the warrior and she rent him to death with her talons.“
She scowled. „In this country we would never permit such
an ending. I’m convinced Russians must be a very peculiar
people.“ She closed her eyes and her voice, though drowsy,
was very firm. „The first ending is correct. I’m sure of it.“
„Then who am I to disagree?“ He settled down a few yards
from where she lay, his eyes dark with secrets as they
narrowed on her face. He didn’t speak for several minutes, and
when he did, his voice was almost a whisper. „And who
should know better… Firebird?“
Silver didn’t answer, and Nicholas saw that she was asleep.
7
The monster rushed toward her, its dark scales shining, its red
eyes staring at her with hungry malevolence. He opened his
giant mouth and she could see his pointed yellow teeth and
smell the foulness of his breath –
„No!“ Silver sat bolt upright, her heart pounding wildly.
Nicholas was beside her, his arms enfolding her. Solid
strength, the scent of tobacco and musk… She clung to him
with desperation. „Nicholas, it was a monster with big yellow
teeth.“
„It was only a nightmare.“ His palm cupped the back of her
head as he rocked her back and forth. „It wasn’t real.“
„I don’t have nightmares,“ she said indignantly.
He laughed but made no rebuttal as he continued to rock
her.
She should move away, she thought, but it was very
pleasant being held like this with her cheek pressed against the
warm bare smoothness of Nicholas’s chest. „Elspeth used to
have terrible dreams when she was ill.“
„Did she? Then you know there’s no shame in having
them.“
„I didn’t say I was ashamed. I just never have them. I sleep
very soundly.“
Like a child, Nicholas thought tenderly, remembering those
moments when he had watched her sleep that first night she
had been brought to him.
But it wasn’t a child he was holding in his arms, and he
wasn’t accustomed to playing nursemaid to young women who
were wrapped only in diaphanous bed curtains covered by
linen shirts. His body was responding with an alacrity that
signaled an achingly uncomfortable night if he didn’t move
away from her.
Her cheek nestled and rubbed against his chest like a cat
against a satin pillow. Heat surged to his groin and he inhaled
sharply. He should move away. He had promised.
„Do you have nightmares?“ she asked.
Her warm breath caressed his flesh with every word, and
the muscles of his stomach began to knot. „Sometimes. Not
lately. I used to have them frequently.“ Her hair was clinging
to his fingers like tousled silk. She smelled of raspberries,
moss, and something more elemental that caused his head to
swim dizzily. One moment more and he’d move away from
her.
„What about? Monsters?“
„No, about being buried alive.“ He was scarcely aware of
what he was saying. She had nestled closer and he could feel
the womanly fullness of her breasts pressing against him.
„Darkness, Not being able to breathe.“
„How terrible,“ she murmured. The thatch of dark golden
hair on his chest looked invitingly springy, and Silver moved
her cheek to rest against it. The texture was gently abrasive
against the smoothness of her cheek. Her throat tightened and
her heart suddenly began to pound. Such a tiny thing to ignite
such excitement. His roughness against her softness, his
maleness against her womanliness. How would her naked
breasts feel pressed against that springy rough hair?
The thought brought a tingling emptiness between her
thighs that shocked her. This was not a yearning for comfort,
this was lust. How had her body’s needs changed so quickly?
She must slip out of his arms now, before he became aware of
her weakness. Her breasts were swelling, the nipples
hardening as they had last night when he had teased her. No,
she mustn’t think of those moments. Her heart was throbbing
so hard, she thought it would leap from her breast.
His hand tangled in her hair. „Silver…“ His voice was
thick, soft, seductive. „I shouldn’t…“
The heat of his body was enfolding her wherever flesh
touched flesh, and she was aware of the changes taking place
in his body. The tautening of the ridge of muscles beneath her
cheek and the leaping drum of his heart that echoed her own.
„What?“
He muttered a curse. For one instant he crushed her to him,
letting her feel the scorching heat of his body and an arousal
that caused her breath to stop in her lungs. Then he was gone,
his hands dropping away from her hair as he edged back away
from her to his former place by the fire. „Go to sleep,“ he said
between his teeth. „For God’s sake, go back to sleep.“
He was hurting, hungry, so aroused that she could feel the
vibrations of his desire like a great bell resonating,
summoning, enticing. It seemed impossible that she had ever
wanted him to hurt like this. Now she understood that pain
because it was throbbing in her own body. Emptiness, heat,
aching, a passionate urge to leave loneliness behind and join
with Nicholas.
„Don’t look at me like that.“ His dark eyes were blazing at
her across the few yards separating them. „I’m trying to
remember you were hurt tonight and have no defenses.“ He
closed his eyes but he could still see her gazing at him, crystal-
gray eyes shining with excitement and curiosity. The eyes of a
firebird. „I’m not used to being self-sacrificing, dammit.“
Even if he was unaccustomed to self-denial, he was still
doing it, Silver thought. Another facet of this complex man
revealed. The soul of a poet, Valentin had said, and she had
seen that tonight herself. But it was not the poet in him that
was flooding her body with heat. How beautiful he was lying
there with his rumpled golden hair and the long clean lines of
his body taut and rigid with desire. Not Apollo now, but a man,
and a man more vulnerable than she had ever seen him. A
strong wave of tenderness shimmered through her, blending
with desire until she did not know where one ended and the
other began.
„You’re still looking at me.“ Nicholas didn’t open his eyes.
„Yes.“ Excitement was building, the decision was forming.
Madness. He would not force her, would not even try to
seduce her. AH she had to do was close her eyes and go to
sleep. Yet, why should she do that? That very knowledge was a
seduction in itself. She wanted this man. It would be she who
took, not he. She could have what her body craved, and then
be the one who walked away. As for the consequences, she
would find a way to protect herself from the consequences of
giving herself to Nicholas.
A sudden thrill of fear rained through her as she realized
that one of those consequences might be that she’d be with
child… as her mother had been. But she was far stronger than
her mother, and coupling did not always result in a child.
Rising Star had been married fourteen years before she had
conceived, and Elspeth was still not with child though four
years had passed since she had wed Dominic. There was a
chance she would be fortunate and still take her pleasure
without suffering for it.
Consequences? When had she ever worried about
consequences? she wondered. She had always acted first and
thought later and she knew suddenly that was exactly what she
was going to do now. Soon she must leave Nicholas and go