Free Keeper of the Heart by Johanna Lindsey Page B

had the man’s attention again. She found it amusing that he had thought Corth a warrior, even though he lacked the bulging biceps of a warrior, and the extreme height. And she could be amused because those azure eyes weren’t so unsettling this time, but were merely appraising, curious, and definitely interested.
    “He is no more than your escort?” he asked her.
    “An escort, but also a friend—also an android.”
    “An android.”
    He said the word as if he didn’t know what it meant, but Shanelle decided only one thing needed clarification just then. “He will leave me with you if you want to—talk.”
    She put enough insinuation into the last word that a dummy could catch her meaning, yet the man took her literally. “I would do more than talk.”
    So it was going to take plain speaking, was it? She grinned. As long as he wasn’t a warrior, she could be as bold as she pleased.
    “So would I,” she told him.
    The man’s smile at that point nearly made her knees buckle. How was it possible for his attractiveness to double with a mere curling of the lips? And that wasn’t all he did. He bent under the thick cable that roped off the arena and came to stand directly in front of Shanelle, and that close, his size just about overwhelmed her.
    He really was only an inch or two shorter than her father, which put him nearly a foot above her own head. And the width of him ... A body like his was nice to look at, it surely was, but she really wished he wasn’t so tall, or so strong. That was one of the reasons she didn’t want a warrior. You simply had no defense against someone this big. And this big someone was a visitor, which meant he wouldn’t have a warrior’s control—the control that kept a warrior from accidentally or otherwise hurting a woman who was, of course, much smaller than he.
    Suddenly Shanelle realized that if she proceeded, she might be letting herself in for some unwanted pain—and not just the kind that went along with losing one’s virginity. Stars, why hadn’t that occurred to her sooner? But look at him! He was absolutely gorgeous. And he was the one who had knocked her socks off. There was no getting around that.
    She bit her lip in indecision. Dared she take the chance? Damn it, yes! It was incredible that she’d found him at all and so soon, so she wasn’t going to press her luck by looking any further. And he might be big, but that didn’t mean he wouldn’t be careful with her.
    She stepped back a little to relieve the strain on her neck that staring up at him was causing. He caught her hand, however, and pulled her right back. And he did not release her hand now that he had it. She couldn’t complain about his wanting to touch her. She wanted to touch him, too. But she could complain about the close proximity.
    “You’re going to have to give me some space if you want me to look at you. My neck won’t bear up very long under this strain.”
    It took only one of his thick arms to lift her and hold her up against his chest. She felt a thrill of alarm at his aggressive boldness, but they were now eye-to-eye, and Shanelle had a new problem, one with her senses. Stars, it felt wonderful to be pressed against him like this, so wonderful that she didn’t want to recall that they couldn’t stay this way, not here anyway. But she did recall it.
    “You know this won’t work, big guy, not in public.” But she compromised. “Put me down and give me an arm’s length. You can keep my hand.”
    “My name is Falon Van’yer,” was how he responded to her order.
    “I’m glad to know it, but you’re still going to have to put me down until we aren’t so public.”
    “You say that as if you expect to have it your way. Do you often have your way?”
    She sensed his amusement over the subject. Nor was he putting her down.
    “I don’t always get my way, no,” she admitted carefully. “But a good deal of the time I do, especially when I’m using common sense and others are