'd dared hope, and for that he was thankful. He couldn't spare the strength for another protracted battle.
Liane slapped the dough about a few more times and then began to roll it out into a flat rectangle. She'd noticed the slump to Karic's shoulders and the absence of any spring in his step. He was tired.
She stifled a grin of triumph. Let him drag her through the forest for a sol. She'd easily escape him this nocte and make her way back to the safety of Primasedes. He wouldn't dare follow into that well-guarded fortress. After a few more horas of his exasperating presence, she'd be free of him forever.
It was near midsol when they finally set out. With her hands tied behind her and a lead rope around her waist binding her to Karic's, Liane followed behind, the lighter of the two packs on her back. The brief rest while the bread baked had refreshed him, but Liane knew its effects would not last long. She watched him closely for the first signs of weakness.
The forest was huge, a good two sols journey in any direction to clear it. Liane took careful note of the direction they were headed in, north by north- west if the sun peeking through the treetops was any indication. She would use the stars to orient herself back this nocte.
Barely an hora had passed when a wild baying floated to their ears. It came from behind them. Search canus were on their trail.
Karic swung around and grabbed Liane by the waist, pulling her to his side. ''Can you run?"
She shot him a quizzical glance. "Well, yes."
"Then you'd better runand fast."
He took off, her body tightly clasped against him. Liane almost stumbled before she could match her pace to his. They sped through the forest, nimbly dodging the trees. For a while, the baying grew fainter.
Liane valiantly tried to keep up as long as she could, but she hadn't Karic's speed nor stamina. She tired.
"Karic!" Liane panted, her lungs starving for air. "II've got to walk a bit."
He wanted to go on and put as much distance between them and their trackers while he still had the strength, but he knew Liane was too winded. Karic's pace slowed to an easy trot. Still, Liane could barely keep up.
"Please. I'll only slow you down. Leave me." Liane tripped over a tree root and fell.
He was barely able to pull her up before she hit the ground. He gave a harsh laugh. "You'd like that, wouldn't you?"
Karic stopped, his head cocking in concentration. All Liane could hear was the baying of the search canus, drawing near again.
"What is it?" she asked.
"Water." He turned her to the right and began a purposeful, rapid walk through the trees in that direction. "We need to cover our scent. I hear running water."