Hunters of Dune - Brian Herbert [200]
When he looked over at her, Duncan saw that Sheeana wore a strange, determined expression. “I can help you break those chains, Duncan. Will you trust me?”
“Trust you? An unusual thing for you to ask.”
Without answering, she turned and left the navigation bridge. Duncan could only wonder what she had in mind.
INSTANTLY ALERT, HE awoke in the darkness of his quarters. He heard the familiar faint tones of the no-ship’s security door code activating in his chamber. No one knew that code but him! It was sealed within the memory banks of the vessel.
Duncan slid off the bed, moving like quicksilver, his senses on guard, his eyes absorbing details. Light spilled through the doorway from the corridor, outlining a figure there . . . female.
“I have come for you, Duncan.” Sheeana’s voice was soft and husky.
He took a step back. “Why are you here?”
“You know why, and you know I must.”
She sealed the door behind her. The glowtabs in the room increased the illumination to just above the darkness threshold. Duncan saw tantalizing shadows, and her silhouette bathed in a soft orange glow. Sheeana wore next to nothing, a wispy gown that swirled around her like windblown spice silk revealing her entire figure.
His Mentat machinery whirled and suggested the obvious answer. “I did not ask—”
“Yes, you did!” Using Voice on me? “This was your demand of me, and it is your obligation. You know we were meant for each other. It is there inside you, down to your very chromosomes.” She let the filmy garment fall, and stood before him, her body all curves and shadows with the highlights of her breasts and the honey-warmth of her skin enhanced by the faint illumination.
“I refuse.” He stood straight and ready to fight. “Your imprinting will not work on me. I know the tools and techniques as well as you do.”
“Yes, that is why we can use our mutual knowledge to break this hold Murbella has on you, shattering it once and for all.”
“And make me just as addicted to you? I will fight it.”
Her teeth shone in the shadows. “And I will fight back. In some species, that’s an important part of the mating dance.”
Duncan resisted, afraid to face his own weakness. “I can do this myself. I don’t need—”
“Yes, you do. For the sake of us all.”
She came forward with a languid yet unsettling speed. He reached out to stop her, and she grasped his hand, using it as an anchor to pull herself toward him. She made a humming noise deep in her throat, one of the priming tones that played on a subconscious mind, activating an atavistic nervous system.
Duncan felt himself responding, becoming aroused. It had been so long. . . . But he pushed her away. “The Tleilaxu wanted me to do this to you. They designed it in me so that I could destroy you. It’s too dangerous.”
“You were meant to destroy an untrained waif from Rakis, one who had no defenses against you. And you were meant to topple a Bene Gesserit Breeding Mistress, far less experienced than I am. Now, if anyone in the universe can stand up against the great Duncan Idaho, it is me.”
“You have the vanity of an Honored Matre.”
As if lashing out in anger, Sheeana grasped the back of his head, dug her fingers into the wiry black hair, and pulled his face to hers. She kissed him savagely, pressing her soft breasts against his bare chest. Her fingers touched nerve clusters in his neck and back, triggering programmed responses. Duncan froze for an instant, paralyzed. Her desperate, hungry kiss became more gentle. Helplessly, Duncan responded—perhaps more than Sheeana had bargained for.
He remembered how all this had been triggered in him the first time the Honored Matre Murbella had attempted to enslave him. He had turned the tables on her using his own sexual abilities. That noose had strangled him for so many years. He couldn’t let it happen again!
Sensing her danger now, Sheeana tried to push him away. Her hand struck his shoulder a sharp blow, but he caught it and knocked her backward. They both tumbled onto the already rumpled sheets of his bed, fighting, embracing. Their duel turned