Disclaimer: not mine.

A woman's power

He couldn't stop looking at her body. The way she walked; full hips swinging with ease and perfect confidence. She made him feel weak and unsure, and the woman knew it!

Well, he wouldn't fall for it. No. She was a filthy woman, a woman with no morals and principles, a woman who spoke of subjects meant to be ignored….a woman with long, thick, lustrous dark hair with purple highlights. A woman with lips so full and smooth, it felt painful to not kiss them. A woman with a chest that…

Relg shook himself sternly. What in UL's name was he doing? This was so wrong. An extra hour of penance for him.

…………………………………………………………………………...

Taiba frowned. What was wrong with that man? He kept glaring at her like there was something terribly deformed about her. Is there something wrong with how I look?

She didn't understand Relg. He was the quietest, hardly saying anything, except to request for water or when he wanted to make camp for the night so he could pray. He was a curious man.

She'd caught him looking at her strangely a few times, then as usual, fall on his knees in silence as he prayed. A half angry, guilty look crossed his face, and gradually faded as he found remorse in prayer.

"Polgara, might I ask you a question?" Taiba sat herself next to the sorceress, who was doing something she thought was absurdly ordinary for such a person with power.

Polgara pulled back the lock of white hair that flipped over her pale forehead. She rummaged through a pack for something, and pulled out a couple of carrots, and passed them to Taiba, along with a knife.

"Yes, dear. What is it? You dice those while we talk. Skin them first."

"It's about him," murmured Taiba, as she concentrated on the knife she wielded.

"Relg," said Polgara, reading her mind. "What about him?"

"Why does he hate me so? It's like he thinks I shouldn't be here at all, the way he looks at me with such…disgust. It makes me feel … feel low." Taiba finished dicing the first carrot and almost resentfully flung the carrot cubes in the pot of steaming stew.

Polgara looked up, a hidden look of knowing on her beautiful face.

"There's absolutely nothing wrong with the way you are. It's a problem he's having trouble dealing with. It will pass in time." She gave Taiba a reassuring smile.

"It's not about my clothes, then?"

Polgara passed a speculative eye at the traveling cloak that barely concealed Taiba's ample curves and lush skin.

"No. Not at all."

"If you say so," said Taiba, feeling better at the comfort exuded by the woman's presence.

……………………………………………………………………..

There! He did it again. I caught him looking at me.

Taiba was very confused now. She knew that look well. Lust.

But from a man who claimed to be holy, and spent so many hours in concentrated prayer to his God? That wasn't possible.

Out of the corner of her eye, she saw him almost guiltily surveying the back of her body in wishful longing. He didn't know it, but he was sinning.

Taiba smiled slyly. So he wasn't invulnerable to her beauty. Taiba looked like a goddess and she knew it, but she wasn't wont to show it off. Yet she felt a certain power of this man as with all the other men she had before encountered. But this one was different. She enjoyed feeling this particular feeling.

She swung around, and Relg hastily pretended to be doing something else. She sat herself down and, picking up needle and thread, pretended to be mending the edge of her travel cloak which she slowly pulled off herself.

The clothes in which she had been rescued in were hardly fit to be called clothes, so Polgara had lent her some. Of course, the seams had to be taken out and pulled in a little at places because Taiba was so curvy the clothes fit at all the wrong spots.

She carefully observed the self claimed religious fanatic as he tended to his horse in silence. He was built rather nicely, she conceded. Muscularly built with strong arms. A face which could not be called handsome, but rather attractive in a sort of raw, blunt way.

He would do.

……………………………………………………………………………..

"Polgara! Belgarion!"

The harried shouts brought Silk running.

"What?" He'd drawn his two daggers and held them in both hands, his legs bent in a stance ready to fight.

"This creature is harassing me!" Relg was trying to get Taiba to stay away, and he was circling her warily.

Silk snorted. "Creature?"

Taiba's voice came, sounding offended. "I think he means me."

Silk scoffed. "That's all? I'd pay for her to harass me." He sheathed his daggers, one in his right boot and the other by his waist.

"Get her off me. I demand that Lady Polgara come and put her somewhere away."

Silk smirked in the darkness. "Pol's asleep. So's the rest of them. You might want to consider not pulling her up in the middle of the night. She tends to be a bit on the grumpy side."

He disappeared. The moon was half hiding behind the clouds in a slow game of hide and seek, thus dulling the sense of sight and sharpening the sense of hearing.

"Kheldar? Where are you going?" Relg couldn't keep the alarm out of his voice. He didn't want to be left here to succumb to temptation. But Silk was already gone.

He heard a throaty laugh not far behind him. He shivered. Why can't she leave me in peace?

"I know why you look at me like that."

He spun around. The voice wasn't behind him anymore; somewhere to his left.

"I don't look at you. You are not worthy to look upon." He couldn't keep the slight hint of panic on his voice.

"Don't give me that. I've seen that look too many times not to be able to notice it." Her voice was low and seductive. Relg could feel his knees start to give way. She'd noticed all the times he'd secretly been admiring her, even though he'd been so careful to let his eyes not stray.

All of a sudden he could hear her breathing before him. Though she appeared to be tall and regal, he was still half a head above her. He could almost feel her presence there.

"Don't!" In his worry, he backed suddenly in to the trunk of a tree he hadn't known was there.

She was suddenly up against him, and he could feel her soft body in contrast to his solid stockiness. He was paralyzed. He should push her away. Slap her. Anything. But he couldn't move.

"It's alright." And her slim, warm hand crept up to the back of his neck and pulled his head down to meet her lips in a kiss. It was warm and full of promise. Slow and easy.

Relg was stunned. Stunned in to submission. He moaned quietly, standing still as she offered herself to him in a single kiss.

It wouldn't hurt to…to just respond. He moved a little, his left arm unconsciously moving around her slender waist. He couldn't help it. It felt good. He kissed her back.

What in UL's name am I doing?

I'm sinning.

I'm falling.

I'm depraved.

And I'm loving it.

Please please pleasssse review. I never get anys.