“We should go back to the castle. Others will be looking for us.” She glanced around the dark clearing, trying to figure out which way to go.
“Beth, listen to me.” He grabbed her shoulders and shook her lightly. “There’s no way we can make it back there in this storm without the horses. Our best bet is to wait it out in that cottage.” She raised her eyes to his. “Don’t you trust me, even a little?”
“Aye, I trust you, Christian. But-”
“No buts. The cottage is closer. There’s a fireplace, we can dry off.”
This time when he took her hand, she let him lead her through the clearing. He paused to inspect the trees surrounding what looked to be an overgrown path. Lance brushed his fingers over the bark of one, moving a vine aside. Lightning crossed the sky, illuminating a symbol carved in the wood. A smile formed on his lips.
“It’s this way.”
“Are you sure?”
“Yeah. My father carved this when I was five. It was the first time he took me hunting. He told me if I was ever lost to look for his mark and it would lead me to shelter.” His fingers traced the weathered carving. “Come on, this way.”
He led her through the overgrown brush using his sword to cut branches, clearing a path for her. Every so often he would pause to inspect the trees, searching for Lancelot’s mark. After what seemed like hours wandering around in the rain, the trees thinned out and the dark shape of a small cottage loomed before them.
Lance tried the handle and the door creaked open. The musty smell of age drifted out to meet them. He went in first, rummaging around for something to light the space. Elizabeth followed, removing her cloak as she stepped over the threshold. She laid the dripping cloth over the back of a simple wooden bench. Water pooled on the earth floor, leaving a muddy puddle under it.
He found a few candles and lit them while Elizabeth drifted around the one room cottage. One by one the candles came to life, their flames revealing his long-forgotten childhood to her. A child-size bow and quiver sat against the wall next to a small chest overflowing with carved animals. In the center of the room was a weathered table surrounded by three stools, one a little taller than the others. A smile flirted with her lips in the candle light. Her hand drifted across the tall stool’s surface.
Across the room, a wall of threadbare fabric had been hung to create a partition. Lance watched her approach it while he built the fire. She moved the cloth aside to reveal two beds, one child size. Lance could only wonder at what she thought. No one knew about this place except his family. By the looks of it, no one had been there in years, maybe not since he left. Even through the dust and time nothing had changed.
Elizabeth let the fabric fall and moved closer to the fire which finally roared to life. She shivered, rubbing her arms to get warm. Lance adjusted the logs in the fireplace with the tip of his sword. She sat next to him on the hearth.
“How long do you think we will be here?” She held her hands over the flames to warm them.
Lance noted the blue tinge of her fingers and took her hands in his. He rubbed them briskly, trying to get her circulation moving again. “I’m not sure. But the first thing we have to do is get you warmed up.”
“You already made a fire. Wha-- what else can we do?”
Lance took a deep breath. “We have to get out of these wet clothes.”
Her eyes widened in shock. She pulled her hands away from his. “I will not.” Elizabeth shot to her feet. She stumbled over the wet hem of her gown, into the table.
“Beth,” Lance rose and followed her. “If you don’t get out of those, you’ll catch pneumonia. I’m sure people here die from it. The only way to warm up quickly is without these clothes.”
She wrapped her arms around her waist, teeth chattering and shaking her head. “Nay”
“You said you trusted me.” He walked past her, pulling the fabric wall aside and picking up a blanket. “You can change behind the curtain and I’ll stay out here.”
“You will stay there?” She pointed at the other side of the table.
He held his hand up. “You have my word. I’m going to change and wrap myself in this blanket. I will not cross the curtain unless you say to.”
Elizabeth brushed past him. Before she could speak, he let the curtain fall, cutting off any protest she may have had. She stood frozen in the same spot, listening to Lance and watching his shadow move across the sheet. She touched it with her fingertips.
‘Tis not that I do not trust you, dear Christian. ‘Tis myself I do not trust around you.
“Did you say something?” His shadow stopped moving.
“Nay, I was mumbling about being stuck in this gown. ‘Tis fine now,” she lied.
Lance resumed taking off his tunic. His pants and wool socks followed. Elizabeth sucked in a sharp breath when he wrapped a blanket around his waist. She watched as he draped his wet clothing over furniture and walked toward the fireplace.
Lance’s shadow paused. “Do you need any help over there?”
“Nay, I am almost done.” She spun away from the sheet.
Elizabeth quickly shed her clothing and wrapped the blanket around her. She gathered her gown and underthings in her hand and slipped out from behind the curtain. Lance looked up from the fire. Her throat went dry when their eyes met. The heat in his gaze left her breathless. Even though she was covered from neck to knee, she felt naked and exposed.
“Where shall I put these?” She held out her clothes to him. Their fingers brushed when he reached for them, leaving her hand tingling.
“I’ll lay them out so they dry faster.” He spread everything out on the table. “Do you feel warmer?”
“A little.”
She tried to maneuver the blanket so she could warm her hands by the fire and failed miserably.
Lance took her free hand in his and frowned. He then cupped her cheek with his other one. “You’re freezing.”
“Nay, I am not. I need to sit before the fire for a while.” Her teeth chattered uncontrollably.
“Never try to bullshit a bullshit artist, cher. Come here.” He led her away from the fire to the bed. Sitting on the edge, he pulled her down next to him. “We have to warm you up. The only way to effectively do that is skin on skin.”
Elizabeth scooted to the other edge. “Nay. I am a betrothed woman.”
“Beth, your betrothal has nothing to do with this. If you don’t warm up, marriage is the last thing you will have to worry about.”
“But what you propose is . . . sinful.”
“Fine. It’s sinful, but if it keeps you from getting sick and dying on me then I am willing to suffer the consequences.” He lay back on the bed, patting the spot next tohim.
Eighteen
Elizabeth pulled the blanket a little tighter around her, watching him in horror. What he wanted her to do would ruin her and ruin the contract between Camelot and Lord Rimmon. She could not, would not put a whole kingdom in jeopardy because she might freeze to death.
Then again, the bed was soft. To lie down for a moment or two would not do any harm.
She slid closer to him on the bed and lay down, blanket still wrapped tightly around her. She closed her eyes and prayed for sleep. The bed shifted. Lance brushed the hair from her cheek. Elizabeth opened her eyes and found him staring at her.
“What? I did as you asked.”
He shrugged. “You did.”
Lance tugged on the corner of the blanket and her cocoon loosened. She tried to recover it and he caught her hand in his. He tugged her hand, forcing her to roll and face him.
“I cannot do this,” she whispered. Her lips quivered.
“We aren’t doing anything wrong. I’m only going to hold you.” He wrapped his arm around her and pulled her close.
Elizabeth’s right cheek rested on his bare chest as his hand rubbed her arm. Heat from his skin radiated through the side of her head. A sigh escaped her. Lance’s caress slowed and became more gentle.
“Feeling
better?” His fingertips continued the slow trail across the nape of her neck and down her exposed arm, repeating the trail in the opposite direction.
It was truly hypnotic.
She tilted her chin up to meet his hazel gaze. “Aye, much better.” Their faces where so close she could feel his breath flutter across her cheek. She bit her bottom lip. “Mayhap we should check our clothes.”
He rubbed her nose lightly with his. “I think they will be fine.”
“Mayhap,” she whispered. “The fire needs more wood.”
Lance chuckled deep in his chest. “I can assure you, cher, the fire doesn’t need any more.”
Elizabeth lay her head back down on his chest. Listening to his heartbeat she relaxed a bit more. Her grip loosened, allowing her hand to escape the confines of the blanket. Reveling in the warmth of his skin against her cheek, she splayed her hand across his abdomen.
Lance inhaled sharply.
“Have I pained you?” She tried to sit up, but his palm was firm on her shoulder.
“I didn’t expect that.”
Elizabeth started to move her hand. Lance covered it with his. “No, leave it. It’s fine there.”
“You are sure?”
“Positive.”
They lay in comfortable silence as if they had been here a thousand times before. His fingers moved across her skin, leaving blessed trails of heat in their wake. Her eyes drifted closed. The steady thrum of his heart lulled her to embrace sleep’s dark oblivion.
“Christian?”
“Mhm.”
“May I ask you something?”
“You can ask me anything. I have nothing to hide from you.”
“Truly?” She shifted her head to rest her chin on his chest so she could watch him.
“Cher, I wouldn’t have said it if I didn’t mean it. Ask away.”
“Where have you been all this time?”
Lance stared at the beams above them contemplating the best way to explain something that was unexplainable. His gaze drifted down to meet hers. “It’s complicated. I don’t know where to start.”
“Try at the beginning.” Elizabeth smiled up at him.
He expelled a breath. “The beginning . . . This story goes back to before my father came to Camelot and long before he became the knight who could not be defeated by mortal men. It all started when the Lady of the Lake, better known as Lady Semiramis, took him from my grandmother Queen Helen on the day King Ban died. She orchestrated this whole thing, right up to me rescuing you in the woods. From there everything that has happened was fate.”
“I know Sir Lancelot’s legend. How does that involve you?”
“It involves me because I was a bargaining tool. My mother was not always what she seems. She’s from the future, a shifter who can take the form of a wolf. One of her abilities was that she could travel to other time periods. On one of her travels she came to Camelot and that’s when she met my father. Legend has altered their story. Suffice it to say, they fell in love, married and had me. When I turned six years old Sam came to my parents. You see, my mother was only in Camelot on borrowed time. Eventually she would have to leave, but I couldn’t go with her. Sam presented them with an offer they could not refuse. She would strip my mother of her magical abilities if they gave me to her to foster. They agreed.”
“They sent you away so that they could remain together? How could they?”
“They had no choice. I was showing signs that my ability to shift into a wolf pup was getting stronger. It was only a matter of time before it happened out in the open. They couldn’t risk that and my mother wouldn’t leave my father. It would have killed her. So my mother brought me to Semiramis in a place called New Orleans, Louisiana almost fifteen hundred years in the future.”
Elizabeth’s breath caught in her throat. “’Tis not possible.”
“Yes Beth, it is.” His thumb caressed her cheek. “Sam’s reason for making the deal was the same as the one she had when she took Lancelot -to serve and protect a future King. Only in my case, it turned out the Prince was her only son. A son she gave up at birth to hide him from a King who wanted his kind dead. She hid him in plain sight, the perfect plan. I’m still a little awed by it.”
“You were no more than a child. How could you protect him?”
Lance chuckled. “I was raised by Sam while Jared was raised right under the King’s nose as the son of his closest human contact.”
She placed a finger on his lips to silence him. “Human contact? Are you telling me there are other enchanted beings in the future?”
Lance captured her hand in his and kissing her fingertips. “Honey, you have no idea. But in answer to your question, yes. Magical beings live and work alongside humans every day in my world.” His thumb traced little circles on the inside of her wrist. “But Jared and I were separated for a while, giving me the opportunity to train and hone my powers. Apparently I didn’t do a good enough job, which is why I was sent here. Not that I’m complaining. I wouldn’t have met you otherwise.” He grinned. “You know the story from there.
“Aye, that is much to take in.”
“Yes it is.”
Elizabeth shifted off him and lay on her side head resting on the pillow. Lance rolled to his side, facing her. A sad look fell across her face. Tears glistened in her eyes.
“Oh, Christian, how could they do this? You were denied your family, your life. ‘Tis unfair.”
He cupped her face, brushing away a single tear that rolled down her cheek. “I made peace with it. Everything happens for a reason. Had I remained here and my mother left, I would not have a brother and most importantly, I would not have met you. Even though you drive me to the brink of insanity, I wouldn’t give that up for anything in the world.”
“Neither would I.” She pressed her lips lightly to his.
The wolf growled deep inside Lance’s chest. His hand slipped from her cheek, fingers combing through her hair to cup the back of her head. Elizabeth gasped, looking into his hazel eyes that glowed in the darkness. They held her transfixed, unable to form even one intelligible thought. But who could think when he looked at her as if she was his last meal.
“Christian, I--”
Anything she was about to say was lost as his mouth devoured hers. His tongue plundered and danced with hers. All her senses flared to life. His earthy musk and sandalwood scent encompassed them both, making her lightheaded.
Letting go of the blanket, Elizabeth wrapped her arms around his neck. Her fingers laced themselves in his hair of their own volition. She felt the blanket slip, but didn’t care. All she craved was his touch and the fire it created deep within her.
Lance rolled on top of her, pressing her gently into the bedding. His hand slipped from her hair, trailing down her neck. Her whimpered protest was replaced by a shocked gasp as he tugged the rough wool blanket from between them. The cool air nipped at her, sending gooseflesh across her body.
His body molded to hers, skin on skin. Elizabeth sighed against his lips. The delicious tendrils of warmth his touch had ignited, spread throughout her whole being. When his hand cupped her breast, she thought she would catch fire.
His mouth left hers and closed around the nipple he teased with his thumb. Lance’s teeth grazed the taut peak. She arched into him. Her moan encouraging him. His mouth and teeth teased her to the brink of something she couldn’t name. She teetered on the edge, until he pulled away. Elizabeth whimpered in protest. He trailed kisses up her neck, gently positioning himself between her legs. The length of his arousal nestled in the juncture of her thighs.
Lance braced his arms on either side of her head. Poised above her, their eyes met. His gaze mirrored the hunger she felt in her soul.
Sweet Lady of Avalon…
“If you want me to stop…”
Elizabeth framed his face with her hands, “Nay.”
She pulled him to her, capturing his mouth in a searing kiss. He groaned as Elizabeth lifted her hips. That slight movement
was all the encouragement he needed. Lance entered her slowly stopping when he reached the barrier proclaiming her innocence. Sweat beaded his brow. He could never hurt her, but she knew pain was inevitable.
Her hands gripped his shoulders nails digging into the skin leaving impressions of little red crescents. She bit her bottom lip and nodded. In one heartbeat he thrust deep within her. Elizabeth hissed at the pain. Lance went still. He paused, touching his forehead to hers. His breath fluttering across her face.
A sob escaped her lips.
“Are you okay?” His voice was strained as he fought to remain in control.
“Aye. ‘Tis not exactly what I expected.”
“I promise the pain goes away. Do you want me to stop?”
Elizabeth shook her head. “Nay, Christian. Please.” She kissed him lightly encouraging him to continue.
He began to move inside her, slow and steady. With each thrust he drove deeper, helping her ride a wave that would crash against a distant shore. His movements became more urgent as liquid fire leached out and filled her entire body. When she could take no more, pleasure so intense burst inside her. Light flashed behind her eyelids. Elizabeth cried out arching into him.
A low growl filled the room. Her eyes fluttered open. While the man poised above her still looked like Lance, his eyes gave off an eerie amber glow. As his mouth claimed hers something cut her lip. She turned her face away touching the spot with her fingers. They came away streaked with blood.
“Christian?”
Elizabeth lifted her gaze to meet his. When she saw fangs peeking out from under his lip she froze. Panic seized her. Heart racing, she struggled to push him away.
Lance trapped her hands with his, entwining their fingers. He felt the panic rising in her, but the basic instinct to claim his mate was too strong. Scaring her or forcing her to accept him was not what he wanted to do.
But it was what the wolf wanted.
His lips took hers, this time being careful not to cut open her lip again. He trailed kisses over her jaw and licked the delicate shell of her ear.
Beyond Time: A Dark Order of the Dragon Novel (The Dark Order of the Dragon Book 2) Page 14