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sleeping tent as well as a limited
number of supplies. All he had for warmth was a wool blanket and the steppe
could become frigid once the sun was down.
    “There’s enough room in the tent,” she offered.
    He stared at her for a moment then looked away, shaking his
head. The corners of his mouth lifted wryly. “You are…very beautiful,
Princess.”
    Their gazes locked. Blood rushed to her face and her heart was
suddenly beating too fast. She wasn’t so very beautiful. She doubted Kwan-Li
would have ever noticed her if he didn’t think she was a princess, but the way
that he said it was more than a compliment.
    “I should go,” she said.
    “Yes.”
    Only in the shelter of the tent did she allow herself to
consider what was happening between them.
    His words sounded like a warning…and like a promise. As if he
wouldn’t be able to resist her if tempted. Her heart pounded.
    It was impossible not to have these thoughts. Kwan-Li was
young, strong and handsome and she was stranded on the endless steppe with him.
They were being pursued. Her future was clouded and she was a little frightened.
The khagan was old and…and nothing. She knew nothing else about her
husband-to-be.
    Darkness descended and a lone wolf howled in the distance, but
no mate answered its call. Dao lay down on the rug and closed her eyes. Her
thoughts floated outside to where Kwan-Li remained in order to preserve her
honor. She realized that she did want very much to tempt him.
    * * *
    The sky was hanging onto the last orange threads of
daylight as the warmth from the fire ebbed away. Kwan-Li seated himself beside
the tent and prepared for a long night. Everything had changed. Nothing had
changed. It was still his duty to guide the princesssafely to the khagan. The
security and future of his clan rested upon it.
    He could hear the rustle of movement from inside the tent.
There wasn’t a moment of the day where his body wasn’t acutely aware of her. The
princess wasn’t yet asleep. After a long moment, there was silence and Kwan-Li
stared at the empty horizon beyond. Anything to keep from looking at the tent
and thinking of what awaited inside. Loneliness overtook him, a loneliness that
came not from the starkness of the land, but from hovering between two
worlds.
    Out here, there was an intimacy that could never be found
within the city. Two strangers meeting quickly became friends. A man and a woman
alone quickly became…
    He had kissed her only once. That was all he’d ever have, yet
the soft press of her lips lingered with him. The open plain provided nothing to
distract him.
    The princess was moving again. His heart lodged in his throat
even before the tent flap lifted. Her shadow slipped over him and her hands
settled lightly onto his shoulders. She was a fox-spirit in the moonlight.
    “Princess,” he acknowledged.
    He spoke with quiet forcefulness. She faltered when he made no
move toward her. Holding her breath, she closed her eyes and leaned forward, her
lips touching his almost fearfully. He let her go on and waited for her to lose
her resolve. It was almost cruel, except she was killing him as well.
    Her mouth pulled away, but only to descend once again,
searching in a caress that was too sweet for what he truly wanted.
    “Princess,” he said again, his voice husky.
    He already knew he wouldn’t fight her. In a dark corner of his
heart, he’d known this moment was inevitable. There was no avoiding one another
when they were the only two souls around.
    He gathered up her hair as she had done by the river and
pressed his mouth to her neck. He inhaled the scent of her skin as her pulse
throbbed beneath his touch. He wanted to use his tongue on her. His teeth on
her. There wasn’t a part of him that didn’t want her.
    An-Ming lifted a hand to his jaw. Her eyelashes fluttered
delicately against his cheek. “I didn’t want my first lover to be a stranger,”
she whispered.
    She pressed against him and kissed him again, bolder this