"Do you tell me you did not follow the rules of your father?" he said.
She frowned. "Not just my father, my parents. Both. Rules mutually decided on. Yes, when I lived with them I obeyed their rules, but it was with full knowledge that when I left home I'd be living by my own rules. Do you see the difference? Those were temporary rules, the rules for a child. Our children grow up knowing that eventually they'll be on their own, with no one but government and laws telling them what they can and can't do. You, on the other hand, are telling me that your people continue to treat your women like children even after they're adults. I'm twenty-eight years old, Dalden, in case that hasn't been mentioned yet. I am not a child."
His hands suddenly cupped her breasts fully, heat searing through the thin material of the chauri. "I do not see you as a child."
She blushed. He couldn't miss it this time with the gaali stone lighting the inside of the tent with daylight brightness. He smiled She scowled.
"Don't sidestep the issue," she said. "I wasn't talking about sex, but general overall treatment. I've heard the ridiculous rules you place on your women, that they have to dress a certain way, that they can't walk out their front door without having their hand held by some man. Has it even occurred to you how demeaning I would find such rules?"
Now he frowned. "You were told the rules but not why there are such rules?"
"Martha didn't want to discuss them at all, probably because she finds them as offensive as I do."
"They are not meant to offend, but to protect."
"If your town was a civilized town, then I could walk its streets without fear of being bothered. Are you going to tell me it's not civilized?"
"How many times were you told that Sha-Ka'an is viewed by modern worlds as a barbaric world? Did you truly think you would find equality between men and women here?"
The blush was back. She had been forgetting that. Not that it meant much when this was all make-believe anyway, but if she was going to go along with the program-or at least accept the possibility that Dalden really did believe all this-then she needed to keep in mind that nothing here was going to be what she would call normal. Why was she even fighting it? What she needed to figure out was if she could live with it-at least until the "program" was over.
"All right, so you're barbarians-I'm sorry, I know you don't like that word, but you brought it up. And you say these rules that I object to are for my own protection. Why? What happens if I don't follow them?"
"You will be punished."
"You have jails for this?"
"No."
"Whipping posts?"
"Do not be silly, woman," he said sternly. "Your punishment would be mine to give, and you know I would not cause you physical pain."
She did know that. He was always mindful of his greater strength, always so careful in touching her. She sighed, leaned forward to lay her head on his chest.
"I'm beginning not to like this discussion," she said in a tired voice.
He immediately began to soothe her with his hands. "We need not finish it now, yet it is my wish that you have no more questions when we leave here."
She was all for that. She'd avoided those answers, or had had them avoided for her, too long now.
"That must have been quite a talk you had with your father," she remarked.
"How did you-?"
"Martha."
"Ah, Martha. Indeed, she was thorough in her report. My parents were together to hear it."
"I take it you're ignoring her advice to continue patience with me?"
"My patience has not assisted you to full acceptance," he said.
"Dalden, I'm never going to accept this fantasy. If you can't accept that-"
"Answer me this, kerima," he cut in. "If you did believe everything that has been told you, would it change your feelings for me?"
"No," she said without hesitation.
"This is what my father pointed out to me. Martha's predictions of doomed failure did not take into account a woman's heart, which Martha can never fully understand."
"Then why bring me out here?"
"To assist you to a full acceptance of me."
"But I-"
He put a finger to her lips. "I will endeavor to explain what I mean. The culture differences that so worried Martha are indeed real. Already you have shown an unwillingness to embrace my culture. What you have yet to realize is there is no choice in the matter, for you or for me. If this were a different country in your world that you were visiting, would you refuse to obey its laws while you were there? Would you expect immunity from those laws simply because you were not born there?"
"No, but-"
Once again he didn't let her finish. "Then why do you resist doing so here? Because here is not real to you? Is your denial, then, the true problem after all?"
"But what's that got to do with a full acceptance of you?" she demanded.
"Everything, kerima," he said gently. "You will have to obey our rules. You will be punished if you do not. Can you accept this, and understand that it is not something I will enjoy doing? A warrior often suffers as much, if not more, in the punishment of his woman."
She didn't snort, though the urge was there. They treated their women like children-the punishments were no doubt of the same nature. His worry, and what was beginning to worry her as well, was, could she accept him enforcing one of those childish punishments on her? Probably not. But she could compromise. She could follow their silly rules so that the matter would never be put to the test.
She said as much. "How 'bout I just obey the rules, so you can stop worrying about punishments you're never going to have to dish out? Will that ease your mind?"
"It pleases me greatly that you will make this effort," he said gravely.
Her brow knitted in a frown. "Then why don't you look pleased? That wasn't what you wanted to hear, was it? Do you really want my permission-and forgiveness-before the fact?"
"These things are not needful," he replied. "It is your understanding that I wish to assure. I have explained what can happen. I need to know that you understand why such things are necessary here. "
She counted to ten before she lost it over what wasn't needed. She finally sighed.
"I think I'll take you up on that offer to drop the subject for now. You've given me a lot to think about. I need some time to digest it."
Having said that, she tried once again to move off his lap and out of his reach. Again, she couldn't. She narrowed her eyes on him.
"That's major advantage taking, using your strength against me like this."
"A benefit of a warrior," he said, grinning at her to show that he might be teasing, but she'd place her wager on not. "For what reason do you wish to move?"
"So I can sulk, of course," she retorted.
He shook his head at her, still grinning. "If we are done with discussing matters of importance, then it is time for-other things."
"Such as?"
"A benefit of being a woman." It turned out to be quite a benefit that night.
48
IT NEVER SEEMED TO CHANGE, THE COMPLETE AND utter distraction of Dalden's kisses. From the moment his mouth claimed hers, everything else was forgotten. Where they were, what they'd been discussing, her annoyance-all gone with the touch of his lips.
That was quite a power he had over her. If she didn't trust him, it might worry her, that power.
He stripped her in his lap, a task made too easy by the chauri. He merely placed his hands by her neck, moved them over her shoulders and down her arms in a slow caress, and the chauri went with them, baring her to the waist. She barely noticed because he was still kissing her, a deep "you're mine" kind of kiss that instantly ignited her passions-which was a good thing. His hands might be slowly caressing her, but the rest of him was on a much faster time schedule. A slight change in her position and she was impaled and exploding with pleasure. All within a matter of minutes. And still sitting on his lap!