Falon slipped quietly into the room, closing the door on the light from the hallway. Inside there was a muted glow rising up one wall where the gaali-stone shelf had been left open to emit a minimum of light, just enough to make out the furnishings. The bed was all he was interested in, nor was he likely to forget where it was. He approached it soundlessly and was halfway there before he noticed there was more man one body in it, but the second one was not human. Cat’s eyes glowed at him in the dark, and a purring began that could surely be heard out in the hall. However, it did not wake Shanelle, who was probably accustomed to the sound.

Falon was not He stood there in the middle of the room, debating whether he wanted to tangle with a full-grown fembair, her pet, which meant he could not kill the beast any more than he could her other pet, that Droda-cursed android. But this one was purring, and was supposedly tame. He started again toward the bed.

A voice stopped him this time, sounding as loud as alarm bells going off, despite a distinct dryness to it. “When were you thinking about saying something, Corth? After he’s in bed with her?”

“I was waiting for you, Martha.” The second voice came from a different direction. “Warriors aren’t the least bit intimidated by me, even after I show them what I’m capable of. You, on the other hand…”

“I suppose you’re right,” Martha said with a sigh, and then in a smug tone, “Remember me, big guy?”

“It would be impossible to forget you,” Falon said stiffly, though it was the android he looked for and found, sitting in a chair near the entrance to the balcony. “And your interference is unnecessary this time, computer. I merely wish to speak with Shanelle.”

“That’s rich.” Martha chuckled. “Is that what they’re calling it these days?”

“For Stars’ sake, Martha,” Shanelle complained groggily from the bed. “I’m trying to get some sleep here.”

“Sorry, but you might as well wake up. You have a visitor-who’s not a visitor.” Laughter followed that play on words.

Falon’s eyes left Corth to return to the bed, in time to see Shanelle sit up behind the fembair. “Falon?”

She said his name before she actually saw him standing there. That took the edge off some of his irritation with her machines, but not all of it. “Was it necessary to surround yourself with bodyguards?”

“My mother thought so, and it looks like she was right on the mark. You have no right to come in here, Falon, but in the middle of the night?”

“I could not sleep,” he told her. “I wish no more than to talk, Shanelle.”

“If you believe that, Shani-”

“Martha, I can farden well think for myself, thank you,” Shanelle said testily as she climbed over the fembair to sit on the edge of the bed. “Corth, some extra light would be appreciated.”

As a gaali-stone box was flipped open, flooding the room with light, Falon was disappointed to see that Shanelle was fully covered in some kind of sleeping outfit that included loose-fitting bracs. Yet with her golden hair unbound and flowing about her in disarray, she was as desirable as ever, and he was rapidly discovering that he could not be in the same room with her without feeling the need to join with her.

“I have nothing to say to you, Falon Van’yer,” she continued in a hard tone, completely awake now and frowning at him. “Nor is there anything you can say to me that will change the fact that you’re a warrior, and you knew I didn’t want a warrior, any warrior. You deceived me by not telling me who you were.”

“Did you not do the same?”

That reminder pinkened her cheeks and lowered her eyes to the floor. “I would have told you who I was before I left you-if things had worked out differently. But they didn’t, so there was no point.”

“If you would have told me, then it was your intention that I ask your father for you, was it not?”

“Falon, it doesn’t matter now.”

“It matters to me, woman,” he said with sudden fierceness. “It means I was not just your choice for your first time. I was your choice for lifemate.”

That was true, and she was assailed again by the disappointment she’d felt earlier when she knew it wasn’t to be. Her hopes had been so high when she first saw him. Why did he have to ruin it by hurting her, then bury it for all time by turning out to be a warrior, and far, far worse, a slaveholding warrior?

Reminded of that, she felt her anger give way to the pain of regret. It built with surprising swiftness, bringing Shanelle to her feet and marching her toward its cause. For once she wasn’t running from a confrontation but embracing it, and she was so angry she wasn’t even aware of it.

She stopped before him, amber eyes aglow with ire, her body stiff with it. “What does it matter if I was naively hoping for something more than temporary when all you wanted was to make me a slave? A slave! A piece of property without rights!” The urge to hit him just then was so strong she gave in to it without thought, slamming both fists against his chest. “How could you, Falon?”

He’d made no move to prevent her attack on him, nor did he move a muscle now, and she realized with disgust that she hadn’t hurt him at all, while her hands were painfully stinging. And then it dawned on her exactly what she’d just done, and she stepped back in horror.

Falon noted only the new reaction. “What is it?”

If he didn’t know… “Nothing.”

But he grabbed her hands and started to massage them. “Do you try that again, woman, I will be forced to administer proper punishment.”

She snatched her hands back with an indignant glare. “I’ve heard what your idea of proper punishment is, and you’ll do no such thing-not to me. And why would you? If you tell me I actually managed to hurt you, I won’t believe it.”

“You hurt yourself,” he said simply. “This I will not allow.”

She stared at him incredulously. “But you’d spank me? You think that wouldn’t hurt?”

“A small discomfort to prevent a greater harm. The doing would bring me pain as well, yet must you be taught-”

“Oh, shut up!” she snapped.

Martha chuckled at that point, remarking, “Stars, I just love their logic.”

Shanelle glowered at the computer-link unit that had been set on the table in the center of the room, with its viewer facing the door. But she was too angry with Falon just then to address Martha, and her narrowed amber eyes quickly came back to him, to find him also frowning at the computer link, now that he’d located it.

But she got his attention back as she continued heatedly. “Did you forget my father’s a warrior? So is my brother. I’ve already been taught what I should and shouldn’t do, just as I know better than to try and hurt a warrior, because only warriors can hurt warriors. That’s why I only throw things at my brother when he teases me into losing my temper. But you-obviously I have no sense when it comes to you, so I owe you an apology for hitting you. You can be sure it won’t happen again, because the opportunity won’t be there if I never see you again, which is exactly how I intend it. You can leave now, Falon. We’ve talked more than-”

“You have talked,” he interrupted calmly. “Now you will allow me to explain. Yes, I would have bought you if that was the only way I could have you, and when I thought you a visitor, that was the only way. And you would not have suffered as my slave, Shanelle. You would have found only pleasure and happiness in my ownership.”

“You can’t really believe that,” she said incredulously.

“I can believe nothing else, for I would have made it so,” he replied fervently. “It is my happiness that increases, now that I know you can be the mother of my children. But I would have had you belong to me in whatever way I could, for my wanting you has become a need, making you necessary to me. All I can think of is the moment you will be mine.”