Forest Whispers by Kaitlyn O'Connor

huh?”
    To her stunned amazement, he flushed
darkly—and got angrier. “You do not understand our customs,” he
said stiffly.
    “ You’re not seri….” Lana broke off at
the look he cast her way. “Obviously no better than you understand
ours. I guess I should’ve listened to the entire data log instead
of skipping around to what I thought was the important stuff …
never mind! Sorry I brought it up.”
    They traveled in complete silence for a good
while after that. It wasn’t a comfortable, or companionable,
silence. Corin wasn’t making any bones about the fact that he was
pissed off. Lana was intrigued by the notion that she’d been his
first, but she could see it was something he didn’t want to
discuss.
    After a while it occurred to her that she’d
heard of primitive societies that associated sex with strength, or
rather the lack of it, that believed that having sex somehow
weakened a man. She supposed it did, at least directly
afterward—women too. She didn’t think there was any scientific data
to support the theory that the effect was lasting, however.
    Regardless, she could see a certain sense to
it if these people believed sex weakened them. Warriors would want
to remain at their peak strength.
    But, when he’d told her about the fifen,
he’d mentioned ‘if they had no woman’. How would that fit in? Maybe
the chastity rule wasn’t that strict? Or maybe it wasn’t a rule at
all, but a belief, which some held and others did not? Or maybe it
only applied to officers?
    She felt a little guilty now that she
considered it from that perspective, wondering if she’d done
something as bad, or worse, than tempting Corin to be unfaithful to
a wife. What if she’d ruined his career?
    She tried to shake it off. People were
responsible for their own actions. Maybe she shared the guilt for
tempting him to break his vows, or whatever, but he was a grown man
and ultimately responsible for his actions. All he would’ve had to
have done was said ‘no’ and she would’ve backed off. For that
matter, if he’d seemed hesitant, she would’ve back off.
    He hadn’t been and, moreover, he’d
instigated sex the night before. She’d been perfectly willing to
leave well enough alone after he’d pointed out that she was totally
insensitive to the feelings of others.
    She sighed. It didn’t make her feel any less
guilty, particularly when she knew she’d be leaving him to face the
music alone … and who knew what the repercussions might be?
    “ I did something wrong?”
    The question snatched her out of her
abstraction, but she couldn’t make any sense out of it since it
seemed to be following her own thoughts. “Wrong how?” she asked
doubtfully.
    He flushed again, obviously tempted to let
the subject drop—except that it was bothering him. “I did not do it
right?”
    Lana stared at him blankly for several
moments before it finally dawned on her what he was asking. She bit
her lip, trying not to smile. “You didn’t see me complaining, did
you?”
    He frowned thoughtfully, but he seemed to
relax fractionally. “You did not seem to want to … do it
again.”
    “ Oh, well that was something
else.”
    He fell silent again but not for long.
“What?”
    Lana sighed. “Look, I think I really screwed
up here. I didn’t mean to, but that doesn’t make it any better, I
know. I’m not trying to be mean … just realistic. I’m not going to
be here long. I figured, we’re two adults. We could scratch each
other’s itch, and no harm done. But then you were pissed off about
it, and I realized that you probably weren’t looking at it the same
way I was. I thought it would be best just to leave it alone.”
    He studied her for several moments and
finally nodded, looking away.
    Lana had a very bad feeling about it,
though.
    Hopefully, she was wrong. She was too prone
to becoming fond of people. That was not a good thing in her line
of work and potentially hazardous, as well. That was the main
reason