FORBIDDEN TALENTS

FORBIDDEN TALENTS

Book Two of the Vinlanders’ Saga

FRANKIE ROBERTSON

Copyright © 2012 Frances R. Gross

Cover design by Kim Killion of Hot Damn Designs

Castle Rock Publishing

Tucson, Arizona

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This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, products, and incidents are either the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously, and any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, business establishments, events, or locales is entirely coincidental.

Published by Castle Rock Publishing.

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For Janna Scott, friend and fan. You’re an inspiration, and your enthusiasm means a lot.

RAGNI STROKED THE dark silky strands fanning across his chest, savoring the feel of Saeun pressed close against him. Her head rested comfortably in the hollow of his shoulder and her warm breath tickled his chest hair.

They lay snuggled together in a free-standing bed in Saeun’s room. Her quarters were slightly better appointed than most of his family’s other high-born attendants.
Ragni had seen to that. The room was warmed by a Talent heated stone instead of a smokey fire. Her bed linens were the same as those the Kon’s family enjoyed, her mattress new and soft. The lanterns that lit her room held the same sweet smelling oil that his sisters preferred. Ragni would have done more, but Saeun resisted receiving special treatment. So he’d been discrete and made sure all the improvements had been doled out gradually, over the last six months, by his sister Kaidlin, Saeun’s mistress.

Ragni had lingered after their loving longer than he'd meant to; his father, Kon Neven, would soon be exchanging polite courtesies with the Tewakwe, and the Nuvinland leader needed Ragni to be there. Nuvinland’s neighbors had undertaken the long journey from the drylands to Quartzholm unusually late in the season. The mountain snows would quite likely close the passes behind them, keeping the Tewakwe in Nuvinland until spring. Their purpose must be serious to bring them so far from home at this time of year. Neven wanted Ragni to use his Talent of Empathy to discern their true intent.

Ragni knew he should go, but still he lingered, enjoying the pleasure of Saeun in his arms a little longer. He nuzzled her as she drowsed, breathing in her clean woman scent and the tangy odor of love-making that clung to them both.

Amusement curled one corner of Ragni’s mouth. His father doubted his ability to be content with only one woman.
I suppose I can't blame him
. Ragni had flirted with half the unmarried women in Quartzholm, and with some of the married ones, as well. None of them had held his attention for more than a month.

Until Saeun.

Neven wanted him to cease his sampling of the ladies of the court. Though neither his father nor his lover knew it yet, Ragni was quite happy to oblige. He’d realized weeks ago that he wanted to make Saeun his
elskerinne
. But becoming the official mistress of the Kon’s second son was no small thing, and Ragni had been waiting for the right time to ask.

But will Saeun welcome it
? An ambitious woman would grasp at the chance, but Saeun, he feared, was more likely to shy from the attention. An unfamiliar sensation of doubt chewed at his confidence.

Ragni reached out with his Talent. Lying skin to skin with her as he was his Empathy revealed her emotions clearly: contented after-love languor colored by bliss. She loved him, delighted in him. Him, not his position or power. Ragni smiled and sank deeper into her feelings, floating in them like the salt-sea, buoyed up by her echo of his own happiness. Another unfamiliar feeling. True and profound contentment. He'd never felt so comfortable swimming in another's heart. He could happily float here forever.

A hint of something else, something deeper and darker, caught his attention.

Fear
.

It was submerged, buried beneath the after-effects of pleasure and joy, but it was there, running like a tangled black thread through her soul.

Some tightening of his muscles must have betrayed his surprise, because Saeun lifted her head and asked,
“
What is it?
”

What could she have to fear
?

Why hadn’t she confided in him? He was a priest of Baldur, second son of Neven, who was the Jarl of Quartzholm and the Kon of Nuvinland. There were few better able to protect her from any threat.

“
I have to go soon,
”
Ragni temporized. It was no less than the truth. Neven wanted Ragni to read the Tewas’ hearts.

But it wasn’t a Tewakwe heart that interested him at the moment.

Saeun hugged him and sat up. The ends of her hair trailed lightly across his chest to fall down past her shoulders, nearly to her waist. The winter sun slanted through the narrow windows, striking sparks of red fire from the dark strands as her breasts peeked between them. Ragni grew hard again.

Saeun glanced at his erection.
“
You flatter me, my lord,
”
she said, playfully formal.

“
Pay no attention to that begging dog.
”
Ragni pulled the rumpled sheet up to cover himself.
“
He’ll never be satisfied in your presence.
”

“
There’s only one way to stop a dog from begging,
”
she said with mock archness.
“
Deny him utterly. Allow him one tiny morsel and he’ll beg forever.
”

“
Could you truly be so cold-hearted a mistress?
”
Ragni tried to look pitiful.

Saeun almost managed a stern expression but a giggle escaped, and then she dissolved into laughter. Ragni pulled her back into his arms, kissing her nose and ears and neck. Pleasure flooded from her back to him, pleasure tinged more strongly with fear—and loss.
No, not loss precisely
, he thought,
but fear of loss
.

She was afraid of losing him. His other lovers had felt it too, when they’d sensed his interest waning, but the fear hadn’t run so deep in them.
Has she learned of the betrothal
?
Is she afraid I’ll turn from her
?

Resentment and frustration swirled through him. His father had just arranged his marriage to Lady Utta. At Winterfest they would be betrothed, but there was no reason that should change things between him and Saeun. She was the daughter of a minor lord; she knew how these things were done. She knew her rank wasn’t high enough for him to marry her.

And so did he.

Ragni clamped down on his irritation. He had no cause to be angry with Utta. Calm, dutiful Utta, who would make a good wife for a second son and a priest of Baldur. But it was Saeun he loved. Saeun he wanted in his bed. Saeun he wanted to give himself to. A wife couldn’t help but be a rival for his time.

He wouldn’t let Saeun be unhappy.

Ragni pulled back a few inches, propping his head on one hand while
lightly stroking her flat belly with the other. He smiled. Someday he hoped to see it rounding with his babe. A child from her would be a delight.

Impulsively, he decided to lay her fears to rest. The timing wouldn’t please Neven, but Ragni knew he could charm Utta out of any unhappiness she might have over his taking a mistress a week before their betrothal.