Bound in Darkness (5 page)

With that terrible tone it sank in that she was done for. There was nothing she could do. She might as well stop fighting. If he was this determined to have her, she would just shut her eyes and be done with it. She would find a way to escape him come the morning…or whenever they got to Docking Bay.

She deflated in his lap, hanging there over the sides of his horse dejectedly. She rode like that as he walked the horses back to the campsite in total silence. Maxum's men were all still sitting around the fire, watching their leader with an unconcerned air. When they approached his bedroll he dropped her unceremoniously to the ground, sending her onto her butt in the dirt, and dismounted. Then he reached for her, causing her to back away on hands and heels. But, of course, he caught her and yanked her up off the ground and into his body.

“Take off your pants,” he barked at her.

“No!” she shouted back, unable to keep from fighting him even though it was a lost cause.

“Do it!”

Defeated and with shaking hands she moved to obey, untying the laces of her breeches. She then hooked her thumbs into the waistband and shucked them down her legs.

She stood there shivering in her underwear as she handed him the pants. She tried to hide herself from the interested gazes of his men but there was little she could do other than to put Maxum between their eyes and her body. He folded her pants neatly, dropped down onto his bedroll and tucked them under his head like a pillow as he settled in. She stood there in puzzlement as he closed his eyes and made as though he were going to sleep. She stood indecisively for a full minute.

“Go lie down and go to sleep,” he barked at her. “Cover up. It's chilly tonight.”

Not knowing what else to do, she dropped down onto his bedroll and snuggled up under the blanket. He was right—it was cold and he had her pants.

Maxum had meant for her to go to her own bedroll, but she had misunderstood. True, he'd made no effort to explain, but he had thought it would be obvious he wasn't interested in her. Not anymore. His tongue and balls still hurt from her last attack on him.

“I lost my dagger,” she said softly.

He opened his eyes and looked at her. “We'll get it in the morning.”

“I only have the two.”

“Go to sleep,” he commanded.

Recognizing that it was too cold for him to lie outside of the blanket, he lifted it up and joined her beneath it. Her warmth immediately seeped into him from head to toe even though she went rigid and held herself as far away from him as she could and yet still remain under the blanket. Growling with frustration and annoyance he ringed an arm around her waist and jerked her back into the bend of his body, seating her bottom into the lee of his hips and her back to his chest. They would keep each other warm at least.

She lay there stiffly for a good ten minutes, until she was sure he wasn't going to do anything else. Puzzled and exhausted, she finally drifted off to sleep.

T
he next morning she awoke to the feel of an erection prodding against her bottom. With a squeak she went to pull away, but there was a powerful arm banded around her waist keeping her right where she was. She slowly inched around until she could see his face.

He was asleep. Or most of him was—there was still that stellar erection to consider. She finally took the time to really look at him. He was blond—a dark gold blond—a perfect foil for those green eyes. His hair was shoulder length and fell in fat, lazy curls. Sleeping as he was, his hair fell haphazardly over his face and gave him an almost innocent appearance.

Almost.

There was too much ruggedness and hard living on his features. Not that he looked aged and worn, but just…hard. She got the feeling that life had not been very kind to him. She felt a little guilty for her attack on him the night before, but what had he expected? That she would just roll over and service his needs?

Well, at least she had figured out a way to avoid that. But that was one night. What was she going to do all the other nights if she stayed with them? No. She had to get to Docking Bay and find some other way to make her way in the world. She simply could not live up to this agreement.

“I didn't plan on making you, you know,” he said suddenly, startling her. Her gaze shot to his.

“Making me?”

“I was just giving you a hard time. I wasn't really going to make you service me and my men. I wouldn't do that.”

“You wouldn't?” she asked suspiciously.

“No,” he said.

She instantly flared with temper. “Then why did you take my pants? Why didn't you tell me this last night?”

“I didn't want you trying to run away in the middle of the night. And last night I was angry. I tend to get that way after someone bites off my tongue and knees me in my balls.”

“Ooo!” she ground out. She leapt to her feet and held out her hand with a snap. “Give me my pants!”

With an unrepentant grin he let his eyes roam down her body, taking his time as he coasted down her bare legs. She shivered…and not entirely from the fact that she was standing in her drawers in the cold of the damp morning. Slowly, without any sign of regret, he removed her pants from beneath his head and held them out to her.

“Besides, it's better to sleep together when it's cold like this.”

“Then sleep with Doisy next time!” she spat as she shoved one leg into her pants dancing around as she struggled to get her other leg into the tight breeches. Eventually she was forced to sit back down on his bedroll and squirm into them on the ground. She laced them up tightly, yanking at the laces in a temper. “That had to be the most despicable thing I've ever been a victim to!”

“And that's just what burns you,” he said with a lazy stretch. “That you feel you were a victim. I'm thinking you don't like thinking that way about yourself.”

“Does anyone like thinking themselves a victim?” she snapped.

“Some do. Don't be so defensive. It's one of the things I like about you. One of the reasons I'm letting you stay on with us.”

Her temper cooled a little bit and she looked at him from the corner of her eye. “You're going to let me stay on?”

“For a little while. Provided you make yourself useful and not a hindrance to our goals. But the minute you become too much trouble I'll drop you like a hot rock.”

She still regarded him with suspicion. “No other conditions?”

“You cook, you clean up, you mend. Just like we agreed. But other than that, no other conditions.”

“And I want ten percent.”

“Five,” he said mildly. But before she could get her back up he said, “Prove yourself once and I'll seriously consider bumping you up to ten.”

She snorted. “ ‘Seriously consider'? That's man-speak for ‘it'll never happen.' ”

“Not true. My, what a jaded view of men you have.”

“Is there any reason why I shouldn't?” she groused.

“True. Men aren't the least bit trustworthy.”

“Some more than others,” she said meaningfully.

He laughed. “Put your boots on and go into my saddlebags. You'll find dried pork and hard bread for breaking our fast.”

“And what are you going to do?”

“Watch you,” he said, lying back and tucking his hands behind his head with a grin.

“You…you…” But she forced herself to bite her tongue. She should be grateful that she was going to be able to stay with them. That there were no longer any untenable conditions to her staying. As she marched over to his bags, which were only two feet away, she began to understand that her luck might be changing. The understanding made it hard for her to stay angry with him.

She fetched the bread and the pork and returned to his side. Sitting cross-legged, she pulled the bread apart and gave him half and handed him several pieces of the pork jerky. The meat was very salty, so she got up and fetched some water from an animal skin that also hung from his saddle. They traded the skin back and forth in silence for several long minutes.

“So where are we going?” she asked. He laughed out loud.

“I knew it was too good to last.”

“What?”

“The silence from you. Why is it so important for you to know where we are going? We're going to Docking Bay, like I said.”

“But then where?” she asked. She winced at his dirty look. “Why can't you just tell me?”

“Because it doesn't really matter where we're going now, does it? You're going to follow us no matter what. You don't really have any other choice now, do you?”

“I could leave. I could go somewhere…steal something…make my way. I've done it before.”

“Except you owe me and you have to repay your debt first.”

“Debt! What debt?” she demanded.

“I got your horse out of the inn for you.”

“Oh please. What was that, a silver? One silver and a few coppers? It's not like you can't afford it. I saw the way you all were throwing your money around at the inn.”

“It's the principle of the thing,” he said.

“Oh, like you have so many principles.” She belched a scoffing laugh.

“I do. You don't know me well enough to say otherwise.”

“I know enough. I know you tricked me into thinking I was going to have to service every man in this group.”

“I didn't trick you into anything. You agreed to it, remember? You're the one reneging on an agreement, not me.”

Damn it, he had a point. But she was going to be the last to admit that. “Well, it was very wrong of you to make me think…it was very wrong.”

“Mayhap it was. But I suppose it's all a matter of perspective now, isn't it?”

He sat up and stretched again before snatching up one of his boots and putting it on. “Come on, let's find that dagger of yours.”

She had forgotten all about it. Eager to find it she pulled on her boots and followed him to his saddle. When he picked it up she went over to hers and made her way to Hero. She saddled him with practiced ease then swung up into the saddle.

Maxum wouldn't admit it to her, but he was impressed with her strength and determination. She hoisted her saddle with ease, didn't ask for a lick of help. Clearly didn't need to. She was unlike so many of the women he knew. Oh, he knew a few female warriors, but not many. Certainly none her size. Most of the women he came across were pretty much helpless. He supposed they could keep a house or some such thing, but overall, pretty useless. Women were meant to look pretty and make babies in his opinion. But every so often one would surprise him—like Airianne. Although he had never met anyone quite like her. He wondered what she'd be like in pitched battle. Not very useful, he surmised. She was just too small really. He wondered if he was going to regret bringing her with them. He already knew some of the men questioned the wisdom of the thing. They didn't question
him,
they didn't dare, but he knew they were questioning it just the same.

He rode beside her down the forest path, his eyes scanning over the ground. It had been dark last night and he didn't really know how far they'd made it before turning back, so he really didn't know what the chances were of them finding the missing dagger.

After half an hour of looking, he opened his mouth to tell her it was lost and they should head back.

“Don't say it!” she said.

“It's just a dagger. I'll get you a new one.”

“I don't want a new one. I want that one. It's my lucky dagger.”

“What's so lucky about it?”

“You wouldn't understand,” she said with a frown, her eyes still tracking over the ground.

“Try and explain,” he said.

She shot him a wary glance.

“An old friend gave it to me. He said it would never fail me and so far it hasn't.”

“It failed you last night,” he pointed out.

“It didn't fail me,” she said. “I just wasn't meant to use it on you.”

He laughed condescendingly. “You weren't
meant
to?”

“Well, look at the big picture. Do you believe in fate? In the way of Hella?”

“You're
religious
?” he asked incredulously.

“No. I just believe in fate. Fate led me to you, didn't she? And fate knew that you were just being an ass and you didn't deserve to get a dagger in the ribs for it. A kick in the head maybe, but not a dagger in the ribs.”

“So in that line of thinking, does this mean fate isn't letting you find your lucky—”

“There it is!”

She swung down out of her saddle and scooped up the dagger, holding it up triumphantly. “See! Fate!”

“Luck is more like it,” he mumbled.

“I heard that. Fate and luck are sometimes the same thing. Come on, let's go back.”

“You know, the gods aren't responsible for every little thing that happens to us. And even if they were, it wouldn't be a good thing.”

She glanced over at him. “That's a very jaded view of the gods. What'd they ever do to you?”

He grimaced but remained silent. She shrugged and followed him back to camp. By the time they returned the other men were up and about, clearing up the campsite.

“Where've you been?” Kilon asked, spitting on the ground as he slung his longbow across his body at an angle, his crossbow hitched onto his back with a quick release knot. He could pull the deadly weapon in a moment's notice and Airi believed he wouldn't think twice about using it—on a man as much as on an animal. Still, the archer would keep them fed as long as there was game to be found, and just because he was something of a jerk she couldn't begrudge that fact. “Or do I need to ask,” he added with a lecherous leer of contempt. “I hope you plan on sharing the goods, slink.” He used the derogatory word for whore. “There's more than one man here in need of servicing.”

“Kilon!” Maxum barked in warning.

Kilon let a moment of surprise flit across his features at Maxum's tone, then he grew even darker and angrier, glaring at Airi.

“It's not like she's going to be good for anything else!”

“You'd be surprised at what I'm good for,” she said breezily, refusing to let him get to her.

“No, I wouldn't. Women are only good for two things…and holding up a headstone's the other one.” Kilon turned his back on her before she could get over her shock enough to reply. She shouldn't be shocked really. She was used to men's attitudes when it came to her capabilities. But like she had said to Kilon, it was surprising what she could do when her back was to a wall.

The group got under way shortly after that. She noticed that Doisy had a staff strapped to his saddle—the same staff she'd seen him with the day before. Since he didn't walk with a limp, she didn't think he used it for support. She suspected he could use it in very nonclerical ways. He was a handsome man overall, blond haired and blue eyed, always a smile toying with his lips. He came up and rode beside her when Maxum rode on ahead of them to scout.