“You’re so used to everyone obeying you without question that you can’t help expecting the same from me as well. When you notice that I’m not doing what everyone else does, you try to force me into the proper mold. Anger gets the better of you, you decide to teach me a lesson, and then - disaster.”

  “You know, you’re right,” he said, eyebrows high with some kind of revelation. “It is anger over your actions that makes me act like a fool. If I flatly refused to let myself get angry no matter what you did, we’d have no trouble avoiding that disaster you mentioned.”

  “Of course we would,” Elissia said, seeing no point in starting another argument. “I’ve been thinking, and when the others kings arrive you can still get them to stay if you invite them to a party in celebration of your newfound freedom. I’ll be gone, of course, so - “

  “Wait just a minute,” he said, sudden enthusiasm chasing away the air of defeat he’d been wrapped in. “I think you know by now that if I give my word I’ll keep it, so I do give my word not to get angry. Now all you have to do is agree to stay while I prove we can make things work between us.”

  “Are you really silly enough to believe that your anger is the only problem I have with you?” Elissia countered, unsurprised to find that he was still in there trying. “All you have to do is smile while you punish me, and your word will stay untarnished. If you think I’m stupid enough to have missed that point, I resent your low opinion of me.”

  “All right, then I’ll extend my word to cover not punishing you,” he came back immediately. “If that’s what you need, then that’s what you’ll have.”

  “No matter what I do, or how outraged you get?” Elissia asked with a sound of ridicule. “You obviously have no idea what you’re saying, so let’s just forget - “

  “No!” he interrupted again, his hands suddenly on her arms. “I know exactly what I’m saying, and I give my word not to punish you no matter what you do and no matter how angry or outraged I get.

  Punishment of any and all kinds will never be given to you again. Now will you agree to try one more time?”

  Elissia stared at him, seeing the intense need and frantic desire clearly in his eyes. Right now he refused to admit that nothing would ever come of their association no matter what he promised, but she’d gotten tired of lying to herself. It was perfectly clear that she’d never have this man for her own, but he still had to learn that truth. Oh, well, the idea of riding around aimlessly all alone hadn’t been that attractive anyway; she might as well save herself the trouble while she helped him to understand as clearly as she did. After that there were the vials of that special tea?

  “Sure, I’ll try one more time,” Elissia finally answered, wondering if she sounded as tired as she felt. “Are you ready to look like an absolute fool?”

  “Damn, I’d forgotten about that,” he said, delight instantly changing to chagrin. “After your performance earlier in the dining room, there are only two ways we would still be together: either I beat you into submission or I let you walk all over me while I crawled. Are you sure you wouldn’t be willing to pretend to be - “

  His words broke off at her wry smile, showing he knew well enough how successful she would be at acting submissive. The act might hold up for an hour or two, but after that it would almost certainly fall apart. She hadn’t been silly enough to give her word about not getting angry, and one spark would have been all it took.

  “All right, yes, we’ll have to think of something else then,” he agreed, but not happily. “Let’s get you into a gown again and then we’ll go back and have lunch while we consider what that something else ought to be.”

  “That won’t work,” Elissia immediately pointed out, stopping him as he took a step toward her wardrobe.

  “I said I never wanted to see or talk to any of them again, so I can’t go back as if nothing had happened.

  My family should no longer be considered targets, and I want to keep it like that.”

  “Yes, of course,” he muttered, only the smallest trace of a growl behind the words as he stared at something other than her. “But you still have to eat, so I’ll have a meal brought up. I have to get back to my guests, otherwise I’d join you? You’ll be ready after lunch to join me in holding audience?”

  “Only if you’re willing to have me go as I am,” Elissia said, watching him closely. “Not to mention being willing to have people snickering behind your back. If I wasn’t beaten into submission then I came out on top, and it isn’t reasonable to expect that I’d pass up a chance to show my victory to the world. Is that really what you want?”

  “No, you’re right ? again,” he said, and then the most gruesome smile appeared on his face. “I really do need to leave now so I’ll see you later.”

  He actually performed a quick bow before turning and striding out, and Elissia waited until she heard the sitting room door close before she went to put away the paper she’d been holding. The ink was completely dry by now so she folded the paper carefully and put it away not far from where the vials of tea were, then went back to her chair and drinkable tea.

  “He really does hate to be disagreed with even if he’s wrong,” Elissia murmured to the tea in her cup with a sigh. “Or maybe I should say, especially if he’s wrong. He gave his word too hastily, making no effort to think the matter through, so it only took heartbeats before he began to regret what he’d done. And he hates the fact that he can’t even get angry over having made the mistake. This last effort he wanted so badly isn’t even starting right, so it ought to be over fairly quickly. Which will most likely be lucky for both of us? “

  Elissia finally swallowed the tea she’d been talking to, then sat back to wait for the meal she had no true appetite for.

  Derand managed to close the door to the hall rather than slam it, but that was the only victory he was able to claim. He felt like a small boy whose nurse had smilingly allowed him to climb a tree - when she knew damned well that he’d never even get to the first and lowest branch. That woman was a better tactician than he, but only because he was so emotionally involved in this war. He’d known that without having his nose rubbed in the embarrassing truth, but she’d done it anyway?

  He slowed the stalking rush his pace had become, at the same time forcing himself to admit the truth. The situation he was in the midst of now was his fault rather than Seea’s, so blaming her for his shortsightedness was nothing more than adding insult to injury. Even if she had been more direct than tactful in pointing out his mistakes. Once he saw what he hadn’t seen earlier, it had been all he could do not to explode in all directions -

  That was when three men with daggers jumped out at him, probably considering his distraction the perfect time for attack. But Derand hadn’t stayed alive through the wars solely because of luck and the presence of fighters all around him. He might walk past a friend without consciously seeing him, but enemies were another matter entirely.

  His boot slammed into the attacker on the right, his target the man’s privates. A choked gurgle sounded as the man went down, but Derand had stopped paying attention to someone out of the fight. The other two were being a little more cautious, but that didn’t save them. Derand’s dagger had instantly appeared in his fist, so he slashed at the one who had been in the middle while using his left forearm to block a similar slash from the man on the left. The middle one jumped back, a stupid move that gave the fight to their supposed target.

  As soon as the middle attacker jumped back, Derand let his slash continue on to the man on the left whose knifearm he’d blocked. His blade plunged into the man’s body with nothing to stop it, and that was two down. Derand turned to the third and last, but the man had backed up even more and then turned to run. Unfortunately for him there were fighters rushing up from all directions, and one of the ones behind the survivor hit the man in the mouth with a hilt-filled fist. The last man went down to lay unmoving, and that was the end of the attack.

  “It should be possible to question at least two of these fools once they’re conscious again,” Derand told his men as they all stared at the three bodies. “Make sure nothing happens to them until we find out who hired them.”

  Various words of agreement came from all directions, so Derand crouched near the one he’d stabbed and cleaned his dagger on an edge of the man’s tunic. The rest of the tunic was wet with the man’s blood, and it wasn’t likely that he’d be available for questioning long if at all. Well, those were the risks you ran when you took a job as an assassin?

  Listan run up just as Derand straightened, so Derand was able to leave the matter in Listan’s hands and continue on to the small dining room. His mood had improved considerably, thanks to the three who had attacked him, so he was able to enter the dining room with an easy smile on his face. All his guests looked up from the various chairs they sat in, but none of them spoke.

  “It’s past time that we sat down to lunch,” Derand said, gesturing toward the table that stood set and waiting for them. “My queen prefers to take the meal alone in her apartment, and that reminds me. Potry, see to having a meal sent to her, please.”

  Potry bowed and hurried out of the room, his expression as blank as that of the rest of the servants. No one yet knew what had happened between him and Seea, but as soon as her meal was served that would change. Realizing that ruined most of Derand’s newly improved mood, and then his father and Gardal were near him again.

  “Derand, what did you do to the girl to make her unable to join us here?” his father asked at once, a worried expression in his eyes. “I’m trying not to intrude, but - “

  “Well, I don’t care if I’m intruding,” Gardal pushed in belligerently. “What did you do to my sister this time?”

  “I meant what I said,” Derand answered the both of them, not quite looking at either man. “It was Seea’s decision not to come back here with me, even though I wanted her to. She pointed out that her coming back here would be worse than awkward, and I was forced to agree.”

  “Forced to agree,” Gardal echoed, his eyes narrowed with suspicion. “Did she overpower you with main strength, or did she use her sword to disarm you?”

  “I - got her to agree not to leave by giving my word that I would - never get angry with her or punish her again,” Derand grudged in a mutter, knowing that his skin had probably darkened with embarrassment. “I don’t regret having made the promise, but keeping my word isn’t going to be easy.”

  “If you’re telling the truth then you have my deepest apologies, brother,” Gardal said, now staring at Derand in a disbelieving/sadly believing way. “Not to mention my deepest condolences. I can’t imagine associating with Elissia for more than five minutes without wanting to hit her with something or even strangle her. How did she rope you into a promise like that?”

  “Believe it or not, I had to talk her into letting me promise,” Derand said with a sigh. “She was all ready to walk out, and I was at my wits’ end. You don’t think I made a really bad mistake, do you?”

  Derand’s question was aimed at his father, who hadn’t yet said anything beyond his opening remarks. He stood silently as he stared at his son, and then he showed Derand a smile that was more frightening than supportive.

  “Of course you didn’t make a mistake, Derand,” his father said with hearty assurance. “Your major aim was to keep her here, and you accomplished that. Everything else will fall into place behind that success.”

  When Gardal added enthusiastic agreement to what Derand’s father had said, Derand knew for certain that he was in deep trouble?

  The rest of the day dragged out in a way that reminded Derand of deliberate torture. The people who came to the audience had to be listened to one at a time, and then solutions had to be found to their problems. Those in the audience noticed that Seea wasn’t with him, of course, and a small buzz of speculation went around before it silenced itself. The people who came forward seemed more hesitant and frightened than they ought to be, as though Seea’s lack of presence undermined their assurance.

  When the audience was finally over, Derand had to force himself to walk out of the room rather than run.

  He’d expected other people’s problems to distract him from his own, but the ploy hadn’t worked. And neither did going over the final preparation for the arrival of his vassal kings and their fighters. He kept wanting to make sure that Seea really was still in the palace, still in his life, and not riding off somewhere.

  The fact that he was supposed to be told if she left the apartment didn’t matter; he kept remembering how easily she’d gotten out of the palace in Ramsond without anyone noticing?

  When it was finally time to dress for dinner - which gave him a legitimate excuse to return to the apartment - he felt much better. If he’d come back sooner it might have looked as though he didn’t trust Seea to keep her word, and that wasn’t true. He used the second bathing room to keep from getting in her way, and when the tub was full he got into the beautifully warm water. He had enough time to soak for a while, and there was no sense in passing up the opportunity.

  As soon as Derand’s eyes closed he began to picture what would happen later, when he and Seea returned to their apartment and were ready for bed. She would be as reluctant as always to have the bead put into her bottom, but knowing that the bead would help her to respond in the necessary way she would say nothing when he gently put her across his knees.

  He would first raise the skirt of her sleep ensemble to bare her lovely behind, and then take a moment to run his hand over its luscious curves. The sight of her buttocks always aroused him, and once he separated her cheeks and put the bead inside her he would probably find it as impossible as ever not to smack that bottom four or five times to satisfy his cravings - and to get her started properly. Helping the bead do its job added to his own pleasure in more than one way.

  She would protest over the smacks and the way they made her feel, of course, but Derand would stand her up and sooth away those protests with a kiss. Her body would move against his while their lips met, adding to his arousal as his hands moved over that body. The kiss he began would end rather quickly when he began to take her out of her night clothes, and once she was bare he would throw aside his wrap and lift her into his arms, then carry her to the bed.

  When he put her squirming body down he would follow it closely, starting another kiss that she would have no choice but to join. He would kiss her and touch her until her squirming grew even wilder, and then he would taste her nipples for a while. The feel of his lips on her breasts would make her moan, faint desperation in the sound caused by the knowledge that she would have no easing until he decided to give it. She was still too new at the sharing of bodies to understand that the stronger her need to begin with, the more pleasure easing and release would bring.

  He would wait until her moans began to turn a bit shrill before he knelt between her legs and parted her thighs. His own raging need would touch the softness of her womanhood, feeling the moisture flowing from her as a bright signal of her readiness. Her breathing would be fast and hard as he began to penetrate her, the added tightness caused by the bead making him want to moan. But he would remain silent while he listened to her sounds of anticipated pleasure, at the same time feeling her body welcome his with heat and throbbing.

  Entering her slowly would make her squirm even harder in protest, sending flashes of intense pleasure through his body. Once he was as deeply inside her as it was possible to be he would lean down and take her lips again before starting to move himself in and out in the rhythm she was so desperate for. Her hands would be like claws in his back as she mewled because of the bead, forced to feel things she had no hope of ignoring. His stroking would slowly grow faster and harder, faster and harder, her breathless screams of pleasure urging him on to the very end of his strength.

  When he would no longer be able to hold off his own release, she would most likely join him in a final explosive release before lying strengthless and limp by his side. Hopefully she would fall asleep before he had his breath back, and then he would be able to put her under the quilts just as she was. Her waking up to find the bead still in her bottom would give him a wonderful chore to wake up to, and he would see to it happily before they began their new day.

  But tomorrow would have to be done differently from the way today had gone, Derand decided as the delight of his imaginings began to fade. Today Seea had shown that she’d stayed on her own terms, which hadn’t done his image any good. Tomorrow she would have to agree to rejoin their guests, if only to keep Derand from looking like a pussy-whipped puppet. His vassal kings would almost certainly start to arrive tomorrow, and the weaker he looked the more trouble he would have with them.

  Derand sighed as he sat up and began to wash. He would have to explain the situation to Seea before they began to make love, and as practical as she was there weren’t likely to be any protests over the decision. Then would come the lovemaking itself, a time when she wasn’t able to argue what he said and did. If only he could find something to make her act like that when they were out of bed. At least during times of disagreement?

  Derand left the bath and dried himself, then dressed in a leisurely way. During that time he occupied himself with guesses about what kind of gown Seea would choose to wear tonight, and how well that gown would go with her red hair and green eyes. So far she hadn’t worn anything that didn’t suit her perfectly, unless you counted those breeches and tunics? Clothing that would let her ride easily out of his life? Clothing he was beginning to hate intensely?

  When Derand was completely dressed he walked out to the sitting area and toward the bedchamber, and it took him a moment to notice that one of the maids stood in front of the bedchamber door looking nervous. The observation made him frown, which unfortunately increased the girl’s nervousness.

  “Excuse me, Your Majesty, but I have a message from Her Majesty the queen,” the girl said really fast as she curtsied two or three times. “The queen asks to be excused from attending the formal dinner tonight, since she ordered in an early dinner and means to go to bed as soon as she finishes eating. She asks if you would pass on her regrets to your guests? “