Page 20 of Seduction

She led him down the wide lane, nearly deserted now, and around a corner toward a glimmer of green in the distance.

“The ministers will call me into a huge room. They’ll all be sitting at a table up on a platform, wearing their fancy dress uniforms. They’ll tell me how much my actions disrupted the ‘orderly fabric of the daily lives of our citizenry.’ Then they’ll tell me how disappointed they are in me and how they expected me to know better. Finally, they’ll remind me of my duty as an official to set a good example.”

“Then what?”

“Then I’m expected to apologize.”

“And then they’ll whip you?”

She laughed. “No! There’s no spanking, no whipping. Being publicly rebuked is considered punishment enough.”

He nodded. “Of course. I forgot. You are not treated as a woman. You have earned high rank. Your honor, your drengr, means as much to you as that of any man. For a proud warrior, being humiliated before his peers is worse than being whipped.”

She shrugged. “Truthfully, I don’t care all that much what they think. I don’t have a great deal of respect for most of them. There are a lot of pompous windbags in the ministry who have been in power far too long. As I told you earlier, they act like the Federation is superior to all other galactic powers – and they’re convinced that Earth is superior to every other world in the Federation.”

Selena stopped. Waved a hand. “Here are your trees.”

Haldor took stock of his surroundings. The solid white stone underfoot gave way to a square carpet of soft green grass between the buildings. It stretched roughly half the length of the tiny meadow hidden in the woods behind his house on the outskirts of Trondheim. Here and there, spindly saplings bearing glossy rounded leaves no longer than his thumb poked up through the green blanket. If he chopped down the whole patch, he reckoned all their trunks together wouldn’t heat his house for a single winter’s night.

Selena was looking up at him, her eyes shining with pride. So happy to share this special place with him.

“Is this like your forests on Gadolinium?”

“We have nothing like this on my world,” he answered truthfully.

She beamed. “Then bringing you here will be worth getting dragged before the ministry.”

“In my world, when a man goes for a stroll in the forest with a lovely maiden, it’s customary to sit for a spell under the sheltering branches drinking in the sights and sounds of nature. Pondering our role in it. May we do so?”

“Haldor, your sensitivity constantly amazes me.”

He sank down, patted the ground beside him. “You think because my people have built no shiny machines, we are incapable of thinking deep thoughts?”

“I’m sorry. That was rude of me. I guess I’m as guilty as any Earther when it comes to discounting the level of intellectual development of civilizations that aren’t as technically advanced as we are.”

He was hit with a stab of guilt. He’d only meant to tease her, first with the comment about sitting under the tree and then with the next about shiny machines. But her people seemed to have no sense of humor.

If he’d suggested sitting under a tree to ponder nature to Hilda, she’d have punched him in the arm and said “Ponder my pussy, that’s what you mean, you naughty boy! Sitting with me on the ground gets you one step closer to having me lying on it.” Then she’d have done just that, sank down on her back on the soft grass and tossed her skirt up, giggling all the while.

Truth be told, Hilda would have been right. The only mystery of nature he wanted to ponder was why an entire civilization would willingly give up the joys of kissing, caressing – and raw, wild fucking.

Chapter Eleven

He began with a kiss.

Claimed it as his reward the next day. He drew close, close enough to feel her body trembling, even at so innocent a contact. Then he bent his head. A gentle touch of his lips on hers. Lingered until he felt her trembling cease and her lips respond to his. That’s when he stopped.

The next day, a longer kiss. Still sweet, but with a hint of sensuality. His mouth slightly open, the tip of his tongue teasing her lips. He pulled her close and, lost in the kiss, she put her arms around his neck. Only for a moment.

Years of stalking prey had taught him patience. More than a few lusty Viking widows, left to mourn while still in their prime, had cast an eye on him when he was a strapping young lad. They’d taught him all the ways to pleasure a wench – and an eager learner he’d been.

Haldor put the skills he’d learned over a lifetime into practice. With nothing else to occupy the long, lonely hours each night, he spent them planning the next step of his conquest.

* * *

Selena caught her breath, awed.

He’d gained strength daily, and she could feel the raw power emanating from him as he worked out. After the first day, he’d refused to wear the uniform when they were alone, insisting on dressing the way he did when he trained for battle on Gadolinium. All but naked, except for a pair of loose trousers tied at the waist with a leather thong like the one around his forehead.

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