Lock by Kate Hill Page A

cared. I knew it.” She crossed the room and flung her arms around his waist, resting her cheek against his chest. His skin was damp with sweat, roughened by a dusting of hair, the muscles beneath hard. She felt his heart beating against her face, and she closed her eyes. He came back !
    Sparrow felt Lock’s arms encircle her, holding her close for several long, wonderful moments before he grasped her shoulders and pushed her away.
    “I’ll get rid of these carcasses.” He glanced at the thieves’ bodies. “You clean this place up. No one will ever know what happened.”
    “Your hands.” Sparrow grasped his wrists, her fingers reaching a little more than halfway around their thickness. She tugged him toward the table.
    He pulled away. “We don’t have time to waste.”
    “Those cuts are deep and dirty. Do you want another infection?”
    He must have realized the sense of her words, because he sat quietly at the table while she cleaned and bandaged his hands. She kept her eyes focused on her work until she’d finished. When she looked up, she found him staring at her with an intensity that nearly stole her breath. He didn’t speak, however, but stood, slung one of the bodies over his shoulder, grasped the other by the leg, and hauled them outside. Sparrow grabbed two buckets, and as she went to fill them in the well, saw Lock stacking the corpses on the sled she used to tote wood. He ripped open two empty sacks she used for storage and covered the bodies before he dragged them off and disappeared behind a hill in the distance.
    Feeling a little sick, Sparrow cleaned the blood from her floor and arranged several chairs that had toppled over during the skirmish. Afterward, she lit a second lantern to brighten the room and started a pot of stew over the fire. The meal was nearly finished when Lock returned.
    “What did you do with them?” she asked.
    “Don’t worry. They won’t be found.”
    “You probably have plenty of experience getting rid of bodies.”
    “Yes, and I have no qualms about getting rid of a third tonight, if you get my meaning,” he sneered.
    “You didn’t come back to kill me,” she stated. For the first time since she’d brought him into her house, she had no fear of him killing her.
    His eyes swept her from head to foot, and his jaw tightened before he kicked out a chair and sat at the table while she brought over the dinner.
    Lock ate slowly, silently, his eyes studying Sparrow until she squirmed in her seat.
    “What?” she demanded.
    “Just thinking about what I can do about this problem.”
    “What problem? You came back so I wouldn’t get punished. It proves you care enough about me to give up your freedom.”
    “Give up my freedom?” Lock laughed. “I was starting to think you were swifter than you looked. I told you before, Princess, I’m no slave.”
    “What are we going to do then? If you don’t run away, I won’t have to keep you chained up anymore.”
    “And you call me arrogant.”
    “I’m not trying to be arrogant. You can live here.”
    “Or you could come with me.”
    “With you?”
    “Why not? You could live at my house in the SothSeas. That way when I return from sailing, I’ll have a wench warming my bed and not have to bother with the whores.”
    “The whores ?”
    “Do I look celibate to you, girl?”
    “I thought you might have had someone…”
    “Can’t be bothered with one wench thinking she owns me—or so I thought. Looks like my taste might be changing.” He grasped her hand across the table. She tried pulling away, but he held her fast and continued, “Once I teach you a few things, I wager you’ll be better entertainment than any whore.”
    Sparrow’s mouth opened several times, but she couldn’t find the words to properly combat such an insult. Finally, she said, “You filthy, repulsive, vile, obnoxious—” Her words were silenced by his lips as he kissed her deeply, using his foot to drag her chair closer to his. One of his