Shadow Runners Read online

  “Your father will be expecting you?” Thorne asked casually as he helped himself to some of the meat.

  Sonja lifted her head and stared at him blankly, trying to summon the web of lies she’d woven.

  She was indeed off kilter by all she’d endured! Ordinarily, she wouldn’t have had to search her mind for the threads. “I had no way to send word,” she responded finally, “but, yes. We were on the return leg of our journey when we were set upon.”

  “You have faired well … considering your misfortunes,” Rafe observed.

  Sonja blinked at him. She knew very well he wasn’t complimenting her, but pretending she was the next thing to simple minded, she’d found, relieved her of having to explain things she’d rather not and she wasn’t about to try to explain how she’d managed to fair so well considering she’d narrowly escaped two vicious attacks. She favored him with the shy smile she’d perfected. “Thank you,” she said, lowering her eyes in modesty at the ‘compliment.’

  Jarek uttered a disbelieving snort. “You are very good at that.”

  She stared at him blankly, curbing the urge to fling her meat at his head. “Thank you,” she said, trying to sound confused, although she didn’t ask him to elaborate.

  She refused to believe she was that transparent or that they were that perceptive. They were fishing, that was all, and, if she didn’t let them unnerve her into making a mistake, she could still carry this off. She’d been doing it long enough it was second nature. She wasn’t just good. She was very good. She wasn’t going to allow them to undermine her confidence.

  “This tinker you were indentured to…?”

  Sonja sent him a wide eyed look, searching her mind for a name for the fictitious tinker. “Joseph?”

  “What services did you perform for him?”

  Pretending the question was merely casual interest, Sonja curved her lips in a semblance of a smile. “This and that. I was a servant. Primarily, I attended his wife, Emmy. She was in poor health.”

  “But she traveled with him?”

  Sonja shrugged. “They lived in the caravan.”

  “And yet you were not expected to service the master’s needs?”

  Sonja focused on her food. “Oh aye, I was. I often helped him with his work, fetching and carrying the tools he needed to repair the pots and such … cleaning them up afterward.”

  One of the men moved toward her, settling beside her. When she glanced up, she saw it was Jarek. He took her left hand. It startled her, but it took no more than a moment to realize his intent. “This a very soft hand … for a servant.”

  Sonja studied her hand instead of his face. “Do you think so?” she asked doubtfully. “I do try. I fashioned fingerless gloves for myself from leather to protect the palms, and, of course, I use fat to soften them, but there is no getting around the fact that the work makes it difficult to keep the skin soft.”

  “You’ve a quick mind,” Jarek said dryly, releasing her hand.

  Sonja couldn’t prevent the blush of irritation that suffused her cheeks, but she carefully schooled her features to a look that was a mixture of doubt and delight. “Do you think so? My father was always inclined to say that I was simple minded.”

  He caught her chin to study her face.

  “I do not have food on my face, do I?”

  His eyes narrowed. He ignored the attempt to distract him, however. “I think your father was simple minded to indenture you when he might have gotten a very large bride price.”

  “But … I had no dowry,” Sonja responded, trying to ignore the breathless, weightless feel of her stomach as he leaned closer until his face was so near hers her skin tingled with his nearness.

  His lips parted.

  Her belly clenched.

  He covered the knob of her chin with his mouth and sucked it.

  Her sex clenched at that and her heart began to hammer wildly.

  “A bit of meat juice there,” he murmured when he’d released her chin. He swiped his tongue along her lips. “And there.”

  He pulled away slightly and studied her face again. “All clean now.”

  She was pretty sure she’d dripped meat juices between her breasts. Her nipples stood erect in anticipation at the thought.

  The meat fell off her skewer and landed in her lap.

  Jarek pulled away, studied the tidbit of meat, and met her gaze for a long moment.

  Sonja held her breath.

  After a moment, he plucked the meat from her lap and held it to her lips.

  Sonja parted her lips to accept it, but her entire system was in riot and food the last thing on her mind. She could barely collect enough spit in her mouth to chew the meat and swallow it.

  She was almost disappointed when he leaned away from her, picked up the skin of water and held it out to her.

  Actually, she was disappointed. There was no ‘almost’ to it.

  “Hopefully that will be enough food to sustain you for a few hours,” he murmured, amusement threading his voice.

  Sonja didn’t have to feign the blank stare that time. With her senses in riot, her mind had gone curiously blank. Slowly, his meaning filtered into her brain, though, and was processed, and created more chaos.

  This was seriously dangerous ground.

  Accustomed to being the seducer even though she generally feigned innocence and allowed herself to be seduced, it didn’t take much mentally acuity, fortunately, to realize she was in way over her head.

  “Uh … I have to relieve myself and … if there’s anyplace where I might wash the soil of my travels off…?”

  Chapter Four

  The accommodations were crude but adequate, Sonja discovered.

  Jarek had nodded in silent command to Thorne, who’d stood and led her through a narrow passage that opened into another cavern room somewhat larger than the first. She’d surmised they must use this cave system as living space at least while they were on duty guarding the border and she was still surprised. Near the center where the ground was smoother, there was an enormous pallet that appeared to be made up of furs from various animals and possibly padded with straw for added comfort. Toward the rear of the cave, she heard the sound of trickling water. When Thorne had led her that way with the torch he held, she saw a shallow pool had been formed on the floor of the cavern. Steam rose from it, but when she’d lifted her hand to the water trickling from the wall above it, she discovered the water was icy cold. She looked at Thorne questioningly.

  “A hot spring feeds the pool from below. The run off from the mountain makes it tolerable. The overflow creates a moving stream beyond that boulder. You can relieve yourself there.”

  When she looked around for him a moment later, she discovered he’d set the torch and was striding back through the dim cavern in the direction they’d come.

  “The front entrance is the only way out.”

  She frowned at his back as he threw that over his shoulder and turned to study the stream again. The temptation flickered through her, briefly, to test his comment for truth, but she didn’t particularly like the idea of wandering through a cavern with nothing but a single, unreliable torch to light her way.

  In any case, she had no intention of escaping.

  She realized, though, that the request she’d babbled had been more of a delaying tactic than a need. Shrugging, she made her way around the pool to the boulder he’d indicated and made use of the ‘convenience’. When she’d finished, she stripped, studied her torn, dirty gown and under clothing with disgust and finally merely dropped the clothing on the boulders.

  The water in the pool was hot. She rather thought that, without the constant stream of mountain water to cool it, the water would’ve been hot enough to cook her but, as Thorne had said, the cooler water made the pool tolerable. It was still hot enough to encourage her to inch into the water with caution even if not for the fact that it had occurred to her that the depth might be deceptive.

  She discovered it was. The pool was a good deal
deeper than it looked. When she’d eased in until she could touch the bottom with her feet, she found that the water was breast high on her.

  It was also a good deal hotter than she was accustomed to. Generally, by the time servants had managed to fill a tub with water they’d heated over a fire, it had already cooled considerably, and it cooled very rapidly thereafter, discouraging anyone from lingering very long.

  Pleasure wafted through her once she’d become used to the hot water. She moved around the perimeter, searching for a place where she might find an outcropping to sit and soak or someplace where she might lean back and support her head and shoulders out of the water. She came across what she was looking for, a smooth rock deep enough she could sit on it and remain mostly submerged that looked almost as if it had been placed there for that purpose. Since she also discovered a cake of soap and a comb on the edge of the pool near it, she decided it had been.

  The lure of clean clothes for later finally tipped the scales of want versus reluctance to toil over them and she went back to retrieve her clothes.

  Regardless of the tale she’d woven for the beast men, she wasn’t accustomed to servitude. A very little time spent scrubbing soap into the fabric and then scrubbing at the stains was enough to convince her that she simply wasn’t cut out for manual labor … at least not of that kind. Tiring of it very quickly, she left the clothing to soak and focused on her own bath, using the comb to rake the tangles from her hair when she’d finished washing it.

  She discovered when she set the comb back on the ledge that she had an audience.

  A jolt went through her. She hadn’t thought the sound of the water loud enough to drown out their approach. It was unnerving that the five of them had come in, moved so close to her, and she hadn’t had any idea they were there.

  She hesitated, trying to decide whether to pretend she hadn’t noticed them or not but finally decided it would be easier to pretend she hadn’t than to pretend a maidenly modesty she didn’t feel.

  As if she hadn’t caught a glimpse of them, she turned away after that brief hesitation and collected her clothing from the pool, wringing each piece out and tossing it up onto the boulders surrounding the pool. She could spread them to dry when she’d emerged—always assuming they didn’t fall upon her immediately, she thought wryly and with an uncomfortable thumping of her heart that was almost equal parts nerves and anticipation.

  A splash behind her made her whirl instinctively toward the sound. She discovered Jarek had joined her in the pool. She caught a glimpse of the other four, ranged around one edge as they dropped the loincloths they’d donned a short time before, and climbed into the pool, as well. Then Jarek, plowing through the water toward her, blocked everything else from view. She stared at him a little uneasily, but she didn’t make any attempt to evade him, not the least because she knew it was useless even to try.

  He met her gaze for a long, breathless moment, and then reached toward her … took the soap she was holding and stepped back, lathering himself.

  Sonja’s surprise and disappointment were surpassed only by the pique that rose behind them when she realized he’d been well aware of what she’d thought he intended when he approached her.

  She had a bad feeling that he knew it wasn’t fear or reluctance that had frozen her to the spot and that irritated her more. Trying to pretend it didn’t bother her in the least, she struggled out of the pool.

  It was a struggle, far more than she’d anticipated. It felt as if every muscle in her body had lost strength and tone. Focusing on the clothes she’d washed, she wrung what water she could from them, carefully smoothed them, and spread them over rocks to dry. She was keenly aware of the men in the pool, however, regardless of her determination to pretend she wasn’t.

  She was shivering with the coolness of the cave on her heated skin by the time she’d finished. Shrugging inwardly, she approached the pallet of furs and climbed to the center. Contrary to her expectations, they smelled relatively inoffensive. They’d clearly been cleaned and well aired before they’d been formed into a pallet. The faint odor of wildness emanated from them as she burrowed under, but it was a long way from overpowering or repulsive.

  Wryly, she thought as she settled, that they smelled a great deal better than some of the beds she’d had to sleep in in the ‘civilized’ world she hailed from.

  Jarek was still damp when he joined her on the pallet and promptly flung her fur cover off. Making no bones about it, he thoroughly examined her with his gaze before he settled a hand upon her belly and began to explore her with his touch. She was already feeling carnal warmth invading her when first Thorne and then Rafe joined them on the pallet.

  After studying her and the stroke of Jarek’s hands over her breasts and belly for several moments, they moved closer and began to explore her with their hands themselves. A little startled and a good bit doubtful, Sonja glanced at the faces of the men looming over her.

  Jarek’s hand paused and she discovered when she looked up at him that he’d slid a narrow eyed glare at Thorne, his expression shifting from slack faced desire to challenge. For several moments, Thorne seemed oblivious. When Jarek issued a low growl from his throat, however, he paused as Jarek had, flicking a look at him. They shared a long, speaking look and Thorne, with obvious reluctance, removed his hand from her breast. He didn’t move away.

  Rafe, similarly occupied with exploring her hips and belly, also paused at the challenging growl and slowly withdrew. Both men settled back to watch, which was when Sonja realized that Arman and Byron had positioned themselves around the others to watch.

  Her belly tightened with an odd mixture of nerves and anticipation. She hadn’t actually believed that Jarek really meant to share her with all of the others, but it was suddenly as abundantly clear that he did as it was that he meant to be first. Visions of the other four fighting for second position and so forth danced in her head, but Jarek distracted her, abruptly claiming her full attention as he rolled over her and burrowed his face between her breasts.

  The heat wafting from him and his weight sent a delightful, heated, shockwave through her. The contrasting chill of his long, black hair, still wet from his bath, sent shivers through her as it trailed along her heated skin with his restless movements. But the nibbling glide of his lips and the sharp nips with his teeth surpassed the other sensations in short order, submerging her in a heated, dizzying whirlpool. There was impatience in his every touch. The sense almost of being devoured washed over her as he nipped and plucked and sucked at her flesh, focusing for a time on the keenly sensitive tips of her breasts, and then her neck, and then the flesh along her belly.

  She hadn’t been entirely aware that her body was warming toward readiness long before his first touch and yet she rose so quickly toward fevered neediness that she knew that must have been the case. She’d always considered that she enjoyed the pleasures of the flesh as much as the next woman. She could enjoy it, if she set her mind to it and closed her mind to her partner, regardless of who was coupling with her so long as they had some skills as a lover.

  Dizzily, she realized she hadn’t had to close her eyes and focus. For the first time in her life it was the man himself who’d aroused her … without even touching her. She’d been anticipating Jarek’s touch, not merely a mindless yielding to rough, or expert, stimulation of her senses. He excited her and his slightest touch, as a consequence, was more wildly exciting than anything she’d experienced before.

  She wasn’t particularly happy to discover it. In point of fact, a sense of alarm began to swell beneath the building excitement, but it could make no headway toward arming her against the rush of need swelling, growing, building toward explosion inside of her. She was so drunk with desire she couldn’t hold focus on the sense of danger long enough to even figure out the threat let alone consider some way to protect herself from it. It was a struggle even to fill her lungs with the air she needed, to fight for consciousness against the invading drunken darkness.
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br />   Her entire being seemed to shift focus as Jarek nudged her thighs apart and settled his hips between them, pressing the rounded knob of his shaft against the mouth of her sex. She felt the pull of her flesh. In her mind’s eye, she watched his hard flesh stretch her, penetrate her body, and a rash of expectancy crawled over her. A hard knot of excitement formed in her throat, squeezing off her breath. She panted as he pressed deeper, feeling her heart quicken as his thick flesh delved deeper and deeper until her entire world devolved into the sound of her heart in her ears, the rush of her breath, and the pleasurable, burning stretch of muscles along her channel as her body struggled to accommodate his. The muscles quivered around his, clenching and easing, kneading the welcome invasion.

  He gasped harshly near her ear. Curling his big body around hers, coiling his hard arms around her shoulders, he lowered his head and bit down on the sensitive flesh along the side of her neck as he began to drive into her in a pounding tempo that sent jolts of pleasure through her. The sting of his teeth seemed to magnify those pleasurable shocks, shooting her toward release so fast it hit her with blinding speed. She sucked in a sharp breath as the first convulsion jolted through her. Jarek grunted as if she’d kicked him in the ribs. A hard tremor went through him. For a moment, he hesitated as the first jolt of ecstasy rocked through him. Then he began pumping his hips hard and fast. Driving deeply inside of her, he ground against her, trembling as the shockwaves of his own climax ripped through him.

  Sonja felt herself floating downward from her pinnacle even as he pumped the last of his seed into her, felt as if she was melting into a puddle of wax. She was still trying to catch her breath when Jarek dismounted and moved away. Thorne fell upon her even as she managed to suck in her first decent breath of air.