As the woman’s sensual body convulsed with a mighty climax, Kevin removed his mouth from her private core and his thumb from her anus. Annavieve was still in the throes of her release when he rubbed the tip of his phallus against her wet core, moistening it, before plunging it into her body. He felt her maiden’s barrier breach as he drove into her, and Annavieve stiffened with the pain and shock of his move. But just as quickly, not giving her any chance to recover or grow accustomed to him, he began to move within her.
The fact that she was his liege’s wife was no longer in his mind. All he knew was that she was the most luscious, delicious, and desirable woman he had ever known. He fell atop her, gathering her up in his massive arms and holding her fast as he thrust in and out of her, slowly but firmly, feeling more physical satisfaction than he had ever known in his life.
With her soft, warm body against him and her tight passage drawing him deeper and deeper, he was in an entirely new world of lust. He wasn’t making love to her; he wasfuckingher. That animalistic, frenzied lust of mating that was fed by blind desire. She was more than he could have ever imagined, sweetness and ecstasy, and he was overwhelmed by it. As a man not given to whim or emotion, he was completely out of his senses with her in his arms.
His release came hard and furious, and he grunted as he spilled his hot seed deep into her body.Do not come out of that room until your seed is in her womb and her blood is on the sheets.Kevin realized, as he came down from what was possibly the greatest climax ever experienced by a mortal man, that he’d managed to do what Victor told him to do. His seed was now within her and her blood was undoubtedly on the sheets. Even so, he continued to thrust in and out of her until there was nothing left. Exhaustion claimed him. Breathing heavily, struggling to collect his wits, it took him a moment to realize that Annavieve was softly weeping.
At that moment, he did something he should not have done. He knew even as he did it that it was a very bad idea– he held the woman while she wept. He didn’t know what else to do. He didn’t even ask her why she was weeping; he didn’t have to. He knew. The sound of her gentle sobs was the last thing he remembered before opening his eyes in a panic and realizing it was dawn.
He’d slept with Annavieve in his arms all night.
CHAPTER SEVEN
He was dirty,dark, and exhausted. Having recently disembarked from one of the many cogs that traveled from Dover to Calais on a daily basis, he rode into the small village of Dover astride his shaggy brown mount, reeking of musty leather and body odor. He was a knight, as he wore well-used armor and carried with him an array of weapons, but there was something darker about him than merely his color. Dark hair, dark eyes, dark skin, and a crescent-shaped scar near his nose. He was darkness personified and Hell followed with him.
Dover was a busy seaside village at any given time but on this night, it was particularly busy. Fog was rolling in off the channel and men were moving about, trying to find a place to sleep for the night. The air smelled of salt and of mist, and through the growing fog, the dark man saw a sign hanging above a tavern.Gull and Piper, it said, in a terribly painted sign. Looking up and down the street, the dark rider didn’t see any other taverns, at least on this avenue, so he reined his steed to the post and dismounted, wearily. Securing the horse, he went inside the tavern.
It was crowded with bodies inside. The hearth purged great clouds of smoke into the room, hanging up near the ceiling, asthe dark rider made his way into the room in search of the tavern keeper. He found the man near the rear, getting drunk with a couple of women. He wouldn’t have known it was the proprietor but a couple of patrons had pointed to the man. Approaching the bald man with the big teeth, he interrupted his revelry.
“Est-ce la seule taverne dans la ville?” he asked.
The laughter, the smile, vanished from the tavern keeper’s face. “What do you want to know?”
The dark rider lifted his bushy eyebrows wearily. “A business matter, my friend,” he said. “Is this, in fact, the only tavern in town?”
The tavern keeper looked him up and down as if determining he was worth answering. After a moment, he shook his head and turned back to his female companionship. “Nay,” he said. “There are two more but this is the biggest. My place is the biggest in all of Dover!”
He was boasting. His female friends laughed. The dark rider had little use for arrogant English. Reaching into the leather vest he wore over a heavy tunic and a mail coat, he pulled two coins out of a hidden pocket and slapped them down on the table in front of the tavern keeper.
“I am looking for information,” he said, his voice rough and hoarse. “I am looking for a knight; a very big knight with a shaved head. He may be traveling with two companions. He may have passed through this town yesterday, last week, or even last month. Have you seen anyone matching that description?”
The tavern keeper suddenly wasn’t laughing so much. He eyed the two gold coins on the table but made no grab for them.
“There are many knights who pass through this town,” he said. “This is a very busy port.”
The dark rider nodded patiently. “I know,” he said. “But this man is very large. He also has an inking on his back that extends onto his neck.”
The tavern keeper shook his head. “I’ve not seen anyone like that here.”
“He rides a big white horse with a black mane and tail.”
That brought a reaction from the tavern keeper. “Two companions, did you say?”
“Oui.”
The tavern keeper thought on that very distinctive horse. He remembered seeing the butt-end of it as it rode out of town a few days ago. The more he thought about it, the more he recalled that there were indeed three knights that had ridden out of town, fleeing the chaos they had left behind in their wake. He sat back in his chair, an arm draped over one of his female companion’s shoulder.
“I remember the horse,” he said. “The man who owned it was a very big knight who killed someone in my tavern and then fled. He had two companions with him.”
The dark rider seemed to perk up a bit. “Indeed?” he asked. “Big men?”
“They were all big.”
“Where did they go?”
“North,” he replied. “All I can tell you is that they rode north. The road out of town goes straight into London so unless they took a different course, they headed into London.” He scooped up the two gold coins on the table, figuring that he had earned them. “A man with a horse that distinctive will be easy to follow. If I were you, I would stop at every town within a day’s ride along the road to see if he stopped there. Others may have more information for you.”
The dark rider thought on that; the truth was that it would be quite a chore to find the Scorpion now that he had settled back in his native England. The man probably had friends and allies everywhere who would protect and hide him, which was unfortunate for him. He had been sent to hunt the hunter, as thehigh command of the Templar order had instructed him to find Kevin Hage at all cost.
