A Knight to Desire (18 page)

She groaned and her hands coiled in his hair, urging him closer. His limbs were trembling and he knew they could not hold back the storm that surged through them both. Scooping her into his arms, he carried her to the bed and set her gently in the center. He pulled the bed curtains closed around them, creating a private chamber that was only theirs before he followed her down.

In the golden light seeping through the bedcurtains he looked down at the woman in his bed. Her red hair spilled across the pillow with the lure of a seductress. His gaze moved over her body, her rounded curves, her smooth flesh free of the battle scars that marred his own back and sides. He prayed he could keep her that way despite the coming conflicts. She need not suffer the way other warriors did.

As though sensing his hesitation, Brianna inched her fingers up his back, holding him to her. "Don't think, Simon. For once in your life, just feel what's inside you and give yourself over to it."

Her words were the salve he needed and he knew he had to be a part of her. Need threatened to overwhelm him with its fiery intensity as he tasted the honeyed sweetness of her mouth once more. No other woman had ever held this kind of power over him. Ever.

Her lips moved along his jawline, down his neck, across his collarbone. Her lips left fire against his flesh as they trailed along his chest and down across his abdomen. "I want to be one with you."

He gazed into her eyes and could see no fear, no regret, only desire. Fire seared through him, and the muscles of his stomach clenched. He could have her. She wanted him. This was right, the two of them together. Here and now, as they both lived for the moment.

Her hands were trembling, Brianna realized.

She had known this moment would come since she'd dumped hot stew in Simon lap when he'd erupted back into her life. That's how it had always been between them. They were like fire and ice. But there was no ice in his eyes right now. Nay, his expression had become blindly sensual and his eyes filled with silken fire, and she wanted to be devoured by the heat.

His hands moved over her breasts, her abdomen, and lower to tease the soft curls at the apex of her womanhood. Indescribable sensations shot through her. His fingers slid lower, deeper, until two fingers gently entered her core and began a rhythmic stroking. She cried out as the hot throbbing inside her built almost to the point of pain, yet it wasn't. Only an odd emptiness remained as he pulled his fingers away to shift over her. He cupped her buttocks and lifted her gently. "Wrap your legs around me." His tone was guttural.

"Why—"

He plunged inside. 

She gave a low cry and clutched him with her thighs and hands as his big palms held her, sealed her to him. She felt stretched at first, then the tension eased, to be replaced with only a desperate hunger.

He slid out and back into her with slow, deliberate thrusts that grew harder, deeper, as flesh met flesh. She tried to choke back the unbidden cries of pleasure each measured thrust produced, but it was impossible. Instead of fighting Simon as she always did, she joined him. Arched up again and again, meeting each plunge of his hips with an eagerness that took her breath away.

A groan lifted him up on his arms. She gazed at Simon, as raw and unfettered as he had ever been in her presence before. She knew in that moment she had never seen anything so beautiful as the gleaming, sculpted perfection of his body. Her gaze lowered to where her hands grasped his hips, how she coaxed him closer and closer with each bold thrust.

The sight of him, the feel of him, even the musky scent of their joining sent a flood of pleasure through her. She cried out as she neared the edge of some incredible precipice. She twined her legs more tightly around him, fusing their bodies together as she rushed headlong over the brink of erupting passion.

His cry of release joined hers, mixed, and melded in the hazy golden darkness as he gave to her again and again until the two of them were shaking with the force of the ecstasy that rippled through each nerve, vessel, and fiber of their being. He shifted beside her, and they lay there panting as incredible spasms continued to wrack her body. The intense need from moments before was gone, replaced by a warm and soothing sense of peace. Her arms tightened around his shoulders.

His breath was as labored as her own. He lifted his head and looked down at her. A lock of dark hair fell over his forehead and she reached up to smooth it back. "That wasn't supposed to happen."

"But it did." And she liked it very much. She would not mind sparring with Simon at all if every argument could end this way. Yet she knew that was impossible. As soon as they left the peacefulness of Lee Castle, they would be in the presence of others, always, as they searched for the meaning behind her vivid dreams.

"This was a stolen moment, wasn't it?" she asked as her breathing settled into a more normal cadence.

He nodded and bent to kiss her lips once more before he turned away and grasped the bedlinens, tucking them around her. "We must follow where your visions lead."

"About that." She lifted up on her elbow to look at him. "I've been thinking."

He chuckled. "You've been thinking during all this? Perhaps I need to see if I can distract you more? I suddenly have the urge to see if I cannot wipe all thought from that active brain of yours." He leaned down and ran his tongue over her nipple.

Heat stung her cheeks as her body responded immediately. She felt herself readying, warming once more at the very thought of him hard and hot within her. She inched back and clamped her hands into fists so she wouldn't be tempted to touch him. "Let me say this first."

He smiled. "You like the idea then?" He reached for her and pulled her against him.

"Simon!"

"Talk quickly." He turned onto his back and lifted her on top of him, sliding inside her. His hips moved upward and she gasped at the fullness and the pleasure.

His face was flushed, his eyes glazing with an expression of primitive pleasure.

She couldn't talk, she couldn't think as he thrust deep, quickening the rhythm. This joining was incredible, basic, elemental. In only moments, wave after wave of pleasure washed over her.

An instant later she could feel Simon spasm again and again within her, shuddering helplessly as he poured his seed into her body.

She collapsed on top of him. His hips still moved yearningly, as if he couldn't stop even though he had reached his satisfaction again. A moment later he lay still, breathing heavily, his hot flesh nestled against her own.

Sweet heavens, the passion between them was nothing she'd ever imagined and better than her innocent hopes. They loved as hard as they fought. The thought brought a smile to her lips.

"You're thinking again," he said, his voice still uneven. His breathing gradually steadied and slowed.

She pulled back to look at him. "We need to go after de la Roche and the Grail first. The inn I saw in my vision is farther away than the isle, but if we attack the Frenchman there, we can accomplish many things. The Grail might be used to release your sister from the grips of this poison, and we might put an end to de la Roche's terror before he can torture that poor Templar any more and…" She couldn't say the rest. The image of Simon losing his head was still too fresh in her mind.

She rolled off of him and sat up. "I will never let that happen to you. I lost my brothers because of one of my visions. I refuse to allow that to happen again." Emotion clogged her throat.

Simon sat up, facing her. "Brianna, your dreams did not bring about their deaths in any way."

She shook her head. "I saw what would be. I could have stopped it."

His features lost their softness. "You were not to blame. I ordered you away."

"I should have ignored you," she whispered.

"I did not give you the chance. I wasn't about to let you die alongside your brothers."

She nodded. "It took me a long time to forgive you for that. But this time the situation is different. It's one mad man against us, not thousands."

He reached out to gather into his arms until she melted against his bare chest. "The reason I involved you and your dreams in this madness is so that we are forewarned. Because of you, we know how and from whom de la Roche received his information about the Templars. We know where we might be able to intercept the man, and if it comes to a battle to the death, I will be prepared."

She pulled back to look into his face. "We will be prepared. I will be beside you. You promised me." He wouldn't go back on his word when the moment arrived, would he?

"That I did." His quiet voice had a steely undercurrent. "I don't want to endanger—"

"Not this time." Her heart skipped a beat and her muscles tensed as anger swept through her. She scooted off the bed. "I'm not going anywhere, Simon Lockhart. You swear by all that's holy that you will uphold your end of our bargain."

Simon came off the bed and took an impulsive step toward her. "Brianna—"

"Nay." She took a hasty step back. "I want no other words from you but your promise never to send me away again."

"There is nothing I can do or say to change your mind?"

"Nothing."

His lips set in a grim line. "Then you have my oath that we battle together until the very end."

"I feel my place is here, with Bella. Can you forgive me for that?" Abigail asked as she clasped Brianna's hand. In the courtyard around them, the men readied the horses for their departure from Lee Castle.

"There is no need to apologize. You are doing the right thing. Bella needs you."

"Then why do I feel so guilty about abandoning you?" Abigail said haltingly, her gaze on Briana's face.

Brianna squeezed Abigail's hand and released it. "With her mother gone, you are all she has."

"But our adventure?" Abigail's gaze wandered to the horses.

In all the years she'd known Abigail, first as her nurse, then as her friend, she never would have guessed that the woman yearned anything other than the lot
t
his life had given her. Brianna smiled. "This is just one of many that lay ahead for us all. There will be many others."

A faint smile touched Abigail's lips. "You promise?"

"I promise. When this adventure is through, Simon and I will take you anywhere you wish."

Abigail's eyes misted and a single tear ran down her cheek. "I will hold you to that promise, and now I demand something of you."

"Anything."

"Do not fall beneath that evil man's sword."

"Not if I can help it."

A second tear joined the first on Abigail's cheek. "Promise me."

Brianna knew she could not guarantee her return. She'd seen too many battles, watched too many men fall to make that hollow promise. But she knew what Abigail needed to hear. "I promise to do everything in my power to return here and to spend the rest of our days living out one adventure after another."

Abigail drew Brianna into a quick embrace before stepping away. When she pulled back, her eyes were filled with both sadness and hope. "Then I await your return."

Chapter Thirteen

The warrior woman would have to die.

Pierre de la Roche set down the tin cup that was the Grail on the table before him. With his hands free, he lifted from beneath his brown monk's robe the small pouch he wore extended from a long length of string about his neck. He opened the silken pouch and withdrew the thick lock of fiery red hair he kept there.