Hidden Obsession

by Joanne Rock

  Oh.

  “That’s it.” He rotated the carved wood, allowing her to feel the bumps in the surface.

  Now that—that part was actually very nice.

  “Don’t forget who’s touching you, Linnet,” he growled softly in her ear, his voice a rugged rasp that made her realize how difficult it must be for him to furnish all the pleasure. “I’d give anything to be inside you right now, to take the place of this carving and bury myself deep.”

  She trembled in answer, knowing she would soon abandon all dignity to scream out loud with rapture at the wicked penetration. The crisis inside her quickly built to an undeniable peak.

  “I wish it could be you.” She hissed a breath through her teeth as he massaged the sweet spot between her thighs. “But you are right, the pleasure is not so bad with this and—oooh.”

  She flew apart in a million directions, clinging to him as he pushed the intimate weapon deeper, harder.

  When she recovered, she would return his generosity with her hand or her mouth. Whatever he wanted, she would gladly give. He’d taught her a trick she would never forget and by God, she would surely never be afraid of the Initiator again.

  If anything, she counted herself grateful to have brought it with her as she embarked on a new life. Her heart might be broken, or at the very least empty, but she would have a naughty little secret to remember Graham by, a decadent reminder of all they had shared.

  Head reeling from the furious beat of her pulse, Linnet slid off his lap and sank to her knees in front of him. She would never let it be said that she left Graham hurting, and judging by the look of his staff right now, he had to be experiencing some pain.

  Applying her tongue to the task, she vowed to replace it with pleasure.

  GRAHAM DOVE DEEP into the cold creek water the next morning, his bathing place well downstream from the scenic waterfall where he’d first touched Linnet.

  He wasn’t normally a sentimental guy, but today he found he didn’t want any more reminders of what he’d be leaving behind if—when, damn it—he found his way back to L.A.

  To the twenty-first century.

  Lathering up his face with the harsh bar that Linnet called soap, he applied her dagger to his cheek in a barbaric attempt to shave. Praying for a steady hand so he didn’t slit his throat by mistake, Graham acknowledged he didn’t have any clue how to replicate the unorthodox journey he’d made to Linnet’s world. How could he leave this medieval time and return to his own?

  Hurrying to finish his neck, he hastened his pace to make sure Linnet was safe. He’d made her bar the door, but the fortified holding was hardly impenetrable. He needed to be with her to protect her.

  They would be gone soon since he’d agreed to escort her to the next village before he departed to seek a way home. To seek another painting to fall into. Or hell, if need be, he’d try painting his own.

  Wading out of the water, he stubbed his toe on a metal object near the shore.

  “Damn.” He hopped on his good foot, his injured toe catching on still more metal and damn near tripping him.

  What the hell?

  He released his foot to reach down in the water and lift out the offending object.

  Linnet’s chastity belt.

  She’d flung the thing into the current after he’d freed the lock. It must have floated downstream to land here, perfectly positioned to break his neck. He was about to throw the malicious device deeper into woods so it would not prove such a menace, but before he could release it, a small white tag caught his eye.

  While much of the belt was made of metal, some thin, worn fabric still lined the inside of the ring where it would have rested on her hips. The little tag remained intact, however, and something about that crisp white fabric made him pause. Take a closer look.

  While one side of the tag was white and unmarked, the other contained letters. Words. Three of them, in fact.

  Bold block letters spelled out Made in Taiwan.

  No.

  His brain refused to compute.

  Medieval women didn’t wear garments with tags that said Made in Taiwan. Modern women did.

  Stepping on the belt might not have brought Graham down, but discovering that white tag damn well did. He sank to the warm, grassy bank while still buck naked, his mind struggling to come up with a reasonable scenario. There was none.

  He couldn’t have traveled through time if he was holding something that had been made in Taiwan. No wonder Linnet hadn’t wanted to let him take her belt off for her. She’d been adamant about doing it herself. At the time, he’d written it off as modesty or that she’d been sexually traumatized by her former fiancé. But now?

  He didn’t know what to believe.

  With the discovery of one tiny little anachronism, he had to question the whole medieval backdrop he’d walked into, and he needed to ask himself why anyone would go to such lengths to deceive him.

  His movements brittle with numbness at the discovery, he set the belt down and shoved his legs into his pants. Linnet had asked him if he’d been hurt in the past, and he’d been able to deny it last night.

  Today, however, was a different story. With the discovery of Linnet’s perfidy, Graham had no problem admitting that right now he hurt like hell.

  13

  SHE WAITED FOR GRAHAM’S TAPS on the back entrance they’d agreed to use for security purposes. Every door and window was barred, including the balcony where they’d originally entered the structure.

  Graham had been meticulous in his planning. Which was why her nerves fluttered in warning when the expected knock arrived in a barrage of soft thumps on the front door instead of the agreed-upon rhythmic pattern of knocks on the back door.

  Had Graham forgotten their agreement? Could he be hurt and bleeding or chased by thieves? He’d been beset by bandits in these woods before.

  “Graham?” She hastened over to the front door, whispering the word through the fat oak barrier, not sure if the sound would carry.

  “’Tis your brother,” a hoarse voice rasped. “Open up.”

  “Hugo?” Panic shot through her. She thought it might be the youngest of the brothers, but couldn’t be sure.

  “Aye. You cannot barricade me from my own fortification.” He banged louder, the vibration rattling through the wood a tangible reminder of her clan’s brutish ways.

  “I can and I will.” Indignation straightened her spine. “I will not allow you to hurt me anymore.”

  Before he could reply, a precise series of knocks sounded at the back door.

  Thank God.

  Ignoring Hugo’s oaths and protests, she skirted the washtub in the great hall to let Graham inside. With an effort, she raised the heavy bar and allowed him in.

  “My brother is in the front courtyard.” She hadn’t realized how much his presence scared her until she heard the tremor in her voice. “I do not know if he is alone or if he brought the others. He may have brought Kendrick himself.”

  His silence startled her out of her panic, forcing her to take stock of him, his hair still dripping on the floor as he laid his soap on the hearth along with…her chastity belt?

  “What is it?” Wary of his mood, she noted the dark look in his eyes. Distant. Suspicious.

  She didn’t need the Sight to know something had angered him. Unsettled whatever scant affection for her he may have felt. She felt the loss of it clear down to her toes, although it resonated most fully in her heart.

  “I will take care of your brother.” Pushing past her, he stalked to the front door, his movements brusque, tense.

  “He demands entrance,” she explained, grateful at least that Graham would set aside his own frustrations to banish her unwanted sibling.

  She expected Graham to deliver a warning. A threat. Some form of verbal sword brandishing that would make Hugo think twice about calling Kendrick down on their heads.

  But Graham did not speak a word to her brother. To Linnet’s utter amazement, he simply hefted the bar to admi
t her kinsman.

  “Are you mad?” She fought the urge to flee, to hide in a distant bedchamber.

  But a rational voice in her head assured her that without Graham’s help, she would not be able to escape her family or the man she’d been promised to three years ago.

  Hugo stumbled into the hall, clothes torn and filthy, his oversize body covered with massive bruises and oozing cuts.

  Graham scarcely spared him a glance while Linnet couldn’t help a twinge of sympathy. Her brother was obviously in pain. He looked as if he’d been brutally beaten.

  And—thankfully—he seemed to be alone since no one else followed him through the door Graham had flung wide.

  “As a matter of fact, I am mad.” Graham’s voice chilled her skin as he stared right through her. “I’m downright pissed off that you would try to pull a stunt like this to waste my time when I have an ongoing investigation where lives are at stake.”

  “I don’t know what you’re talking about,” she protested, bewildered at this new turn. Where was her lover? Her champion?

  “I don’t even bloody well understand him.” Hugo slumped onto a trestle bench, his movements slow and weakened from blood loss or pain, or maybe both. “Where the hell is he from anyway?”

  Ignoring her brother, she kept her gaze focused on Graham.

  “I don’t understand,” she repeated, recognizing the anger—knew it was directed at her—but between his foreign words and lack of explanation, she remained in the dark.

  Alone.

  “I found the chastity belt you discarded. The one you didn’t want me to inspect too closely.”

  Her cheeks flamed while her brother lifted his bleeding head.

  “You half-faced varlet.” Hugo tried to stand, but he wavered on his feet and sank back to the bench. “How dare you insult my sister?”

  Unable to harden her heart totally to her brother, Linnet placed a soothing hand on his back, feeling quite unsteady herself. Who would have thought she’d be siding with one of her hateful brothers on anything?

  She walked unsteadily to the tub to dab a clean linen in the water so she might wash off Hugo’s cuts.

  “Why would you think I didn’t want you to see the belt, Graham?” She would not be embarrassed in front of him after all they’d shared. Her brother looked too weak to take on Graham anyway. “It was my body that I hoped to hide from you at first, not some villainous piece of steel.”

  Hugo groaned as she washed the worst gash on his forehead, but she sensed he reacted more to the intimate discussion than the pain.

  “You didn’t want me to see the belt in case I discovered any clues about its origin. You didn’t get locked into this belt in the twelfth century like you’d have me believe.” Graham shook his head, disbelief scrawled across his brow as he made a sweeping gesture around the room. “All this is a lie. The castle we escaped from, the knights, the swords…all fake.”

  Hugo snickered. “’Tis he you should be tending, woman. Your friend has lost his wits.”

  Linnet plunked her wet linen on the table, assuming Hugo could care for himself if he possessed such a wealth of humor while her heart beat in fearful agitation and more than a little anger.

  “I don’t know what you accuse me of, Graham. My brother—beef-witted measle that he is—can attest to the time I was clamped in that belt.”

  “Artless wench,” Hugo protested, as water dripped into his eye from the cloth he’d slapped to his head. “When did you grow such a sharp tongue?” “I don’t give a rat’s ass what your brother has to say. Your so-called torturous chastity belt is neatly stitched with a notice inside that reads Made in Taiwan.” Graham fumed in the middle of the hall, his hand tightening on the hilt of his sword. “That’s all the proof I need to know you’ve all been lying to me. Why? I don’t know. Maybe you’ve drugged me up like Kendrick’s women and I’ve been imprisoned in some rural training camp for the Guardians’ organization the last few days. I just need you to point me in the direction of L.A. and I’ll be gone.”

  His words hit her like small stones, each one making her flinch a little more until she could scarcely bear to stand tall in front of him.

  “Drugs? You mean herbs? Poisons?” Anger choked her along with the injustice of his accusations. “I cooked you a tottering hare, sir, and if you think I served it to you with poisons, you only have yourself to thank since you killed the beast.”

  Her feet started moving with the anger she felt and she was overcome by the need to be away from him before the hurt set in and the tears flowed. She felt them rise in her throat like a hot tide as she gestured out the open door.

  “And as for your L.A.?” She had no idea what he meant, but that didn’t stop her from pointing south into the sunny afternoon and a distant tree line. “You may find it if you proceed this way, sir. This way also lies a large body of water you may gladly jump in and—I sincerely hope—hell itself.”

  GRAHAM THOUGHT ABOUT LEAVING. The sun had not set yet thanks to the long days of Midsummer. And if he believed for a minute that Los Angeles rested south of here, he would have sprinted away from the Welborne siblings while Linnet went to tend to her oafish brother who’d shown up looking like the walking dead.

  But when she’d been pointing out the door, Graham had recalled that the sun didn’t even set on the correct side of the water here—wherever here might be. So Linnet couldn’t have been lying to him about that.

  And now that some of his initial fury had worn off and he’d seen firsthand her reaction to his accusations, Graham had to wonder what else she hadn’t been lying about.

  He watched where she tended her brother, her movements efficient and graceful despite the floor-length gown she wore. As if she’d been wearing that kind of gown her whole life.

  His heart hurt to look at her—he couldn’t deny that was part of the reason his anger had turned into a flash fire instead of a slow simmer he might have hidden.

  He was about to ask her a more civilized question about the chastity belt when the rumble of thunder sounded in the distance.

  “Kendrick approaches!” Hugo shouted, scrambling away from Linnet to bar the door Graham had refused to walk through. “You’ll take cover if you have any sense, man. Especially if you’re the lack wit who broke her free of her future husband’s claim.”

  While Graham tried to process why Linnet and her brother would try to perpetuate a lie Graham had already called them on, Hugo pulled Linnet deeper into the fortification toward a round tower room in the center of the structure. He shoved her inside while he pulled out a quiver full of arrows and two longbows.

  Did Hugo make all that effort for Graham’s benefit? The hint of fear in the other man’s eyes suggested otherwise.

  Once the two men heard her footsteps disappearing up to the second floor of the tower, Graham turned to the brother while Hugo tugged the weaponry to the walls.

  “What the hell did you come here for anyhow?” Graham peered out the slits to see five riders closing in on the dwelling.

  “’Tis my house, little lordling, and don’t be forgetting it.” The oaf pointed a finger in Graham’s face. “And she’s my sister. I never felt good about locking her up, but I was outvoted two to one in our family, and we stick together.”

  “So why did you lead Kendrick right to her if you’re so concerned for her safety?”

  “I didn’t lead them here.” He wiped a trickle of sweat off his brow, leaving a dirt smudge on the fresh bandage Linnet had given him. “I came to warn her that Kendrick came back and he’s determined to find her. When he arrived at Welborne Keep to discover her gone, he beat the daylights out of all of us.”

  “You’re suggesting the man who sought to marry Linnet did this to you?” Graham eyed the guy. He really did look like death warmed over.

  “He’s ruthless. He told us the only reason he didn’t kill us right then was so we would help him find her.” Hugo took up position in one of the arrow slits and threaded a longbow with an arrow he’d
dragged from the tower room. “I knew she’d come here because she’s always liked this place. Don’t ask me why, since her mother died here.”

  It seemed a surreal conversation to discuss Linnet’s mother while firing arrows out the fortification, but that’s exactly what they did. Graham might be an expert with a sword, but his shot went wild, earning him a snicker from Hugo.

  The oaf, in the meantime, took down one of the guys riding shotgun. Really took him down. As in dead.

  These guys weren’t playing.

  Whether or not Graham wanted to believe he’d been hanging out in medieval England this week, he had to admit the battle being carried out now was all too real. And whether or not Linnet had lied to him, she was in serious danger.

  A fact that moved him quickly past any residual anger to acknowledging he’d still never let anything happen to her.

  Swallowing his pride and possibly a small amount of stupidity, Graham readjusted the longbow on his shoulder and turned to the oaf for help while the four riders picked up speed.

  “So what’s the trick with these weapons?”

  LINNET FUMED IN THE UPSTAIRS tower room, too hurt and angry to be scared of her enemy’s arrival just yet.

  Graham thought she’d lied about…everything? She didn’t understand his accusations, and that upset her. After all they’d shared, didn’t she deserve more than him retreating to full use of his confusing language? And how dare he not explain why he thought it a grievous sin her loathed metal belt had been crafted in the land called Taiwan?

  How did that take away from the pain of being a prisoner in her own keep? A prisoner in her own body?

  Unwilling to be a pawn in games of masculine domination any longer, she marched down the tower steps to fight beside her brother and claim her fate as her own. As frustrated as she might be with Graham right now, she had to admit he’d given her the confidence to stand up for herself. Wherever he came from, the women must be very strong creatures, an ideal she now embraced wholeheartedly.

  And now, after overhearing Hugo’s tale of brutality at Kendrick’s hands, Linnet decided if Kendrick besieged the fortification and won, at least she would know she’d fought for herself, which was more than she’d done in the past.