Page 20 of Hot & Heavy

"You are going to burst a vein in your forehead if you are not careful. You remind me of my father the time he suffered under an absurd vow of celibacy. Grouchy all the time, he was."

" Gun! Down!" he demanded.

Of course, she held it all the higher. "What is a gun?"

"A weapon, you fool."

"Well, it could be a weapon… a club wielded to inflict bodily harm."

"A cl… cl… club," he sputtered.

As she continued to handle the… gun, he threw himself down on his side and took a knife out of his boot with his hands, even though they were tied behind his back. He starting sawing at the cloth that bound his feet.

Madrene was caught off guard. At first. "Nay, you will not escape from me." She started to rush back and take the knife from him, but when she dropped the club… uh, gun… to the ground, the air around them exploded with the loudest noise she'd ever heard. Like a thousand strikes of lightning all at once.

Dust and rock shards flew from the area near the cave opening where the loudest part of the explosion seemed to take place. Apparently, the weapon had been aimed that way when it dropped. Her gunna protected most of her body, but some of the bits of rock hit her exposed face, and she could feel blood running there. But Ian… oh, my gods! Was he all right?

When the dust settled, she saw her prisoner, who was apparently not a prisoner anymore. He stood with hands on hips, pieces of rag dangling from his wrists and boots. And he was glaring at her.

"I guess it was not a club," she said weakly. "How was I to know if was a magic stick?"

"I told you it was a gun," he said with cold fury and started to walk toward her.

She backed up toward the cave opening. "And how was I to know what a gun does? I know what a gunna is, of course, but ne'er have I heard of a gun. Stop frowning at me. It makes you even uglier. And if I were you, I would worry about that big vein in your forehead."

With every step he took forward, she took a step back. Forward, back, forward, back. Once she was outside the cave, she took off like a deer, running as fast as her bare feet would take her… which wasn't far. He threw himself in the air and caught her ankles. They both went down with a thud, faces in the dirt.

Then he turned her over onto her back and lay on top of her. Before she could understand what he was about, he put white arm rings on each of her wrists. At first, she was puzzled that he would give her jewelry, but she soon realized they were not adornments, but objects that would restrain her, much as her cloth ties had restrained him. Only then did she look up at the troll-man.

His eyes were hard. His lips a thin line of anger. Blood drizzled from various cuts on his face and neck.

But all he said was, "Gotcha!"

When trolls go trolling…

The first thing Ian did was signal Cage to back off.

Of course, Cage had run to his aid when he'd heard the gun fire. Luckily, Jamal and his cohorts were five miles away and couldn't hear. Cage stood ten yards or so behind the woman, grinning. The shrew couldn't see him there. "Go," he mouthed.

Cage left, still grinning.

"Get your bloody damn body off of me, troll!"

Not bloody damn likely! "No, I don't think so," Ian said, laughing despite his anger. The witch could have killed them both with her carelessness, and still she thought she could give him orders. Amazing!

"And if I'm a troll, you for sure are a trolless, if there is such a thing. Your face is grimy, your hair is greasy, and you stink. Haven't you ever heard that cleanliness is next to godliness?"

"Do I look like a goddess?" The woman bucked up against him with uncommon strength. She was unable to move him off of her, but she did move him. He was impressed. And just a teeny tiny bit aroused. How pathetic is that? Hot for a hag. Must be a battle hard-on. Sort of like battle fatigue, but the opposite.

She made a mewling sound of distress, having presumably noticed his teeny tiny arousal, which was no longer teeny tiny. She closed her eyes and inhaled as if for strength. Then she looked him straight in the eye and said, "You won't take me, troll. I won't let you."

At first he didn't understand what she meant, but then he did, and he was offended. "I do not rape women."

She shrugged to indicate she wasn't so sure about that.

"And I am not a troll. I am a U.S. Navy SEAL." Usually, women were impressed when he told them he was a SEAL. Not this babe.

"Ha, ha, ha!" she mocked him. "And I am a whale."