That must make things … unpleasant for the raiders when they captured a male instead of the female they were hoping for!

Or maybe that didn’t matter to either of them?

There was still more that she didn’t understand than there was that she did comprehend about these people of the sister worlds.

Drak may have been known far and wide for his acute sense of fairness, but he was not famous for his patience. He steered clear of Noelle for days after the near total breakdown of his self-control.

It was nothing short of amazing that desire could make the most unreasonable things seem perfectly reasonable, he thought with a mixture of wry amusement and irritation.

Not that expending himself on her would have been the least bit unreasonable under typical circumstances. They went to outrageous lengths to have a woman to warm their beds and expend themselves on during the frigid winter months.

But he found it highly annoying that he could be ruled by his desires instead of in control of them.

Generally, he was in control!

Was he getting old, he wondered in self-disgust? Or was there just something about Noelle that weakened him?

“Women,” he muttered, drawing Kulle’s attention despite the fact that the noise level in the great hall was nearly deafening with the revelry of the men. He shook his head at the questioning look the older man sent him and abruptly pushed himself to his feet. He had spent three days in the damned uncomfortable great hall with his men to give Noelle time to calm down after his last near disastrous loss of control. That should be enough! And he was damned tired of trying to sleep on a hard pallet by the hearth instead of his bed.

Maybe he was getting old?

And soft?

His men would not have agreed with that assessment. In point of fact, although Drak did not notice it, the moment he got abruptly to his feet it so unnerved the men close enough to notice that they fell immediately silent. By the time he reached the stairs there was not a man—or woman—that had not noticed his thunderous expression or his abrupt departure and the hall was considerably quieter than it had been. Most of them had the sense to pick up their conversations again as soon as they were certain they weren’t the target of his wrath, but some of them had been too unnerved to recall what they’d been saying and there was no getting around the fact that a good bit of the revelry had soured.

What he needed to do, Drak decided when he reached the top of the stairs, was to steer clear of the bed and see what information he could pump from her by engaging her in conversation.

It was rather unfortunate that the word ‘pump’ leapt into his mind, because it completely diverted him from his original purpose.

Noelle was startled when Prince Drak entered the room.

Mostly this was because she hadn’t seen him in a few days—not since the night he’d teased her with the possibility of ravishment and then left her feeling as if she’d missed something she regretted missing. But also because she felt guilty because she’d spent most of those days plundering his room to see what she could find of interest.

She’d done her best to cover her tracks and was hopeful he wouldn’t be able to discern her intrusion, but she wasn’t as certain of that as she would’ve liked to have been.

The young boys that had been seeing to her needs had damned near caught her twice—until she’d gotten used to the times they arrived with food and or more fuel for the fire they’d, thankfully, kept burning since her arrival so that the room had finally reached a point of being a tolerable temperature.

Actually, as embarrassed as she was to admit it even to herself, the leap in her pulse wasn’t entirely from either surprise or guilt. Hopefulness had also played a part.

Because she’d spent a good deal of time reliving those moments when he’d kissed her and raised her core temperature with desire and she was no longer convinced that being the Prince’s sex slave was completely repulsive to every feeling.

Instead of instantly whisking her to the bed to finish what he’d started, however, the Prince settled in one of the large chairs near the hearth and studied her thoughtfully for some moments.

“My son has seen that your needs have been attended?” he asked after a few moments.

The question both startled and disconcerted Noelle. “Yes,” she responded cautiously, wondering which of the two boys was his son. Well, she supposed he must be referring to the elder of the two. The younger boy didn’t seem old enough to be given such a task despite the fact that he’d helped the elder very adequately.

She had, in point of fact, been working for days on making overtures of friendship toward the two boys in hopes of a little company and entertainment if she couldn’t pry any useful information out of them. The younger of the two seemed willing enough, but the elder—apparently the Prince’s heir—was clearly suspicious of her motives. And not only wouldn’t let his guard down, he also prevented any attempts on the younger child’s part to talk to her.

It occurred to her to wonder at the Prince’s motive for bringing it up, to wonder if he was trying to establish a rapport purely for the sake of entertaining himself or if he was leading up to something by pointing out that she had been treated well.

Drak scanned the woman assessingly. “Kadin’s clothing seems to fit you quite well. I will see that the tailor uses those measurements.”

Meaning she would be there and in need of clothing for a while?

That possibility at least eased some of her anxiety since he surely wouldn’t be planning to do anything horrible—like kill her or torture her—if he was going to have clothing made for her.

On the other hand, that also seemed to indicate he planned to hold her quite a while.

“Kadin?” she asked, instead of posing the questions she really wanted to ask.

His dark brows rose. “My son.”

“Oh.” She glanced around uncomfortably and finally headed toward the stool on the opposite side of the hearth since it seemed to her that the time had come for the interrogation she’d been dreading and she thought she might be too wobbly-kneed to stand throughout.

She wasn’t going anywhere near the bed!

Not that she was convinced she would find it appalling if he did decide to have sex with her, but she also wasn’t sure it wouldn’t be an ordeal and she saw no sense in doing something that might provoke him.

He propped an arm on the arm of the chair, bending that arm to support his chin on his fist. “You are not of Aiper’s sister world, K’naiper, and you are certainly not from this world. Where is it that you come from?”

Noelle stared at him owl eyed, trying to think if she’d worked up a believable lie to cover that particular question, but if she had, it abandoned her the moment he asked.

“I suppose I should say, where are your people?”

Noelle blinked at him. Not for a moment did she believe he wanted to know so he could return her. She wasn’t sure why he did want to know, but it was certainly not for that reason.

More importantly, would it endanger the people of the colony if she told him?

She was pretty sure it would.

On the other hand, the colony was blatantly obvious if he should go looking—not hidden—and just as clearly alien so what would be the point in trying to lie and would it gain her valuable points in his favor if she simply went ahead and gave him information that he could easily obtain himself?

“We have established a colony on K’naiper,” she responded after a prolonged moment.

Amusement flickered in his eyes and she was certain that was because of her garbled pronunciation of the name.

He looked away, studying the flames on the hearth. “So your people have decided to make a place for themselves there. You are warring with the villagers at Tealdim?”