A quarter of the way down the rose-covered wall, Bianca began to doubt her presumption that she could make the climb with ease. Her arms were beginning to give out and thorns cut into her tender, exposed flesh causing more discomfort than the large splinter in her buttocks. As she attempted to move one hand below the other, she suddenly slipped and let out a loud yip of horror. She fell several feet before her scrambling hands found hold of the bed covers, stopping her rapid decent.
But it was the ominous sound of ripping fabric above her that left her desperately wishing she had not been so impetuous. Was a fatal fall to the ground worth preserving her dignity? And then her frantic mind pulled up the ridiculous vision of what would happen if she did fall and was found sometime later. In her hysterical musing she pictured the guards finding the Duke de Neige’s only daughter lying dead on the ground, nearly naked. It would be at dawn’s first light while they made their rounds. The very thought brought a deep blush to her cheeks even as she hung precariously from the makeshift rope. Bianca sent up a whispered prayer.
“Dear God, please deliver me from my impetuous ways.”
In her haste to get to Modesta, Bianca had not considered what she wore. She had not even thought to don a cloak over her thin nightdress before climbing out the window. Now as the thorns ensnared the fabric of her thin garment, Bianca cursed her ill fortune. Her arm muscles burned from the effort of clinging to the impromptu ladder. The venture sapped what strength she had. It quickly became apparent that she could go neither up nor down at this point. Her original mildly distressing predicament of moments ago had suddenly turned into a dangerous, life-threatening situation.
Looking back up at length of knotted bedding that she had descended, Bianca decided that her only option was to climb back up to her window while she still had a little strength left. But as she released one good handhold to reach for another, her hand slipped and she dropped. Her startled cry blended with an ominous ripping sound.
With her eyes closed, Bianca hung there whimpering in fear. Steeling her nerves, Bianca finally opened her eyes to total darkness. It only took a moment for her to understand why she could see nothing. At that same time, she became aware of the chill that enveloped her entire body. Her nightdress was now above her neck. Bianca found herself hanging naked from a rope made of bedcovers halfway down the side of the outer wall of the west tower of the keep. Carefully she eased herself down a fraction more and her head popped out of her nightgown that now hung empty entangled in the thorny brambles above her.
Could her circumstances become any worse?
“What in God’s name?” The incredulous exclamation exploded from the darkness above her, from the vicinity of her window to be precise. Bianca’s grip on her makeshift rope tightened as she wondered at Draco’s discovering her escape.
If she did not love life so well, she might have considered letting go and plummeting down into the darkness below her. But Bianca deemed by the way her fortune had run so far this night, she would probably survive the fall and her quandary would know no bounds. The sudden thought of her father’s guards made her shudder.
“What the hell do you think you are doing, Bianca?”
“Taking a stroll in the gardens, what does it look like?”
Her sharp sarcasm was not lost on him and his frown deepened as Draco noted that her hold on the makeshift ladder was weakening. In the pale moonlight, he could make out only shadows and a ghostly semblance of white against black. He blinked several times to determine what he was actually seeing and suddenly he choked on an obscene curse. The damn woman was naked!
“Climb back up here!” He fairly roared at her. “Get your lily-white butt back up here this instant. What the hell were you thinking? Perhaps that is your problem. You were not thinking.” Even as he snapped out his orders he realized that his lovely, nude lady was in danger of falling to her death if he did not do something fast.
“Please, my lord, do not bellow at me in such a fashion.” He could hear the tears in her voice as she begged for his tolerance.
“I cannot, Draco,” she finally admitted. “I cannot go up or down. I am stuck.”
After taking in her perilous perch, Draco made a hasty retreat down the stairs thinking to find the nearest window to her position and try to retrieve her before she fell. He knew he had only moments to accomplish the task.
A moment passed and Bianca swore that she heard a snicker of a laugh. She would never forgive his cold-hearted attitude at her dilemma. His amusement hurt her more than she dared to admit. She would let him feel the heat of her wrath for his sniggering at her expense when she was once again in a position to do so.
When Bianca heard nothing more from him, she glanced up again and found that he was no longer there. “Draco? My lord?” When she received no answer, she panicked. “Please, Draco, do not leave me here. I am truly stranded.”
“Yea, my lady, I heard you the first time.” The words were a mere whisper in her ears and hands grasped her waist. So startled was she when he suddenly appeared at her side, Bianca shrieked and lost her grip on her makeshift ladder. Strong arms grasped her around her bare waist and she was pulled through a window beside her.
Clutching his head and neck with frantic arms, anchoring herself to him as if she would never let him go, Bianca buried her face into the side of his neck and inhaled his alluring masculine smell as she tried to stem the tears of relief that flooded her eyes.
She was safe! Her knight in shining armor had appeared to rescue her once again!
Then to her horror, her sniffles suddenly turned into heart-wrenching sobs that were torn from her throat. Her whole body shook with the force of her weeping.
“You are safe, Bianca. Hush, my love.” The words were out before he realized that he had said them. But oddly enough, he found that he did not want to retract them.
As he held her convulsing body, Draco tried to ignore the fact that his lovely lady was completely nude. But it was an impossible task. His body reacted to her soft skin and sensual curves. His hands moved over her back and shoulders, one dropping low to cup her bare bottom, possessively.
The feel of her arms about his neck so trusting and her firm, round breast crushed against his chest so tempting had his body flushing with hot desire and regret that he could do nothing to satisfy his body’s raging need. It was clear that Bianca trusted him explicitly by the way she relaxed in his embrace, but he would be damned if he would take advantage of an emotionally distraught woman. When he took this woman to his bed, if he took her to his bed, he amended, it would not be because she was grateful to him for rescuing her. It would be because she wanted him as much as he wanted her.
He cuddled her close until she quieted. Cradling her trembling body against his hard chest, Draco carried her from the darkened, unused bedchamber up the stairs to her own chambers. It had been a stroke of luck that he had noticed this door as he flew down the staircase. The fates must have been watching over them this night.
“What were you doing out there?” he asked her. His anger grew as he carried her up the stairs. It had taken the forefront of his emotions as his anxiety subsided.
“I have a splinter.”
“A splinter?” Her answer was not what he had expected. In fact, it made no sense whatsoever. “I will attend to it momentarily. Now tell me, why did you attempt such an idiotic act, Bianca? Were you trying to escape me? I was not holding you hostage by guarding your door. I was protecting you. You could have simply opened the door and asked for whatever you needed and it would have been yours.”
“It was because of the splinter that I went out the window.” Her sobs had long since subsided; she still hid her face in the crook of his neck, muffling her words.
“That is such a minor excuse for putting your life in danger, lady. I hope you can think up a better story than that.” It was abundantly clear that Draco’s patience was at an end. He would not believe her ridiculous tale that a splinter would send her out the window. “Now t
ell me. What was the true purpose that had you dangling from your bed covers out the window?” He walked through what was left of her door. After hearing her muffled cries, he had kicked it in while attempting to gain entrance.
“If you would but listen, I have explained why I was out there.” Her sharp words of reprimand did not set well with Draco in his present state of mind.
“I would remind you, lady, I have just saved you from certain death. You owe me more than an explanation. You owe me a little respect. Do not give me sharp words.”
“I apologize, my lord, but I have given you my explanation and you are not listening to me. The reason I was out my window was because I was too embarrassed to come to you and ask for your help to remove the large splinter I managed to get in my …in my…backside. I slid down the door, you see. So I decided to go to my cousin for help…” Her words trailed off as she looked up to find him looking at her strangely. The hot desire that she saw in his eyes as they moved over her nude body was tempered with the crooked smile that moved his lips at her obvious embarrassment at having to admit her quandary.
“A splinter, in your…backside?” The small twitch became a crooked grin and his eyes twinkled brightly at the heightened color of her face and neck and shoulders. His eyes dropped lower and Bianca watched as the twinkle turned to a hot, hungry expression before his gaze came up to meet hers once again. “You need to turn around so that I can examine the…offended area.” The sensuality of his words nearly melted her. His voice was thick and smooth, as warm honey, low and seductive. He wanted her, it was obvious and as she gazed into his lust-glazed eyes, hope flared in her heart.
Abruptly he stopped next to her bed and set her on her feet. He stooped to pick up a discarded blanket from the floor and draped it over her shoulders, slowly bringing the edges together as he looked his fill right to the last. The temptation was great but he had a delicate task to perform before he could let his heart dictate to his head and body. Her nudity was too great a temptation.
“I do not think it necessary to disturb your cousin, especially as it is the middle of the night. I am quite capable of removing the offending sliver of wood from your lovely…your buttocks, Bianca.”
“No.” Bianca pulled away from him, appalled that he would suggest such a thing. She backed away, slowly edging her way around the bed until she bumped into the bedpost, wincing when her offended nether cheek was jounced painfully.
A slow knowing smile spread across his face, a black brow arched wickedly.
“You dare to laugh at my pain?”
“Was I laughing?” he asked innocently, his hands spread in a conciliatory manner as he slowly, steadily approached her.
“Stop! Not a step closer!”
But he did not stop until her hands were splayed against his well-muscled chest. The heat of his hard body burned through his wool tunic. Unconsciously her tongue darted out to moisten her suddenly dry lips. Images of what lay beneath her hands filled her mind and she found that she wanted to push his clothing aside and run her hands over his hard muscles, to explore every inch of him to her heart’s content. But his next words shocked her back to reality.
“I need to see the…wound if I am to help.”
“I have not asked for your help, my lord. It would be far too embarrassing to have a strange man viewing that part of me. I can still go to Modesta.”
“Now that would be just plain selfish of you. Waking your cousin in the middle of the night for such a minor injury when I am here and able to offer my assistance. Do not be so stubborn, Bianca. And I am no strange man. I think what we have experienced together over the past few days qualifies me as your best friend.” His gaze dropped to her lips and then to the thin blanket that covered her breasts as if to emphasize his words. “Perhaps much more.” At her gasp of outrage, he relented. “Did you not ply your needle to my hide just this morning? It will be my pleasure to reciprocate your…kindness.”
His words made her realize that her show of outrage at his offer was unwarranted. It would be no different than what she had done for him, would it not? She took a deep breath and released it and reluctantly she accepted his offer.
“Fine. But there will be no pleasure in it.”
“Perhaps only for one of us, my lady,” Draco murmured under his breath as he watched her turn and climb upon the bed to position herself across the flat surface onto her stomach. The thin blanket she still wore did little to hide the curves and hollows of her back and buttocks. Draco stood looking down at her for several moments before he turned away to cross the room where he gathered every candle he could find. By the time he finished lighting the tapers and setting them on the small bedside table, the area around the bed was illuminated with a bright glow.
Then he turned his attention back to the woman laid out so helplessly, so seductively across the large bed. As he moved to her side, she tensed but remained silent. She watched him closely as he placed the supplies he had gathered at her side.
To warm his hands he rubbed them together vigorously. Slowly, carefully, Draco pulled the edge of the blanket up over her long, slender legs and shapely bottom, until it was gathered at her waist. She reached back to pull it down to a more modest position.
“Huh, uh. Leave it alone.” And he pushed the blanket back up to her waist. The lovely white skin that he viewed was enough to stall his breath. There was so much satiny white skin, the curve of her buttocks and the deep crevice between her nether cheeks where a hint of black curls peeked out. It was enough to make a lusty man cry for more, much, much more.
Tearing his gaze from the forbidden fruit, Draco forced himself to look upon Bianca as a casualty of war who needed his help. He tried to ignore her womanly assets, her soft white skin, and her heart-shaped derriere. When his eyes perused the angry red skin around the large splinter embedded in her cheek, he winced with empathy at the pain she must be suffering.
He knelt on the floor behind her, leaned over her and tentatively touched the area around the offending piece of wood with gentle fingers, reasoning out the best method of removing it. Finally he came to a decision and drew his dagger from its sheath.
“This will take but a moment,” he warned as he placed the lethal point on her tender skin. He hesitated, beads of perspiration forming on his brow. He had gone to battle and hacked men to pieces but that had been nothing compared to making a tiny slit in Bianca’s lovely backside to extract a tiny piece of wood. To steady his hands, Draco took a deep breath and then proceeded to make the small slash in her soft flesh.
It took only a fraction of a moment to make the small cut and remove the splinter, but Draco was sweating as if he had fought a major battle. As soon as the sliver was extracted, he wiped the small amount of blood away and soothed the wound with some warm water before pressing a piece of clean cloth to the area. He held it there for several moments until the wound ceased to bleed.
During the entire time, Bianca was so quiet that Draco would have thought her sleeping but he noticed that she had her fists clenched around the edge of the blanket just before his attention was concentrated on removing her splinter. He gave her credit for her bravery. He knew grown men who would have fainted at the sight of a dagger cutting into their skin. Bianca, however, did not make so much as a sound and that fact made him inordinately proud of her.
“That should take care of it. Are you feeling a little better? Do you need anything?” The gentleness in his voice was met with an obstinate shake of her head.
“Look at me, Bianca.” Again his only reply was a jerky movement of her head.
Carefully he eased up onto the bed beside her. He took her by the shoulders and turned her into his arms, he held her close, firmly imprisoning her in his steely arms.
“What is it, my sweet?”
“Tis nothing,” she murmured, still refusing to lift her gaze higher than his chin.
“Now Bianca, do not lie to me. Tell me what troubles you?” He lifted her chin with his fingers, but her eyelids drif
ted closed as she still refused to look at him.
He smiled at her stubbornness and leaned forward until his lips were but a breath away. “Tell me,” he whispered.
“‘Tis just….” she began and then wet her suddenly dry lips, a motion that brought a groan of desire rumbling in his chest and certain notions to his mind.
“What?”
“I never suspected that the first time I found myself naked in bed with a man, it would be to have him cutting a damn splinter out of my ass.” She did not know what she expected of him at her admission of embarrassment and frustration, but she did not expect his ear-splitting laughter, that was for certain.
Anger flared in her eyes as she lifted her head to look at him. The dolt actually laughed at her and by the looks of it, he was nearly incapacitated in his amusement. Bianca became so outraged by his reaction to her heartfelt confession that she tried to free herself from his embrace, from his very presence, but his strong, muscular arms were like bands of steel and he was not about to release her.
The built-up emotions that Draco managed to keep under control over the last few days burst from him in that roar of laughter. He was so lost in the relief of it that he could not stop long enough to tell her that her predicament was only a small part of his spirited outburst. In truth, he was not laughing at her. But until he managed to collect himself, he could not explain that to her. Instead, he collapsed back upon the bed, taking her with him. She landed sprawled across his broad chest as he held her close, fighting for self-control.
It was not until his hands moved down over her bare hip that realization dawned on them both, sobering Draco instantly. They lay together on the bed and he was the only one clothed. The light blanket had fallen away from Bianca’s body when they had shifted on the bed.
They found themselves in a most provocative position. And if either were to admit it, they found no objection to being there. Bianca gazed down into dark, hungry eyes as she waited breathlessly for his next move. She wanted him to kiss her.
Kiss of the Dragon Page 21