Ivar’s Prize
Amy Pennza
Publication date: July 10th 2017
Genres: Adult, Romance, Science Fiction
Nadia Green has everything–power, prestige, and a fiancé. That all ends when she’s sentenced to life on the prison planet Tolbos. Within hours of landing, Nadia finds herself captured, stripped, and placed on an auction block, where she’s purchased by Ivar Holok, a brutal warlord with golden eyes and an ability to wield kaptum with a mastery unlike anyone she’s ever seen.
Ivar is instantly attracted to the beautiful slave, but he suspects her presence on Tolbos has sinister implications. The Council wants him dead, and what better way to achieve its goal than by planting an irresistible assassin in his bed? No matter how much he wants to trust her, Ivar has to protect his people–even if it means denying Nadia her freedom. He vows to keep her enslaved and at his mercy until she confesses her involvement in the Council’s schemes, but he didn’t count on the slave enthralling her master.
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EXCERPT:
Nadia seethed as her new captor pulled her down the platform
steps. What an ass! He could have at
least given her his shirt.
She was acutely aware of her nudity as he tugged her through
the crowd, which had barely thinned since he’d freed her from the manacles. Men
stared openly at her breasts, her legs, and the juncture of her thighs.
Something brushed her backside, making her spurt forward—an action she
immediately regretted when her breasts bounced, drawing more stares.
The warlord seemed unaware of her discomfort as he pulled
her through the sea of bodies, her fingers tight around her biceps. She
struggled to match his long strides. She stepped on a rock, the sharp edge like
a nail in her foot. She swore under her breath. She’d had enough of being
dragged around.
She tugged at his grip. “I can walk just fine on my own.”
He hauled her against his side, and she gasped. He put his
mouth next to her ear. “You want to get out of this place alive? Be mindful of
our audience.”
She’d avoided meeting the gazes of the men around them, but
now she glanced at the hard faces following their progress. The avid, hungry
expressions they’d worn during the auction had been replaced by something
else…something more sinister. Hundreds of dull, flat stares met hers. She
swallowed.
“You see?” the warlord said, his breath ruffling the fine
hairs around her temple.
She nodded.
“Good. Now keep your head down and try to act docile.”
Something in his tone made her glance up. He’d sounded
almost…amused. She searched his face, but his eyes were hard, his mouth a
straight slash. She must have imagined it. She lowered her head and allowed him
to continue leading her through the crowd.
He halted them beside the man who’d accompanied him to the
platform. The man’s kind, brown-eyed gaze stayed firmly on her face when he
said, “I have your boots here.” He lifted them from a bundle on the ground.
Nadia never thought she’d feel weepy over a pair of ugly
prison-issue boots, but tears smarted in her eyes. “Thank you,” she said,
taking them. She stood awkwardly between the two men, wondering if she should
put them on.
“I’m Porter, by the way,” the man said.
She hugged the boots to her chest, grateful to have some
covering, no matter how meager. “I’m Nadia.” Her gaze drifted to the warlord,
who stared over her head at the men around them. The tattoo on his forearm had
retreated to its original position on his bicep. She wondered if she’d
hallucinated it moving. She’d hit her head on the pole when Axos slammed her
against it. Maybe she’d been delirious.
“My name is Ivar,” he said, still focused on the crowd. “You
may use it, unless I tell you otherwise.”
“And if you tell me otherwise? What do I call you then?”
He looked at her. “Master.”
She had to bite the insides of her cheeks to keep from
spitting something hateful back at him. She’d been captured, enslaved,
stripped, and sold—all in one day. Now she stood naked and humiliated on a
strange planet, the property of a man who’d traded a few liters of water for the right to have sex with
her.
Porter pulled a shirt from the bundle and held it out. “Ah,
here. It’s the best I could do.” He gestured to the ground. “Unfortunately, your
other clothes are torn, but they can be mended.”
She dropped the boots so she could pull the shirt over her
head. It was missing most of its sleeves, and it had several small holes, but
it covered everything. She tugged the hem down her thighs.
“It’s too big,” he said.
Big was good. After today, she was switching her clothes to
the full-length variety. “No, it’s
fine.”
“Sorry about the sleeves.”
“I like sleeveless.”
“That’s exactly what the guy I just took it from said.”
He’d literally taken the shirt off someone’s back? She
pictured a big, pouting man, arms folded over a bare chest after losing his
favorite sleeveless shirt. She smiled tentatively. “Thank you.”
His eyes warmed as he smiled back, his teeth white and even.
“Put on the boots so we can go,” Ivar said, cutting through
the moment.
Worried he’d take the shirt back if she disobeyed, she bent
and did as he ordered. Her socks were missing, but she didn’t dare complain.
She had a feeling he wouldn’t respond well to a request for socks.
“Raddoc won’t forget today,” Porter said over her head.
Ivar grunted. “I’m counting on it.”
He reclaimed her wrist and resumed tugging her through the
crowd, Porter falling into step beside him. They hadn’t gone far when Axos and
his one-eyed sidekick appeared in front of them.
Ivar released her. “Be forewarned, Axos. My patience is
wearing thin.”
Although Nadia could have gone several lifetimes without
seeing Axos again, she took pleasure in watching him look up to address Ivar.
It was also satisfying to see him eye the serrated sword Porter slid casually
from its sheath.
“I don’t want no trouble,” Axos said without taking his gaze
off the deadly-looking weapon. “But Dario and me agreed to split her eighty-twenty,
and I don’t trust him.”
“You shouldn’t,” Porter said, running a thumb down his
blade.
Axos swallowed. “I just want what’s coming to me. Fair and
square.”
Ivar’s smile held no humor. “I have no doubt you’ll get
it…one day.”
The one-eyed man shook his blond dreadlocks over his
shoulders and stepped forward. “We found her. If we go back to our master
empty-handed, he’ll kill us.”
“That would be a shame.”
Axos growled. “We had a deal. We’re owed.”
Ivar glanced at Porter. Some unspoken exchange passed between
them—so subtle Nadia would have missed it if she hadn’t been watching them
closely. Porter tugged her gently backward, away from the other men. Ivar
turned back to Axos. “Your deal was with Dario. Take it up with him.”
They weren’t particularly threatening words, but Axos and
his man paled under their tanned skin and left without another word.
Nadia sent a questioning look to Porter, but his eyes were
on Ivar, who rolled his head slowly on his neck before stalking away.
Porter took her wrist. “Let’s go.”
Apparently, no one on Tolbos trusted her to walk unaided.
His hold was much gentler than Ivar’s, although she knew instinctively he would
be just as difficult to escape if she tried. The friendly look he’d given her
when he’d offered her the shirt and boots was gone, replaced with the same
expressionless mask his leader wore.
Something about these men had caused both Raddoc and Axos to
back down. That meant they were dangerous—the sort of biggest and baddest that
made others want to please them. The one-eyed man had even been willing to risk
the wrath of his master rather than face off with Ivar.
Master. That had
to mean he and Axos were slaves, didn’t it? Yet Axos had called her slave. She trotted to match Porter’s
strides. Just how fucked up was this planet’s social structure? Ivar had told
her to ask questions later. Well, she was racking up quite the tally.
Unfortunately, the only thing she could do at the moment was stumble alongside
her taciturn companion.
As they left the crowd and the platform behind, she wondered
where they were taking her. They were both convicts; everyone on Tolbos had
been sentenced for something. Whatever these men had done, it had been bad
enough to land them on a barren mining planet for life. For all she knew, they
were rapists or murderers. Maybe both. Tolbos was home to all manner of
criminals.
“Including you,”
said a little voice in her head. Her boot caught the edge of a rock. She
tripped forward.
Porter grabbed her elbow. “You all right?”
“Yes. Sorry.”
“I’m probably walking too fast.” He lifted his head and
whistled.
Ahead of them, Ivar stopped and looked over his shoulder.
“Slow it down a little. She can’t keep up.”
Ivar glanced at her. He grunted and kept walking. But he
modified his strides.
The slower pace gave her a chance to think. As outraged as
she felt about her sentence, she had to accept it. She’d known the penalties
for breaking the law. She’d done it anyway. That made her a criminal. According
to the Council’s rules, she was exactly where she belonged.
After the fourth Great Conflict had decimated Earth’s
population, the Council had worried humanity would never fully recover. Life
was simply too precious to waste, so they had created a strict behavior code
that abhorred violence of any kind. If the human race was to survive, the
Council needed everyone to do their part.
Unless, of course, it
decided you were irredeemable.
That’s what the head magistrate had called her when he’d
read her sentence. His face, a pale moon in the shadows of his hooded robe, had
been emotionless. Except for his eyes. His eyes had found her all the way
across the hearing room, and they’d burned with scorn when he said, “Prisoner 757, the Council does not tolerate
crime. I deem you unfit for habitation in the common populace and declare you
an irredeemable. I sentence you to hard labor on Tolbos for life. No
possibility of parole.”
The last part had been a formality. No one ever left Tolbos.
Their boots crunched against the rocks, and the heat of the
suns beat down, making sweat trickle between her shoulder blades. Tolbos was
locked in close orbit with its twin red dwarf stars, and the hazy suns hung
heavy in the sky, creating a claustrophobic atmosphere.
The heat reminded her she’d had nothing to drink or eat
since before she’d launched, and her tongue stuck to the roof of her mouth. To
distract herself from her discomfort, she studied Ivar’s broad back as he
stalked ahead, his long legs easily eating up the terrain.
For such a big man, he moved gracefully. His shoulders were
crisscrossed by a harness that held the long broadsword. Her gaze strayed
lower. His loose black pants were tucked in the tops of his boots and rode low
on his narrow hips. He wore a knife strapped to his thigh, and the hilt of
another stuck out of his boot. It flashed in the sun as he leaped over a small
boulder, the muscles in his ass flexing.
She stumbled but recovered quickly. She had not just been admiring his ass.
“You okay?”
She glanced at Porter. “Yeah. Just clumsy.” She trained her
gaze on the horizon—safely away from any part of Ivar’s anatomy.
They continued trudging across the rocky surface. Sweat
trickled down her forehead, burning her eyes. Her muscles twitched—a sign of
dehydration, she knew. She scowled. Ivar had made his intentions toward her
quite clear. She’d be no good to him as a sex slave if she died of thirst.
She peered at the back of his neck, where a dark tattoo—much
like the one she’d glimpsed on his arm—peeked above his collar. The thing was,
she could have sworn it hadn’t been there when she’d watched him confront Axos.
Similar in color and design to the ones Raddoc and his men wore, it didn’t look
like any tattoo she’d seen back home. There were no words or symbols—just thick
whorls of brown so dark they appeared almost black.
Porter glanced down. “Almost there.”
They crested a small hill dotted with Tolbos trees. Her
boots skidded against the rocks, but Porter steadied her. He pointed ahead, to
where an empty vehicle sat baking in the heat. Like the others she’d seen, it
was a jumble of scrap parts affixed to mismatched wheels. Ivar was shrugging
out of his sword harness as she and Porter approached.
Ivar tossed her a canteen across the vehicle’s hood.
“Drink.”
She caught it and fumbled the cap open. Water splashed out
of the opening as she jerked it to her mouth and drank. She closed her eyes on
a groan. The canteen was almost too hot to touch, and the water was warm, but
nothing had ever tasted so good.
“Don’t gulp it,” Ivar said. “You’ll get sick.”
She lowered the canteen. He was probably right. The water
sloshed in her empty stomach. She leaned across the vehicle and held out the
canteen, but he gestured for her to keep it. His gaze dipped to a point below
her chin. She glanced down. The oversized shirt gaped open, giving him a full
view of her breasts.
She jerked upright and folded her arms over her chest.
Gold eyes snapped up to hers. She stiffened, expecting to
see anger there, but was surprised when she detected a glimmer of something
that looked suspiciously like amusement. It softened his jaw. Her gaze drifted
to his mouth. His lips were full and expressive—a sharp contrast to the hard,
unforgiving planes of his face. He turned to Porter, leaving her to wonder
whether she’d imagined the fleeting emotion.
“Anything?” he asked Porter.
Porter shook his head. “No sign of them. Still,” he said,
casting a slow, watchful look around the terrain, “I’ll feel better when we put
some distance between us and this place.”
Ivar nodded. “If we leave now, we’ll be home by nightfall.”
* * * *
For the second time in less than twenty-four hours, Nadia
raced across Tolbos’s rocky surface toward an unknown destination. At least
they’d left her hands and feet untied. She wiped grit from her eyes. Never taking that ability for granted again.
She rubbed her wrists, where angry red welts marred her
skin. The manacles had tightened every time she’d moved, almost as if they’d
adjusted in response to her struggles. She’d never heard of kaptum behaving
that way.
She gazed at the hilt of the broadsword that stuck up
between the two men seated in front. Ivar had planted it point-first into the
vehicle’s floor, where it had promptly melted
into the metal. The blade now shimmered a dull red in the fading sunlight.
By her reckoning, they’d been traveling for nearly three
hours. Her stomach rumbled continuously, and her back ached from the constant
jolting of the vehicle over the rocks.
Neither man had so much as glanced back at her since they’d
started their journey. They obviously weren’t worried about her trying to
escape while their backs were turned—not that she’d had an opportunity to try
it. The terrain had changed, the hills growing taller until they resembled
small mountains. Still, Ivar maintained the same breakneck pace, driving up and
down the slopes at a speed that made Nadia cling to her seat.
A jump from the rapidly moving vehicle would almost
definitely leave her with serious injuries, assuming she survived it. Even if
she did, there was little chance she’d make it through the night without food
or shelter. With its thin atmosphere, Tolbos lost heat rapidly after sunset,
and temperatures plunged low enough to cause hypothermia. Her options boiled
down to jumping from the vehicle and possibly freezing to death or staying put
and living out her days as a warlord’s personal sex toy.
She sighed and studied the backs of the men’s heads. Her
options sucked. As if voicing its agreement, her stomach growled loudly.
Porter twisted in his seat and grinned at her. “Hungry?”
“I haven’t eaten since I landed.”
“Don’t worry. We’re almost there. Just over this ridge.”
Her breath caught when they reached the top. The “ridge” was
actually the lip of a giant crater that stretched so wide she couldn’t see the
other side. But that wasn’t even the most impressive part. In the center rose a
mountain so tall it blotted out the descending suns, which created a hazy
reddish-brown halo around the peak.
“Impressive, isn’t it?” Porter asked, as Nadia threw up a
hand to shield her eyes.
For someone who had spent the majority of her twenty-five
years aboard a starship, it certainly was. There might have been taller
mountains on Earth and other planets, but Nadia had never seen one in person.
She gripped the back of Porter’s seat as Ivar took the vehicle down the
crater’s steep slope. The mountain loomed over them, casting a black shadow
that swallowed the vehicle and raised goose bumps on her exposed skin.
They hurtled down the side of the crater, and her stomach
dropped as they headed straight toward the mountain. It was even more massive
from this angle. Nadia stared up at it. Did they expect her to climb that
thing? As they neared the base, two structures appeared. She squinted,
struggling to make them out in the suns’ dying light.
The vehicle sped closer, bringing them into view. They were
guard towers, she realized, spotting a handful of men on platforms at the top.
Tall and white, the two identical towers stood like giant, lonely sentinels at
the foot of the mountain. She wondered how many Tolbos trees it had taken to
build them. She’d been taught they were scarce, but her teachers at the Academy
had got it wrong. The stunted trees were everywhere. Fascinating. She’d love to get her hands on one. Maybe run a few
experiments.
She tightened her grip on the seat. Remember where you are, idiot. Her heart sank. She’d just been sold
at a slave auction. No one on Tolbos cared about science or experiments.
The men in the towers saluted as the vehicle passed between
them. For a moment, it looked like Ivar would drive the vehicle smack into the
side of the mountain, but the road dipped and curved at the last second,
revealing an opening big enough for the vehicle. At last, he slowed down, and
they entered a yawning tunnel. It was dark, but a blaze of light beckoned.
After a few soft curves, they emerged from another wide opening and into the
light.
Nadia gaped at the world that opened before her. They drove
through an enormous cavern ringed with a network of caves that soared as high
as the eye could see. There had to be hundreds of them. She craned her head to
search for a ceiling. Each level of caves was set back from a wide path that
climbed up and around smooth walls. Lights flickered in most of the openings,
and she caught glimpses of people and furnishings. The inside of the mountain
was practically hollow—an intricate honeycomb of caves dug from solid rock. She
was counting the levels when Ivar stopped the vehicle.
The sound of the engine shutting off brought her crashing
back to reality. They’d stopped in the middle of the cavern’s smooth stone
floor, near half a dozen empty vehicles. Twisting around, she realized no
daylight reached the inside of the mountain. The entire cavern was illuminated
by dozens of torches set in hooks on the walls.
She was in the belly of the beast now—literally. Her heart
beat hard against her ribs as Porter and Ivar climbed out of the vehicle and
gathered their weapons. Despite the water she’d sipped during the long drive,
her throat felt suddenly dry.
Porter stretched and ran his fingers through his wavy brown
hair, grimacing when they came away coated with dust. “I’m in serious need of a
bath, not to mention food. You headed to the dining hall?”
Ivar shook his head. “Nadia and I will eat upstairs. We need
some time to get acquainted.” The way he said her name put the emphasis on the
second syllable, so it came out sounding more like Na-dee-ya.
Still seated, she took deep breaths in an effort to slow her
heart rate. Get acquainted was an
interesting euphemism for nonconsensual sex. Just her luck. She’d landed a
warlord with manners. Great.
“Right,” Porter said, tossing her a quick smile. “It’s been
a pleasure, Nadia. I’m sure I’ll see you around.” He swept her a courtly bow,
adjusted his sword, and strode off.
She felt abandoned as she watched him go. He wasn’t exactly
a friend, but he’d been kind to her. A small sound snapped her attention back
to Ivar, who watched her with his odd-colored eyes.
“If you’ll follow me, I’ll get you something to eat.” It was
couched politely enough, but they both knew it wasn’t a request.
She got out of the vehicle on stiff legs and stood before
him, her gaze darting to the kaptum sword in his brown hand and traveling
almost against her will up the muscular arm, across his shoulder, to his face.
He wasn’t classically handsome. His face was far too cruel
and hard for that. But she had to admit he was pleasing to look at. Golden skin
stretched taut over deep cheekbones and a square jaw. His blade of a nose had a
scar across the bridge. He had another scar on his forehead, where his black
hair formed a prominent widow’s peak. It was buzzed so close to his head she
could see his scalp, which sported several more scars. Either he was especially
clumsy or someone had tried to kill him multiple times. Considering how she
felt about him after less than a day in his presence, her bet was on the
latter.
“Like what you see?” his deep voice rumbled.
Her cheeks heated at being caught staring. “Does it matter?”
she dared to ask.
In reply, his gaze dropped to her legs, then traveled upward
with an agonizing slowness that made her breath hitch. By the time his gaze
settled on her face, she was certain her cheeks could have started a fire. She
could hardly complain about his scrutiny, considering she’d just subjected him
to the same.
He flipped the broadsword up so the flat of the blade rested
on his shoulder and his wrist draped over the hilt. “Come,” he said and then
turned and walked away.
She opened her mouth to tell him that, slave or no, she had
no intention of sleeping with him, but he kept walking, the sword bouncing in
sync with his stride. Clearly, he expected her to follow him like an obedient
dog.
Screw him.
She spun in a slow circle. The cavern’s smooth floor was
shiny, almost polished, and it showed no tracks from the vehicle’s tires. There
were openings at various points along the walls. She could walk right out. Goodbye, asshole! She looked back the
way Ivar had gone just in time to see him disappear through an arched doorway
carved into the stone.
She stared after him, wondering what sort of game he was
playing. Although she could hear the faint sounds of movement and voices
drifting from the caves along the walls, the cavern floor was deserted. As far
as she could see, there was no one to stop her from leaving. He probably
assumed she was too terrified to make a run for it. His arrogance galled her,
even if it was closer to the truth than she cared to admit.
She smoothed her sweaty palms down the tattered shirt. The
chill she’d felt in the mountain’s shadow had been a strong reminder of how
dangerous night was on Tolbos—especially for someone with no food or supplies.
She glanced around at the various openings and muttered, “Pick a door, any
door.” Even if she managed to make it out of the mountain, she’d still have to
get past the guards on the towers. And what then? A quick, miserable death in
subzero temperatures? Another run-in with Axos or Raddoc?
With a last, lingering look at the nearest opening, she
headed toward the doorway Ivar had entered. Before she stepped through it, she
stopped to stare at the torches blazing on either side. They glowed with an odd
blue-tinged light unlike anything she’d seen before. The flames also behaved
strangely, undulating so slowly they seemed to move as though underwater. She
watched, mesmerized, as one twisted in midair and dipped toward her. Heat
bloomed against her chest as a long tendril of flame crept closer. Nadia
extended her hand.
“I wouldn’t,” a deep voice said from the shadow of the
archway.
She jumped and let out a muffled yelp. The flame shivered in
the air and retreated to the top of the torch. She glared at Ivar. “You scared
me!”
He leaned against the doorway. “Don’t touch the flames.
They’re infused with kaptum.”
“Are they?” She glanced at them. “I thought kaptum exploded
when heated.”
“Not trace amounts.”
“You put it in the fire? Why?”
“Everything on Tolbos contains kaptum. The soil. The air.”
His eyes gleamed in the torchlight, which now leaned in his direction. “It’s
all around you.”
The light played over his face. Not for the first time, she
felt small and fragile standing next to him. At nearly six feet, she was tall
for a woman, but he dwarfed her. “You can’t force me to sleep with you,” she
said in a low voice.
One black eyebrow lifted. “I bought you. The word ‘force’
doesn’t apply to slaves.”
She gritted her teeth. “I’m not your slave. A person can’t own another person. The Council—”
“As you might have noticed, the Earth-Space Intergalactic
Council does not maintain a presence here. This is a prison planet, and you’re
a prisoner, which means you’re no longer entitled to the Council’s protection.
As it happens, however, I have no interest in forcing anyone to sleep with me.”
“But you—” She glared at him. She’d almost said ‘bought.’
His smile was slow and wicked. Oh, yes. He knew exactly what
she’d been about to say. He gestured toward the cavern. “You decided to follow
me rather than escape—a wise decision, I might add—and you’ll decide to share
my bed. Force won’t be necessary.”
“Don’t count on it.”
To her consternation, he winked at her before turning and
walking through the arch once more. “As you say, Na-dee-ya,” he said over his shoulder. “Come.”
The command set her teeth on edge. She was getting awfully
tired of being ordered about like an animal. She followed him down a narrow
corridor lit with torches set high in the walls. His broad shoulders almost
touched either side. The memory of being flung over the one-eyed giant’s back
sent a phantom ache through her middle.
At least Ivar hadn’t done that. Compared to Axos and his
men, he’d been downright courteous.
His words from the auction came back to her. “You want to get out of this place alive?”
He’d gripped her arm as he’d pulled her through the crowd, but he hadn’t hurt
her. Unlike Axos, he hadn’t tied or threatened to maim her. Most people were
more honest in their actions than their words. Ahead of her, the bluish light
of the kaptum torches glinted in the broadsword he still carried.
He’d said he wouldn’t force her to sleep with him. So far,
he’d given her no reason to doubt him.
With the threat of rape off the table, she was free to
indulge her curiosity about his home. Although crude by Earth or starship
standards, the network of caves was an amazing feat of engineering. The walls
bore chisel marks here and there, and she marveled at how long it must have
taken the prisoners on Tolbos to dig this place out of the mountain.
The corridor ended in a spiral staircase carved into the
cavern wall. Ivar grabbed a torch and, holding it aloft, began to climb. Nadia
followed, wondering just how high it went. Her stomach was rumbling again, and
her temples throbbed. She propelled her body up stair after stair.
Every fifteen steps or so, they passed a landing that led
down another corridor. Her side pinched. Another landing. Maybe this time he’d
stop and say, “We’re here!”
Nope. He kept
climbing.
She stared blearily at the bobbing light from Ivar’s torch.
Did he intend to summit the stupid mountain?
Just as she was about to sink onto the step in front of her
and beg him to leave her for dead, the stairs leveled out into a broad
passageway. Ivar tucked the torch into an empty holder and watched her drag
herself up the last few steps.
“You get used to the stairs,” he said.
She sagged against the wall, her shaking legs threatening to
collapse under her.
Without warning, he scooped her into his arms. She squawked
and struggled to tug her shirt back down her thighs. The hard arm under her
legs skirted dangerously close to her bare backside.
“Stop wiggling.” He hefted her higher up on his chest. The
movement further dislodged her shirt, making it puddle around her stomach. Her
entire lower half was bared to his gaze. Before she could protest, he carried
her through another doorway and set her down in a large room dominated by the
biggest bed she’d ever seen.
In the middle of it, a beautiful blonde sat on her knees
brushing another woman’s hair. Nadia gasped. So that was what he kept in his
mountain hideaway? A harem?
The woman with the brush stopped mid-stroke and nudged the
other, who glanced over her shoulder. They regarded Nadia with identical
curious expressions.
Apparently unfazed by the scene, Ivar moved around her and
crossed to a big desk made of Tolbos wood. He lay his sword on the surface and
settled himself behind it. “Eleni, Annika, this is Nadia. Nadia, meet Eleni and
Annika.”
The women smiled. They could have been sisters with their
long, wavy hair and clear blue eyes. Although they weren’t dressed
provocatively, their clothes couldn’t hide the fact that they both possessed
lovely figures.
Nadia looked at Ivar. “You have a harem?”
He shrugged.
“You…have a harem.”
Author Bio:
Amy Pennza is an author of romantic fiction that’s not afraid to turn up the heat. A lawyer-turned-copywriter, she’s much happier behind a keyboard than she was in the courtroom. A mom of four, including a set of twins, she always has a granola bar and a package of baby wipes handy. After years in Tornado Alley, she now makes her home in the Great Lakes region with her husband, kids, and one very persnickety cat. You can visit her at amypennza.com.
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