Two Knights of Indulgence (10 page)

Seven hundred years later and he was still a
hothead.
 
He wore his emotions on his
sleeve instead of being the calm, collected man Matthias was.
 
If he couldn’t control himself around her,
he’d push her away.
 

Hell, she only had eyes for Matthias, so was there any
point in worrying about pushing her away?
 
And considering their life of constant battle, it wasn’t even a
possibility she could become a part of their world.
 
His attraction to her had to be forgotten.

Another thirty minutes passed, and his arms began to
feel like rubber.
 
Firewood was stacked
high.
 
They’d stay warm for a while.
 
One last round lay in the rubble, and he
lifted it to the block before wiping sweat from his brow.
 
He dropped the axe into the wood, and the
splinters flew, driving a large shard into his leg.
 
He bellowed a curse and yanked the wood
out.
 
Blood flowed freely, as he must
have cut into a vein.
 
Wrenching off his
shirt, he wrapped it around the cut to prevent it from littering the floor once
he went in.
 
He then hobbled back to the
house to clean it up.

He rushed in and quickly moved to the bathroom,
propping himself on the edge of the bath.
 
Nicolas kicked off his shoe and pulled off his sock before dropping his
foot in the tub.
 
He turned on the warm
water and cleaned the mess.

“What happened?”

Nicolas turned to see Britt hovering over his shoulder
and looking at his wound.
 
“A wood
splinter pierced my leg.”

“Let me look at it.”

“It’s nothing.
 
It’ll heal in no time.
 
I just
need to wash it.”
 
If she touched him, he
would forget that he was supposed to be forgetting his attraction.

“I’m a nurse.
 
Let me look at it.”

He wanted her touch so desperately, but something
inside him wanted to push her away.
 
Confusion warred in his mind. “I don’t need medical attention.
 
It’ll heal.”

“Let me see.”

He shook his head, wanting to stay clear of the woman
as much as possible until he’d sorted out his feelings.
 
His control was only now leashed because of
his pure exhaustion, but if she touched him, he would demand more.
 
He knew it.
 
She settled onto the edge beside him and pulled up his pants leg.
 
As soon as her fingers brushed him, he felt
the energy swamp him.
 
Lust sliced into
the core of him, and he felt his cock thicken and lengthen.
 
He wanted more.
 

She was a drug.

Britt leaned down to get a closer look, dragging the
edges of his too big sweater up her arms.
 
“The skin is knitting together.”

The incredulity in her tone made him chuckle.
 
She was seeing the truth firsthand.
 
Now, perhaps she would believe his story.

She lifted and looked at him, her eyes large and
round.

“Do you believe me now?”

Britt looked back to his rebuilding wound.
 
“I saw your skin healing some in the
emergency room, but it was much slower.
 
 
I’ve never seen anything like it.”

“I’ve never seen anything like you.”

She turned at his soft tone.
 
Her gaze met his, and he felt the building
storm within.
 
“The two of you overwhelm
me.
 
It’s unfair to gang up on me like
this.
 
Is this how you subdue your women?
 
You take turns in seducing her?”

“Our women?
 
Matthias hasn’t had a woman
in over a decade, if not longer.”

“Oh.”
 
Her face
reddened.
 
“But you haven’t been so controlled?”

“I wouldn’t say I’m not controlled, but a man can only
wait so long.”

“Patience is a virtue.”

“Are we going to start trading maxims?
 
Good things come to those who wait; patience
wins the race and all that?”

“
Patience will
achieve more than force.”

“Ah, so you’ve read Edmund Burke’s stodgy retelling of
the French Revolution, hmm?
 
I was there
for the French Revolution, and it was much more interesting a tale than he
published, believe me.
 
I prefer John
Dryden.
 
Beware the fury of a patient man
.”

“Should I be wary of you?”

Yes!
 
“No.”
 
He moved closer and pressed his lips to hers
before she could refuse him.
 
She
stiffened a moment, and he thought he was lost.
 
He surged forward, drawing her closer.
 
He swallowed her moan as she softened in his embrace.
 
Slowly, she moved her arms around his neck,
pulling him closer to her.
 
She responded
to his kisses, giving back as equally as he was giving.
 
After a few moments, she froze and began
pushing him away.

A door banged shut, breaking the spell over him.
 
Matthias had picked the exact wrong moment to
come back.
 
Inwardly, Nicolas cursed him.
 
He clasped his jaw as he pulled away
from Britt and stood.

“At least Matthias tells me the truth.
 
He told me I needed to be careful of
him.”
 
Britt rose from the tub and began
to walk away.

Anger whipped through him, and he caught her
wrist.
 
“What does that mean?”

She tugged out of his hold and stared him down.
 
“It means you’re the more dangerous of the
two.
 
I sense the darkness inside
you.
 
Can’t you see it?”

“All men have a dark side.”

She trembled as she looked at him.
 
He reached out and tucked the loose sprig of
hair behind her ear once more, and she reacted in the same way, shivering at
his touch.
 
Her eyes grew wide as she
twisted on her heel and sped from the room.
 
Nicolas followed her out, and the pair encountered Matthias standing in
the kitchen, a slab of cleaned fresh meat on the counter.
 
His all-knowing stare followed them as they
approached.
 
His head dipped as he noted
Nicolas’ leg.
 
“What happened?”

“A stray piece of firewood.
 
I just went to clean it up.”

Matthias looked from one of them to the other, his
emotions giving away nothing.
 
Nicolas
felt on edge, sure his friend knew he’d interrupted something between Nicolas
and her.
 

“Venison?”
 
Nicolas looked over the
large shank of meat.

“Moose.
 
I didn’t find any deer.”

“Have you butchered the whole animal?”

“No, it’s dressed and skinned.
 
I only took this piece.
 
You can help me finish it tomorrow.”
 
Nicolas noted it wasn’t a request.
 
Matthias had always been the one to give
direction, and he’d almost always followed.
 
A few times he’d put his two cents in and they’d gone nose to nose.
 
Nicolas knew a battle was before them, it was
all a matter of time.

“Sure.
 
Let me
get out of these bloody clothes.”

Nicolas needed to gather his thoughts, and he needed
to be away from the both of them.
 
His
head was a swirl of thoughts and emotions, and he felt himself coming
unglued.
 
And it appeared to be all her
damned fault.
 
Women knew how to twist a
man into a pretzel, and Britt seemed to be an expert at it.

****

“Do you want him?”

The question was so blunt Britt didn’t know how to
answer it.
 
Matthias didn’t look at her;
he stared at the large piece of meat on the counter as he sliced it expertly
into thick steaks.
 
She watched him move
gracefully around the kitchen as she settled into one of the stools at the bar
across from him.
 
“I don’t know what I
want right now, besides to go home and back to my life.”

“Is that really what you want?”

“Yes.”
 
As soon
as the words were out of her mouth, she knew them to be the lie they were.
 
There was some kind of connection she felt
with these two men and to sever that tie and walk away was unthinkable.
 
It was as if she
were
on vacation up here, and she already felt refreshed.
 
The stresses of her everyday life made her
nearly insane, but was she only trading one stress for another?
 
Being around these two was almost as hectic,
and fending off the strong emotions they threw her way was going to take a lot
of energy.

“We shouldn’t need to be here more than a couple of
weeks to throw them off your scent.
 
Then
you should be able to go back to your life.”
 

There seemed to be an unsaid “if you want” on the end
of that sentence.
 
It hung heavily in the
air.
 
“Two weeks?”
 
She hadn’t expected to stay away quite so
long.

“Give or take.”
 
Matthias threw three of the steaks on the indoor grill on the
stovetop.
 
The lean meat sizzled as it
hit the surface, and the smell was wonderful.
 
“How do you like your steak?”

“Still moving.”

“Bloody, hmm?”
 
Matthias smiled.
 
“One would think
you saw enough blood on the job.”

“One would think.”

“Speaking of blood, how bad was Nicolas’ injury?”

Nice segue,
dude.
 
She
chuckled inwardly as Matthias turned his back on her, as if trying to hide his
interest.
 
A frisson of electricity amped
up in the kitchen, and she knew it came from his direction.
 
He wanted to know what had happened between
her and Nicolas while he was gone.
 
Jealousy wasn’t a good emotion; she’d seen what it could do firsthand in
the ER.
 
Men fought over women, women
fought over men, and the sum of that explosion could be devastating.
 
Yet she still couldn’t fight the tiny pinch
of pride that he felt envious.

“He rushed in very bloody, but I watched the skin knit
back together before my eyes.
 
He was
fine within a few minutes.”

“So you believe us now?”

Did she?
 
She
was leaning toward yes, but trust wasn’t something to be handed over on a
whim.
 
“I think I need to see more before
I make a decision.”

Matthias smiled slowly.
 
“Of course.”

He turned the steaks over then moved them to a frying
pan.
 
Opening a bottle of wine, he poured
some into a glass for her before pouring the rest over the meat.
 
“Wild game tends to get very dry.
 
We need to keep it moist.”

She lifted her glass to her mouth and took a sip of
the heady wine.
 
A rich, deep red, it was
deliciously earthy.
 
Britt watched as
Matthias danced around the kitchen.
 
He
threw in some sliced mushrooms and shallots after turning the steaks over once
more.
 
She was enamored with his kitchen
expertise, as she had none.
 
Long hours
weren’t conducive to cooking at home often.
 
Take out was her best friend.
 
Matthias handed her a handful of silverware and napkins and pointed to
the table.

In a flash, a set of baked potatoes materialized from
the oven, and the food was moved to the large scarred wood surface.
 
He brought out three plates, all loaded with
a huge steak covered in mushrooms and a creamy wine sauce, a loaded baked
potato, and a pile of tender asparagus he’d pulled from the stove.
 
Matthias opened another bottle of wine as
Nicolas returned to the living space, clean and changed.

Tension filled the air.
 
It hadn’t been there prior to Nicolas
returning. The men eyed one another, but nothing was said as they sat down to
eat in silence.
 
Her stomach gurgled in
hunger, and both sets of eyes turned to her.
 
Heat flooded her face as she shrugged her shoulders in
embarrassment.
 
Britt cut into her meat
and brought the first bite to her mouth.
 
It melted over her tongue, and she released a moan of delight.