Shield's Lady

thought.”
    “Yeah. Especially for Lucky.” Gryph bent down to look beneath the bed and saw the flash of red gems in the shadows. “Ah, here we are.”
    Sariana slammed a drawer shut and hurried across the room. “You found it?”
    Gryph settled back on his heel. “It will be easier for you to catch it than it will be for me. I told you this morning, they like females.”
    “You’re serious, aren’t you?” Sariana looked ruefully resigned.
    “I’m afraid so.” He waited, curious to see what she would do.
    “Well, I can’t leave it where it is. It will drive me crazy all night wondering if it’s sneaking around my bed somewhere.” She dropped to her knees and peered under the bed.
    “Don’t make any sudden moves. It’s still quite wild. But it will be curious about you. Put out your hand very slowly.”
    “What if it bites me?” Sariana hissed. She went down on her stomach and slithered halfway under the bed. She disappeared from the waist up, leaving Gryph with a view of her charming rear.
    “It won’t bite.” Gryph stayed where he was, enjoying the soft curves of her buttocks and thighs as they were revealed, by the shifting folds of her robe. “Don’t worry, Sariana. All it secretly wants to do is curl up in your palm and warm itself against your skin.”
    “I hope you know what I’m doing.” She wriggled a little farther under the bed.
    Gryph fought the almost overpowering urge to shape his hand to the lush curve of her hips. “Just trust me, Sariana. It doesn’t want to hurt you. It wants to be held and touched and petted by you. At this point it just isn’t quite certain how to approach you, that’s all. You need to show it that you want it.”
    “I hate to break this to her, Gryph,” her voice was muffled, “but I don’t particularly want a lizard for a pet. I just didn’t know how to tell Luri that.”
    “You can’t really know how you feel about it until you’ve held it close,” Gryph said softly, still studying the gentle mounds that were so close to his hand. “Don’t make snap judgments.”
    “It’s not a snap judgment. I’ve never been fond of lizards. I don’t know many people who are.”
    “The scarlet-toe seems strange and alien to you now. You’re wary of it because it’s unfamiliar to you . Just as I am.”
    Her wriggling body went still. Then Sariana said tartly, “I hadn’t thought of you and the scarlet-toe as having all that much in common.”
    “We’re both from the west,” Gryph noted in soft amusement.
    “And you both have teeth.”
    Gryph blinked, unsure how to interpret that. “Sariana…”
    “Ah! Got ‘em.” Her body snapped forward quickly and an instant later she was sliding back out from beneath the bed. She sat up, triumphantly holding her captive. “Here it is. Get the cage.”
    Gryph studied the careful way she was clasping the small red lizard. “It’s not necessary to keep a scarlet-toe in a cage. Not after it gets to know you.”
    “This one will very definitely stay in a cage.” Sariana stated firmly. “I’m not taking any chances with something that has as many teeth as this thing does.” She got to her feet and went quickly across the room to deposit the small lizard inside its gold filigree home. Then she latched the cage door shut. “There we are. Safe and sound. In the morning I’ll try to convince Luri that his gift would much rather be free to romp along the riverbank.”
    Gryph rose slowly, watching Sariana as she bent over the gold cage. “I don’t think it will want to be free in the morning, Sariana. I think the bonding has already started. Lucky won’t want to leave you.”
    “Nonsense. Any wild creature would rather be free.”
    “There are exceptions to every rule.”
    Sariana grinned as she turned around to confront him. “Not in the eastern provinces, there aren’t. We don’t bend the rules very much where I come from, let alone make exceptions.”
    “You’re not at home,” Gryph reminded her. He went slowly forward, approaching her as she had approached the scarlet-toe. “Things are different here.”
    She didn’t move, but some of her amusement faded. She seemed to realize finally that there was more going on in the room than the successful capture of a scarlet lizard. She searched his face, her eyes wide and questioning. “Gryph?”
    “Don’t be afraid of the differences between us.” He moved a little closer, pleased that she still wasn’t trying to dodge his slow,