by C. A. Szarek
Avril would let him know when she was ready for him to leave her room, but for now she was stuck with him.
He wanted her stuck with him forever, but he wouldn’t push her.
“I am sure,” she whispered.
It’d take everything he was made of not to touch her at all, but he wouldn’t. He forced himself to not even reach for her hand. “You trust me?”
“Yes,” Avril answered without hesitation.
She trusted him?
“I’m glad to hear it.” He lay down next to her very slowly.
The bed was oversized. Even with his large frame, they wouldn’t have to touch unless they wanted to. No doubt he wanted to, but she wasn’t ready, so Roduch would keep his hands to himself.
“Sir Roduch?” Avril’s sweet voice jolted him.
He’d been frozen, stiff as a board. Forcing a breath, he made himself relax enough to answer her. “Aye?”
“Would it be all right if I moved closer to you?”
Roduch nodded. He couldn’t find his voice.
She scooted closer, until her head rested against his shoulder, the length of her body lightly touching his side. He wanted to take her into his arms but stopped himself.
“You’re so warm,” Avril murmured. “Can you hold me?” Her whisper was very low.
“Aye, lass, but only if you stop calling me sir.” Heart leaping to his throat, Roduch pulled her to him.
Her nod was shy, and she burrowed her face into his neck. Avril twined her legs with his, her small knee on his thigh. He sucked in a breath when she nearly bumped his tender parts.
His manhood already liked the idea of their bodies close. If she touched him, even by accident and stirred arousal, she’d yank away from him, and that was the last thing Roduch wanted. Holding her in the bed felt damn good.
He needed to ask about her magic, but how could he bring it up? He’d been biding his time for days. At best, it was going to be an uncomfortable conversation. But he’d promised Leargan he’d find out the reason behind her hiding it, to see what dangers were before them.
Roduch took a breath, clearing his throat and pulling her even closer. “Avril…”
She smiled as she lifted her head from his chest, meeting his eyes in the dimness of her rooms. “Roduch.”
His heart skipped at his name on her lips. She’d finally dropped the sir. “Before we met, did you know me?”
Dark brow furrowed, she shook her head, her mass of curls shifting. “What do you mean?”
He closed his eyes, swallowing again. If he admitted his visions, he damn sure couldn’t tell her she was meant to be his. She was nowhere near ready. “I…” Roduch averted his gaze and cursed himself.
“Roduch?”
“When I saw you on the road, I knew you.” Rushing the words, he watched emotions flicker over her face, but she didn’t pull away.
Good.
“What do you mean?” Avril repeated.
“Since I was a lad, I’ve…had…visions. Of you.” He rubbed her back, willing her to stay calm, not pull away from him.
Rearing back, she studied his face. Silence descended. “You’re not lying,” she breathed finally.
“No. I would never lie to you.”
“But…how? I sense no magic in you. I can always sense magic.” Her emerald eyes shot open wide, and she slapped her hand over her mouth.
Roduch reached for her wrist, gently pulling it away from her face. “It’s all right, Avril. You can sense magic? Is that what your powers are?” He pressed a kiss to her knuckles.
She shook her head, but didn’t move away from his chest. “I—”
“You can tell me. No one will hurt you here. I will protect you forever.”
“I get visions.” The whisper was so low, he almost missed it. “Powerful visions. Sometimes of the future. Sometimes the past. But when I look at someone, I can know them. In and out. Strengths and weaknesses, wants, desires.” She paused, a tear working its way down her cheek.
“I get visions, too,” Roduch whispered. “But only of you. I only see you.” He cupped her cheeks, thumbing her tears away.
“It’s not possible. I didn’t know you before that night on the road.”
“I can’t explain it, lo—lass.” Heart pounding, he took a breath. He couldn’t call her love. It’d definitely upset her right now.
“I sense no magic in you, Roduch.” Tone insistent, she leaned down, cupping his face with her small hands. She stared into his eyes.
He had to restrain himself from yanking her down and taking her mouth with his. His manhood stirred, and threatening to lop it off did nothing to soften his budding erection.
“Can you feel that?” Avril asked.
“Feel what?”
“I’m probing you. With magic.” Brow knitted, she stared until sweat beaded her forehead.
“I feel nothing but your body on mine.”
“No tingles?”
Not the ones she’s referring to. “Nothing, lass.”
Avril collapsed onto his chest, blowing out a breath.
Roduch caught her up, wiping the moisture from her brow.
“I don’t understand,” she whispered.
“Neither do I, but I spoke the truth, Avril. I’ve been seeing you in my dreams since I was a child.”
She met his eyes, biting her bottom lip. “I was destined to come to you?”
“Aye, I believe so.” Roduch’s heart sped up again. “Why did you hide your magic from Lord Aldern and my captain, lass?”
Avril averted her gaze, but he drew her face back to his. “I had to.”
“Why?”
“Tynan…”
“He used your magic?”
“For himself.”
Understanding dawned as she shut down. She wasn’t ready to talk about it. Tynan forced her visions, but to what end? And how did one even force magic?
No matter how Roduch had tried over the turns, he could never see Avril on his own demand. His visions came at their own will, his be damned.
And why had she said he had no magic?
“I need to know, Avril.”
“I know.” She quivered in his arms, her voice barely a whisper.
Regret hit him in a wave. He didn’t want to cause her more strife. Roduch wanted to relieve her pain. Always. Take care of her. Forever. “I won’t push you, but I need to know. Before we can arrest the bastard.”
“Can we talk in the morning? I will even speak to your captain and the duke. I just…can’t right now. I need you to hold me.”
“Lass…” His heart dropped to his stomach when her eyes watered again.
Was she manipulating him? No.
She was genuinely shaking in his arms.
Damn that bastard to hell and back.
“I’m sorry, Roduch.”
“It’ll be fine, lass. There’s always tomorrow. Come here.” He pulled her up his body, aching to kiss her mouth. Diverting his lips, he pressed a kiss to her forehead instead.
She flashed a smile that had his stomach flipping as she snuggled closer. Avril rested her head on his chest, her hand tucked next to her cheek.
Roduch rubbed her back until her breathing fell into a deep, even rhythm.
Avril shifted closer in her sleep, her knee brushing his manhood, which shot to hard and throbbing in about two seconds.
He shook his head, willing it soft.
He groaned.
Should’ve stayed in the chair.
He would’ve had a better chance at real sleep.
Chapter Sixteen
No amount of battery, intimidation, or gold was getting Tynan anywhere, no matter how many inns in Greenwald he’d visited.
He paced in the room he’d rented at the White Sage Pub, but that wasn’t helping, either.
A ruckus outside the open window had him glancing down and scowling when he saw what the fuss was about.
Knights.
The group was a half-dozen strong, mail and armor clad, flying
the pale green and silver flag of the Province, the seal of a howling white wolf depicted on it. Only a few of them wore helms. They observed the evening market crowd, nodding to the people as they rode slowly.
“What the hell?” Tynan asked the empty room, staring at the procession moving down the main thoroughfare.
“Nothing’s wrong.” A female voice pulled him from his thoughts, and he glared at the maid, who’d entered his room without permission. “They often patrol Greenwald Main in addition to the Provost’s marshals. Lord Aldern cares for his people.”
Tynan glared, and the smile fell from her face.
She stilled in the doorway, and his eyes rested on the tray in her arms, the full trencher of food. Steam wafted from the baked potato, as well as the slab of gravy-covered meat. His stomach snarled, reminding him his last meal had been very early that morning. But she didn’t have to know that.
“Did I call for you?” he barked.
“I’m sorry, milord. Your man bid me permission to come up.” She lowered her head.
Damn Harlan.
Tynan’s gaze travelled her frame. Too round at the hip, but she might do for his aching cock. It’d been too long. Maybe he should thank his steward for the gift. “Where are my men?”
“They dine below, milord.”
“Shut the door and place the tray on the table,” Tynan ordered.
“Milord?”
“Do it and come here.”
The girl set the tray down as instructed, but squared her shoulders and glared. “I am not a whore. If you want one, I can get you one.”
“I didn’t ask for another. I told you to come here,” Tynan growled.
“My father owns this place.”
“I don’t recall asking. I own vast properties and have much gold.”
She didn’t even flinch at his honest brag.
He stalked over and closed the door, but was careful not to slam it.
The girl was small, like Avril, but that was where the comparison stopped. Her hair was blond, eyes were blue, and her body too fulsome.
He yanked the kerchief covering her fair locks. She whimpered when Tynan leaned to inhale her scent. She smelled good. Clean. Like an expensive whore should.
When he rested his hands on her shoulders, she started to shake.
“Don’t worry, I don’t want your cunt. I want your mouth.”
“I’m married.”
Ah, so the hips were due to something Avril had failed to do for him. The one had given her husband children.
“And? Your husband knows you work in an inn. Surely I’m not the first man to require your services.”
“My father owns my place of employ. I am not a whore. Let me get Betha for you. She’s our most popular.” Big tears made tracks down her cheeks, but her voice was steady.
That just turned him on more. “You will suck my cock. And I will pay for you.”
Her eyes widened and she shook her head.
His erection strained his breeches. Tynan guided her hand to his crotch, groaning when her palm made contact. He rocked his hips into her hand. His member throbbed when the girl whimpered.
“I thought you were in search of your lost wife, milord.”
“You do not speak of her unless you have information to help my quest. Have you seen her?” He grabbed her shoulders and shook her.
“No, milord. I remember everyone. She has not come into the White Sage. But I can help you. I will help you. Please, don’t force me. I know people that can ask around. I can get someone to help find her. Someone who knows the Province better than anyone. Please let me go downstairs.”
Begging made his blood boil and his cock pulse. He liked it best when Avril had begged him to stop. Pity, his wife hadn’t done that for turns.
“Get on your knees, and I won’t kill you.”
Sucking in a big sniffle, the girl did what he’d ordered, but she trembled from head to toe, quietly sobbing.
Both made him want her more.
“Open my belt. Touch me. Stroke me. Suck me. Show me you’re married. Show me you know your way around a man.”
She whimpered, but reached for his belt. When his buckle lay open, the girl slowly tugged the ties on his breeches open without being told.
Tynan patted her head. “Good girl. You follow commands well. I bet your husband enjoys you. If you’re good, I will thank him with more coin.”
“Your supper is getting cold,” she whispered, her face soaked with tears.
“Yours is waiting to be released. Do it now. You’re too slow.” Actually the anticipation made him harder.
He watched her plump lips, imagined her tongue moving up and down him in rhythm with her hand. He’d come in that luscious mouth, his seed would slide down her throat.
A shudder racked his frame and Tynan waited for her hand to bare him, encircle him.
Right when her fingers brushed his bare skin, the door to his room was thrown open.
“Sire.” Harlan panted, his chest heaving. Thick salt and pepper hair stood up at all angles from his run up the stairs. The steward looked at the girl, then back at Tynan and bowed deeply. “My apologies, sire. I had no idea you were indisposed.”
“What the hell is it, Harlan?” Tynan barked.
“We must leave now.”
“Why?”
“Your wife has been seen.”
Chapter Seventeen
After leaving Jorrin’s ledger room, Ansley consumed Leargan’s thoughts. Avril had been through much too much for a girl of eight and ten.
He couldn’t stop seeing his betrothed’s teal gaze, her smile, hearing her laughter as Avril confessed all her bastard former husband did with her magic. If someone so much as looked at Ansley with ill intentions, Leargan would kill them.
Tynan Mont was a murderer, rapist and master manipulator. He needed to pay, and he would. There was a place for him in Dread Valley, the penal territory of the continent, located in the South Eastern most Province, Dalunas.
The place was a sevenday and a half ride at best, but he’d love to be the one to slap the manacles on the bastard and lead the charge.
If he could keep Roduch from killing him. Leargan hadn’t broached the subject just yet, but he was going to attempt to leave the big knight out of the arrest entirely.
He smirked. If they knocked Roduch out and left in the dead of the night, maybe it would work. He was going to fight him on it, without a doubt. Probably would ignore a direct order from Jorrin.
Even if his friend didn’t realize it yet, he was in love with Avril. It was written all over the knight’s face. They might not have known each other long, but it didn’t matter. Roduch looked at her the way Jorrin and Tristan looked at their wives.
Seeing the large rock-steady man an emotional wreck over a woman should’ve shaken Leargan in his boots. But it only made him think of Ansley.
Ansley.
He needed to see her now.
“She’s in the tub,” Daicy said, pulling the door to the guest chamber shut. “I was just going to get fresh bathing linens.”
Leargan’s blood warmed and rushed in his ears; he fought for coherent thought.
Ansley. Naked.
“I’ll be right back,” the maid said, disappearing around the corner in the wide corridor. The nearest supply closet wasn’t far.
Shifting on his feet, he warred with what he wanted and what was right. His manhood stirred at the mere thought of his betrothed bared to him.
Their picnic flickered in his mind. Leargan had touched her, tasted her perfect breasts that day. How he’d had the control to stop still shocked him. He wouldn’t survive that again.
Leave. Now. Before you can’t.
“Here you go, sir.” Daicy pushed two fresh bathsheets into his chest.
“W—what?” Stuttering? Leargan cleared his throat.
“The soap’s right next to her, but she’s about done.”
Leargan looked at the soft material in his arms, then back into Daicy�
��s dancing brown eyes. No words came. Heat crept up his neck.
“You’d better get in there. Mistress Ansley’s going to get cold.”
“We can’t have that.” His voice cracked.
The maid winked and curtseyed before she headed away from him, whistling.
Leargan gave up on the idea of leaving. He slipped into Ansley’s room.
He heard the menacing growl the same moment as the splash and feminine yelp. He turned as quickly as he could and backed until he hit the door, eyes locked onto the black wolf.
On all fours, Ali stalked him.
“Ali, no!” Ansley’s order froze her bondmate before him.
The she-wolf whined but didn’t take her yellow eyes off him. After a few softer commands, Ali plastered her tail between her legs and sprinted to her mistress.
Ansley smoothed a hand down the her bond’s back, whispering until Ali licked her cheek and lay down by the friendly fire, claiming the hearth like normal.
“Leargan?” Ansley asked.
He shook himself.
Still in the bath. Naked from head to toe.
His erection went from half-mast to full steam ahead.
She didn’t look away, though her cheeks went crimson.
“Ansley…” Leargan croaked. He couldn’t tear his gaze from her shimmery wet skin.
She drew her knees to her chest, wrapping her arms around herself, but she offered a shy smile.
“She is going to eat me one of these days,” Leargan said, grasping for some control. He gestured to the wolf, but took a step toward her.
Ansley laughed, and it took his breath away. “Well…you came into my room, unannounced, and I’m…” She gestured to the tub. Then she tilted her head to one side, a twinkle in her teal eyes. “It’s funny, she never growls at Daicy.”
“Daicy said you were almost done.” Words fell from his mouth. He couldn’t even respond to her jibe. Leargan waved the clean bathsheets. “She gave me these.”
“Oh, is that right?” Ansley grinned.
“Aye.” He stared.
Virgin.
Leave now. You need to leave.
His erection throbbed, helping him ignore his conscience. Why hadn’t he left before Daicy had come back with the bathing linens?
“Why do you think Ali only growls at you?” She arched a brow.