Mastered By Love (30 page)

Come dripped out of her, wetting her
thighs. Her skin was sticky with it.

“
May I take a bath,
Master?”

His frown deepened. “Of
course. You know that.”

“
Thank you,
Master.”

“
We’re going to have a talk
later.”

“
Yes, Master.”

He gave her a searching
look. “Will you be all right here by yourself?”

“
Of course,
Master.”

“
Lock
the door after I leave.”

Tariza went into the bathroom and ran
herself a hot bath. A good, long soak was what she needed to relax
and distract herself. She added a few drops of night-flower oil to
the water and settled in with a sigh of pleasure.

After months of idleness,
she was getting soft. Perhaps the master would allow her to begin
an exercise program. He probably wouldn’t want her sparring, but
she could still train for strength and endurance.

She tilted her head back against the
sloping side of the tub and let her mind drift aimlessly, trying
not to think, as the water gradually cooled.

Behind her, the door
clicked softly. Tariza sighed. He’d given her no time to relax at
all. “What is it, Master?”

Someone grabbed her by the
hair. “Get out of the bath, bitch.”

It was Lola.

Tariza reached behind her
head to grasp Lola’s wrist. She dug her nails into the other
woman’s skin. “Let me go. Now.”

But there were other hands
grabbing her arms and legs, dragging her from the tub along with a
giant splash of water. She clunked her head against the side of the
tub as the intruders pulled her to the floor. Lola seemed to have
at least three companions, maybe more. She couldn’t see all of them
as they crowded around her, pinching, pulling hair, scratching and
punching.

Tariza flailed, trying to get her
limbs free. She had an attacker on each one, keeping her from being
able to defend herself. Blows landed all over her body. Someone
kicked her in the ribs. She tried to curl on her side to protect
her vital organs. Another kick hit her in her lower back, over her
kidneys.

“
You won’t take him away
from me,” Lola said.

Someone grabbed Tariza by the hair
again and slammed her skull into the tiled floor. Everything
disappeared into a black haze.

***

Dario made
an excuse to cut the meeting short as soon as he
dared and returned to his quarters. He and Tariza would have dinner
there, alone together, then curl up on the bed and talk. They
needed to work things out between them.

Would she agree to go
off-world with him? He wouldn’t force her to leave Argelia.
Whatever they did, it would have to be a mutual decision. He only
hoped she’d want to be with him given the opportunity to be
free.

When he reached his rooms,
he found his door ajar. He’d told her to lock it. Had she
forgotten? That seemed unlike her. Frowning uneasily, Dario pushed
the door open and walked into the suite.

“
Tariza?”

There was no answer.

She wasn’t in the sitting
room or on the bed. Who could have left the door open? No-one had a
key to the room besides him and the head of housekeeping. Surely
the housekeeping staff wouldn’t let anyone in here to harm
Tariza.

Had she attempted to run
again? He didn’t think she’d be so foolish, but she had been
extremely upset with him. Her stiff silence, even after the
incident with Mateo and his cronies, had worried him. He should
have postponed the meeting, stayed with her. He should have known
she was distraught enough to do something wild and
dangerous.

The problem with that idea
was that she was more than smart enough to close the door behind
her. It didn’t add up. And she couldn’t have escaped by his secret
passageway, because she didn’t know it was there. Something, some
quiet voice inside his mind, insisted an intruder had come into his
rooms and attacked her, yet she was nowhere to be found.

But wait. He hadn’t checked
the whole suite.

He strode to the bathroom
and shoved the door open. Tariza lay unconscious on the floor in a
pool of water and blood, her naked skin shockingly pale. Deep red
bruises bloomed all over her body. It looked as if she’d fallen –
or been dragged – out of the bathtub.

“
God! Tariza!” He fell to
his knees beside her.

He pressed his fingers to the side of
her throat to check for a pulse. It was there, faint but steady.
Thank God, she was still alive. Her skin, like the water in which
she lay, was cold.

He snatched towels off the shelves.
Using an arm to support her, he wrapped a couple of them around her
torso before lifting her into his arms. Her head lolled against his
chest, her sodden hair dangling almost to the floor.

Dario carried her into the
bedroom and laid her on the bed. He climbed in beside her and
pulled the coverlet over them both. Gently he lifted her eyelids
one after the other. Her right eye was dilated, but the left pupil
was contracted to a tiny point. She’d had a serious blow to the
head.

His stomach lurched. Injuries like
that could be fatal.

Don’t let her die. Don’t
let her die. Don’t let her die.

“
Tariza. Sweetheart, wake
up.” He stroked her cheek.

She gave no response, no
sign she had any awareness of him. She might never wake up.
Sometimes people who’d suffered head injuries simply slipped away
as they slept. Other times, they awoke but their minds were
permanently damaged.

Dario closed his eyes on a
silent prayer.
Please let her wake up
whole. I love her.

His whole being jolted at the
realization. He loved her.

He opened his eyes again.
“Wake up now.” He tapped her cheek lightly. “Please wake
up.”

Her face looked as still and cold as a
stone statue. What if she never regained consciousness, never came
back to him?

“
Tariza, I need you. Don’t
leave me.”

Her eyelashes fluttered.
His heart jumped at the sight. “That’s right. Wake up
now.”

As she opened her eyes, she
groaned. Her gaze seemed unfocused, almost as if she wasn’t fully
awake.

“
Can you hear me? Tariza,
can you hear me?”

“
Yes,” she whispered, her
gaze wandering aimlessly.

“
Do you know who I
am?”

Slowly, her gaze turned
toward him. “Dario,” she said weakly.

He smiled, caressing her
cheek again. She hadn’t called him Master and he was glad. “That’s
right, sweetheart.” He held up two fingers. “How many fingers is
that?”

“
Two. Wha – What are you
doing?”

“
You were hit in the head.
Do you remember?”

She frowned and gave
another moan. “Goddess. It hurts.”

“
I know it does. Do you
remember how it happened?”

Her tongue emerged to run
across her upper lip. “Lola. It was Lola and some other women. They
dragged me out of the bathtub.”

“
Lola! Why would she attack
you?”

“
She hates me. I told you.”
Tariza lifted a hand to her forehead.

And he hadn’t believed her.
Hadn’t wanted it to be true. He’d been fooling himself all this
time, lying to himself that she could fit in, that she would learn
to adjust. He’d been a damned idiot. She would never fit in, even
if she wanted to. The other slaves wouldn’t let her, judging by
this incident.

This attack only made him more
determined to get her out of Saturnios. But first he had to treat
her injuries.

“
Let me get some help up
here for you.” He strode to the bell pull on the wall and rang for
a servant before returning to her.

“
Dario, I think something
is broken,” Tariza said.

His stomach twisted. “Hell.
I shouldn’t have moved you. Where is it?”

She pointed to her ribs.
“Here.”

A servant arrived. Dario sent him off
for the doctor and Mateo first, dinner second.

His brother was the first
to appear. Mateo entered without knocking and sauntered to the bed
with a smirk. “You rang?”

“
Lola and her friends beat
up Tariza,” Dario said flatly.

Mateo laughed.
“Right.”

“
This isn’t a joke,
Mateo.”

His brother’s eyes were
filled with amused disbelief. “Lola couldn’t beat up
anyone.”

“
Tariza was unconscious
when I found her,” Dario said, glowering in irritation. Couldn’t
Mateo see how hurt she was?

“
Probably faking it,” Mateo
said with nonchalance.

Dario pointed furiously at
Tariza. “Are you saying she gave herself a concussion and a broken
rib?”

His brother paused and
focused on the injured woman, really looking at her for the first
time since entering the room. He bent over Tariza’s naked body,
frowning. “She does look pretty bad, but I guarantee Lola didn’t do
this. She doesn’t have the capacity for something like this.
Besides, why would she bother?”

“
She hates me,” Tariza
rasped.

“
So do a lot of other
people, but you’re not accusing them of beating you up,” his
brother said in a dismissive tone.

Tariza turned a
pained-looking gaze to the other man. “She said
you can’t take him away from me.”

Mateo snorted. “What does
that even mean?”

“
Maybe she felt threatened
because you kept Tariza with you while I was gone,” Dario
said.

Mateo shook his head. “I
don’t believe it.”

“
I don’t care whether you
believe it or not; I want her punished,” Dario told him.

“
I’m not going to punish
her on the word of this Concordian bitch.”

“
Don’t speak of Tariza that
way.”

Mateo gave him an
incredulous look. “Excuse me?”

“
You heard me. I won’t have
my slave abused for any reason, physically or verbally.”

“
Damn, Dario. You have got
it bad.”

“
If you won’t call Lola up
here and question her, then I will.”

Mateo’s laugh was just as
incredulous as his facial expression. “You’re really serious about
this, aren’t you?”

“
Yes. I am.”

“
Brother, think what Uncle
Grasos will do if he finds out you took Tariza’s side over Lola’s.
Believe me, it won’t go over well. He’s likely to take the whole
thing out on your Concordian’s hide on the assumption she did
something to deserve the attack. If I were you, I’d let it
go.”

“
Let it go?” Dario growled.
“So Lola and her little friends can do it again the next time I’m
not around? They got into a locked room, Mateo. I don’t even know
how they got the key.”

“
Better to risk that than
to alert our uncle to the situation.”

Dario glanced at Tariza. She stared up
at the ceiling, her eyes unfocused again, as if she were lost or
dreaming with her eyes open. Mateo was right. Grasos would likely
use the incident as an excuse to brutalize Tariza all over
again.

They would have to leave
the city, or at least the palace. He couldn’t keep her here if the
other slaves were going to attack her. There was no place in the
city where he could take her on a moment’s notice, so they’d have
to pack up and head for his country house.

Maybe you should let her
go, take her back to Concordia.

It was the right thing to
do, the loving thing. He didn’t know if he had the
strength.

A more palatable plan was
to attempt to reach Margelia and the Bellerenic embassy. Take her
off-world. Build a new life with her somewhere people didn’t
enslave each other.

He fixed Mario with a
narrow-eyed glare. “I’m going to talk to Lola. Not right now, but
soon. And if I even suspect she’s guilty, I’m going to tan her
backside. Don’t even think about trying to protect her.”

Mateo threw up his hands.
“All right. If she is guilty, you’re right to punish
her.”

Dario turned from him to
stroke Tariza’s cheek and forehead. Her gaze returned to him and he
gave a sigh of relief. She was still aware of her surroundings,
then.

He’d seen this kind of
injury before, on the battlefield. Sometimes men with head injuries
would seem to be fine but would go to sleep and never awaken. If
that happened to Tariza ... His throat swelled so tightly that he
couldn’t even swallow. If that happened to Tariza, he might not
recover himself.

The doctor arrived to bind her
ribs and check her other injuries. There wasn’t much he could do,
given the limits of Argelian technology. For the first time, Dario
truly wished he were somewhere else. Anywhere else in the galaxy,
Tariza would have had access to modern medicine, but not here. Not
on good old Argelia, where they all liked to pretend they lived
during Earth’s seventeenth century.