"Not yet." She didn't want to move. She wasn't sure she would ever want to move again. What a delicious languor, she thought dazedly. It was almost more delightful than the sensations that had gone before. "Later…"

He frowned down at her. "Did I hurt you?"

She tried to remember through the after-haze of the emotional storm through which she had just plummeted during the last moments. "I think so. A little. At first…"

"It was entirely your fault. Merde, what stupidity. Don't you know what I could have done to you?" The roughness of his voice was belied by the gentleness of his hands as he knelt and tucked the cloak about her. "You should have told me Yusef hadn't touched you."

"You didn't want to listen."

"You should have made me listen." He sat down on the carpet beside her and linked his arms over his knees, the muscles of his shoulders and arms ridged with tension. "It was a matter of the utmost importance."

"Would you have believed me?"

He was silent a moment. "Probably not. I—I was not myself."

Yet she believed the passionate recklessness she had discovered in Galen tonight was as much a part of him as the disciplined man she had learned to know. "Then why are you angry?"

"I believe the question should be why you aren't angry with me for forcing you."

"Because you didn't force me." She sat up and drew his cloak around her. "You should know that. Merde, you took long enough arousing my curiosity about the act."

His gaze narrowed on her face. "I hope more than your curiosity was satisfied."

She nodded briskly. "Oh yes, I enjoyed it very much. No wonder Pauline is so fond of the sport."

The faintest smile touched his lips. "Then you've decided she doesn't indulge herself merely because she has nothing better to do?"

She frowned thoughtfully. "It's very…"—she searched for a word—"strong, isn't it? I never realized…"

"It has to be experienced." He was silent a moment. "Do you still hurt?"

"I'm a trifle sore." She wrinkled her nose. "But no more than I was after that first day I rode astride. Actually, your pounding was far gentler than Pavda's gait."

Surprise crossed his face, and he threw back his head and laughed. "Dear God in heaven, if you're not comparing me to your father, you're likening me to your horse."

She grinned. "You shouldn't object. I've heard gentlemen delight in calling themselves stallions."

His smile faded. "With strumpets a man can be a stallion. A virgin deserves gentleness."

"I didn't mind. I found it all very interesting. I believe I must not have been a proper virgin."

His eyes twinkled. "A virgin cannot be anything but proper, else she wouldn't be a virgin."

"You know what I mean." She glanced away from him. "As usual, I was too bold. I liked it too much."

"To my infinite delight."

Her gaze shifted back to him. "Truly?"

"Truly," he answered solemnly. "I should have expected nothing else from you." He gently touched her hair with his fingertips. "Life, kilen."

Joy surged through her with a heady force that dispersed the languor. She smiled radiantly. "I'm glad you don't mind my lack of meekness. I should hate to have to—" She broke off as she heard a familiar tinkle of bells, a dry rustling. "Alexander!"

"What?"

She threw the cloak aside, scrambled to her feet, and ran across the chamber. "It's Alexander. He's back."

"Who in hades is Alexander?"

She ignored the question as she reached the window. "Come in, you idiot. It's a wonder you didn't get lost in the dark."

Alexander flew through the window and landed on the mantel above the fireplace.

Galen stared in astonishment as the pigeon waddled along the wide stone mantel. "A bird?"

"Not just any bird. He's my homing pigeon. I told you about him the second day I arrived in Zalandan."

"Ah, yes. How could such an important tidbit of information have escaped my memory?" He watched her pick up the bird and carry it toward the wicker cage under the window. "I confess my mind was occupied by a few trifling matters. Bandits, tribal wars, unity… I take it this Alexander has something to do with why you're here?"

"Of course." She glanced at him in surprise. "Kalim was going to cut off Yusef's head. Besides, the flight from Yusef's roof was no longer a challenge for Alexander." She frowned down at the bird. "No, I'm not going to give you any grain. You don't deserve it. You were supposed to go back to Zalandan." She closed the cage. "I get very impatient with him. The silly bird probably flew all the way to Said Ababa and back."

"You used Yusef's house to train your pigeon?"

"It has the highest roof in Zalandan. Alexander's not at all clever, and I thought he'd have a better chance of finding the palace if he could see it." She scowled down at the warbling bird. "Listen to him coo at me. He probably doesn't even realize he did anything wrong." She took three grains from the leather pouch beside the cage and slipped them through the wicker bars and told the bird sternly, "This isn't a reward, you understand. I just don't want you to starve to death."

"Why didn't you tell Kalim?"

She didn't look at him. "He wouldn't have believed it. He has no liking for me." She turned and lifted her chin defiantly. "Besides, why should I explain myself to him? Why should I let him tell me what I must do or what I must not do?"

"Because in this instance it might have saved you a modicum of unpleasantness."

"I experienced no unpleasantness." Her brow wrinkled. "But for a moment or two you made me uneasy when I first woke up. You behaved most peculiarly."

He turned to look down at the fire. "As I said, I was not myself. I do not like this place."

"Why not?"

"It reminds me of what I was." His lips twisted. "I think for a while tonight I became what I was then."

"And you believe that is wicked?"

"Don't you?"

For a moment she could sense an uncertainty and loneliness beneath the guard he usually kept around himself. She wanted to help him, comfort him in some way, but she knew he wouldn't let her. Yet she had discovered one comfort they both enjoyed he would accept from her. "No." She met his gaze fearlessly as she moved across the room to stand before him. "Not wicked. Different and… interesting."

He shook his head. "But then you find the entire world interesting."

She nodded. "But I know the difference between wicked-interesting and intriguing-interesting."

"And what is that?"

"Tamar is wicked-interesting. I would not like him to touch me." She reached out and put her hand on the triangle of dark hair thatching his chest. "But I like you to touch me."

He went still. "How fortunate for me."

"I would like to do it again, please."

"Now?"

"If it's not too much trouble." She found it difficult to meet his eyes, so she flowed into his arms and laid her cheek on his chest. "I find looking at you is causing me to feel… I would like to do it again."

"You're not too sore?"

"No." She lifted her head and whispered, "And I would like you to kiss me. You haven't done that yet."