“Stars, so this is what it feels like.” A fist seemed to be squeezing her belly-no pain, just the strangest, most pleasant feeling.

Martha chuckled. “All right, where is he? I’ve got to see this incredible specimen for myself.”

Suddenly Shanelle felt fearful and nervous. She didn’t want Martha to know he was a visitor. This was so important! Calm down, for Stars’ sake. Where were these emotions coming from?

“Not yet, Martha. I want to be sure I haven’t just conjured him up with wishful thinking.”

“Your whole system’s gone haywire. You don’t get that from fantasies.”

“What’s your Martha saying, Shani?” Caris questioned at her side.

“Nothing. How’s your warrior doing?” Even as Shanelle asked this, the man won the match and Caris started squealing in delight. Shanelle grinned, beginning to feel some of her anxiety dissolving. “You won’t get to meet him as long as he keeps winning, unless no one else challenges him.”

The judge of this arena was already leading in the next warrior, a seven-footer. Caris frowned. “But I don’t want to hope he loses.”

“If it’s far enough along in the eliminations of this arena, then losing here may not put him out of the running. There are the other skills to consider.”

Caris was no longer paying attention to what Shanelle was saying, caught up as she was in the new match, which had just begun. Shanelle took the opportunity to steal another glance at the black-haired visitor and once more met those light blue eyes head-on. Stars, had he been watching her all this time? She felt nervous again, and there was no reason for it. She wanted him to be interested. She wouldn’t utter a single protest if he came over, grabbed her hand, and dragged her off. Of course he wouldn’t do that. He was a visitor from another planet. Visitors, most of them, tended to do things in a civilized fashion. What a waste of time!

Time she didn’t have. But she couldn’t be too easy. She didn’t want to scare him off. He had to want her enough to ask her father for her, but she didn’t know if he wanted her at all yet. Entice him, Shani. Make him come to you. If he loses interest, then you can be aggressive.

Slowly this time, as if reluctantly, she looked away, back to the two warriors straining in the arena. She watched Caris’s warrior being shoved over his line and heard her friend sigh.

“He loses and I win.” Caris was just short of chuckling now. “I think I’ll go over and introduce myself and offer a little sympathy.”

“Go ahead. I’ll wait for you here.”

“She has the right idea,” Martha said as soon as Caris hurried off. “What are you waiting for?”

Shanelle glanced again toward the black-haired visitor, then looked quickly away. He was still staring at her. But his expression was unchanged. He hadn’t even smiled at her yet.

“I’m waiting for him to come to me.”

“We’re not playing games here, kiddo,” Martha said, adding a big dose of exasperation to her tone. “You want him, go get him.”

“Damn it, Martha, it’s not that easy. And let me handle this, will you?”

Determinedly she watched the next match, all of it, without once glancing toward the visitor. The seven-footer won again, easily. He really was mammoth and would likely last a good long while, possibly the rest of the day.

Why hadn’t he come over yet? Visitors weren’t typically shy or hesitant. Maybe he didn’t want her. Maybe he only found her curious, looking like a Sha-Ka’ani female but dressed like a visitor- except for the cloak she was wearing. Was it the damn cloak? Did he think it made her unavailable? He could at least ask!

She gave him another quick glance. The moment she did, he entered the arena. Shanelle’s eyes flared wide. Her gasp brought Corth to her side.

“What is wrong?”

“Nothing, Corth.”

“I’d better get a better answer than that,” Martha’s voice warned.

“He’s entered the competition.”

“Well, that ought to be interesting. Now can I have a look?”

“Not yet.”

“I’d be getting suspicious, Shani, if I weren’t monitoring you.”

“Be quiet, Martha.”

Shanelle couldn’t believe he was doing this. The warrior had at least four inches on him and a great deal more weight. But the visitor clasped hands with him, took up the correct stance, and then looked again at Shanelle. In that moment she knew why he was in there. He did want her. She had been watching the contestants, but he wanted her eyes on him, so he became a contestant. What a sweet, jealous thing to do-and so foolish. He couldn’t possibly win. But she’d take a leaf from Caris’s book and give him a dose of sympathy when he lost.

Only he didn’t lose right away. The pushing and straining began and it was magnificent to watch. Muscles appeared and bulged prominently on the visitor that Shanelle wouldn’t have imagined he could possess. Her breathing quickened. She found herself straining right along with him, and suddenly she wanted him to win so bad she could taste it, because here was a visitor her father could approve of. That had been one of her main stumbling blocks, that her father wouldn’t accept a visitor, any visitor, but he could certainly accept one who could defeat a warrior.

Her eyes were on his face now, willing him to do it, and it was in the exact moment when his eyes came to Shanelle to assure himself she was watching that he gathered the last effort to win. He did it. The mighty warrior stumbled back over his line, their hands separated, and the visitor stood victorious and stared right at Shanelle.

She didn’t jump up and down squealing like Caris had done, but that was what she felt was going on inside her. She was absolutely ecstatic, and her grin showed it.

“I’d swear you were being kissed and loving it, but I know no one’s touching you,” Martha remarked, actually sounding curious. “What’s got you even more excited?”

“He just beat a warrior, Martha.” And Shanelle was the one feeling proud.

“So?”

“All right, take a look.” She positioned the computer-link unit so that the viewer on the end was aiming right at the triumphant visitor.

“Shani, you’d better be pointing in the wrong direction,” Martha said, clearly irritated. “That’s not a warrior.”

“I don’t care what he is, he’s the one. And I’m going to turn you off now, Martha. I don’t need any help from the sidelines.”

“Don’t you dare. Your mother pulled that once and got herself claimed.”

“And look how nicely that ended up.”

“Shani-”

Martha’s voice was cut off, but Shanelle knew she could still hear and monitor her with the Rover’s short-range scanner, so she offered, “I’m sorry, Martha, but I’ve made my choice.” She patted the unit at her waist. “I’ll talk to you later.”

“I believe the man wishes me to challenge him, Shani,” Corth remarked suddenly.

Her “choice” was looking directly at Corth just then. “Glance away,” she told him. “In fact, move away. He thinks you’re with me.”

“I am with you.”

“You know what I mean. And stop grinning. This isn’t funny. He’s a visitor. Unlike warriors, visitors do get jealous over the most ridiculous things, and that’s not how I want to start out this relationship.”

“Perhaps I should oblige him.” Corth’s humor mode was obviously running on strong. “To show him I am merely a machine,” he added.

Shanelle knew it was still in his programming, the time Challen had been jealous of him. Even after her father had been told Corth was only a machine, he’d still been jealous of him. And Corth’s strength was ten times greater than any man’s, including a warrior’s. She wasn’t going to have him prove that to the visitor when the test wouldn’t be for the contest, but over her.

“All right, you’ve had your little joke, Corth. But that’s the man I want to get to know, and I mean know. So absent yourself for a while.”