Her lips tightened as her gaze swept over him and he found himself stirred by her fury.She was no ice maiden, but a dragon filled with fire and fury.Her eyes flashed and Quinn was entranced.
“Jerome de Sayerne was a dreadful neighbor and it is difficult to expect any better from his son!”She lifted her chin and glared directly into Quinn’s eyes.“Perhaps you, mercenary that you are, might explain to me who raids my estates even now.”She pointed her finger toward his chest and he noted how small and fine it was.“I would not put such a deed past the get of Jerome de Sayerne.One way or the other, he pledged to merge Annossy with Sayerne.Know this, sir, that I pledged to stop him from realizing that dream, no matter the cost.”
Annossy.She was the Lady of Annossy.Quinn remembered that the estate bordered upon Sayerne, before he resolved to set matters to rights with his neighbor.
When she made to enunciate her last point with another jab of her finger, Quinn snatched her hand out of the air.Her skin was surprisingly soft.She was so startled that her eyes widened slightly.She made to step back, but Quinn did not release her hand.
“And I tell you, my lady, that my sire and I parted ways twenty years past because of our differences,” he said in a low growl.“I am as unlike him as oil to water.”
Her fine eyes narrowed.“Your father was also deceptive, when it suited him.”
“I am not,” Quinn growled.No one called him a liar, even a beauty such as this.
“We shall see,” she replied, undaunted.She squared her shoulders and tried to tug her hand from his.Quinn held fast.“Mercenaries plague my borders,” she said through gritted teeth.“And you appear to be a mercenary.”She met his gaze in silent challenge.“I do not need such a man as a neighbor.”
“If Tulley wills it, you will have one all the same.”
“How much do you know about the raids on Annossy, Quinn de Sayerne?”she asked.
“Naught,” Quinn replied, admiring her spirit.“I have returned from the Holy Land this very week, my lady.You see not a mercenary before you, but a knight in sore need of a bath.”He smiled slowly, but the lady stared at him.She seemed disarmed by his jest and he savored the fact that he had surprised her.
He suspected it did not occur often.
Her gaze flicked from his smile to his eyes, then over his clothing.“You can be no knight,” she whispered.Her voice faltered and he did not doubt she was recalling the reference to his spurs.
“But I am.”
“He speaks the truth, Melissande,” Tulley interjected.“I sent for him upon Jerome’s death.Quinn speaks the truth, as he always did.”
At Tulley’s endorsement, Quinn’s smile broadened.He was surprised to see that rosy flush staining the lady’s cheeks again as she watched him.Indeed, her cheeks were afire, and she looked more alluring by the moment.She flicked a significant glance to her hand trapped within his and tried again to pull it free.
Quinn loosed his grasp upon her hand, then brushed his lips across its back.
She shivered at the touch of his lips and her eyes widened, their hue brilliant emerald before she dropped her gaze to hide her reaction.
But Quinn had seen it.
And he was intrigued.
“I beg your pardon for my appearance, my lady,” he said.“It is my pleasure to make the acquaintance of a neighbor.”
The lady’s lips tightened and she stood taller, that beguiling fire in her eyes once again.
Tulley cleared his throat and Quinn reluctantly turned his attention from the lady to his lord.
“Melissande d’Annossy will be far more than your neighbor, Quinn,” Tulley said.“She will be your wife.”
Too late, Quinn realized where this conversation had been directed all along.He felt like a fool for not guessing the truth sooner, and wondered if Melissande’s understanding had been responsible for her vehemence.
“My lord, nay!”she protested.
“You would refuse to wed me, despite the lord’s command?”he asked her.
Her sidelong glance was filled with disdain.“I would refuse to wed any man of your father’s seed.”
“And I would protest wedding a woman who fails to obey her feudal lord.”
She spun to face him, propping her hands upon her hips.“I am the one who understands how to administer a holding so that it prospers.”
