"Why are you here?" I asked her again, wanting to make certain that her story didn't change. "Pretending to be a knight?"
She took a deep breath—only because I'd loosened my fingers enough to allow her. "As I said: I want only to protect my king. The only crime I am guilty of is being a woman."
I glanced down from her face then because I could no longer fight it. I found her heavy breasts thrust against the fine fabric of her shift, each nipple hard, the pink showing through the thinmaterial. The sight stirred something feral and raw within me, and my cock started to grow hard, a heat that had no place in this confrontation but refused to be ignored.
"What you have done is treason," I said in a low voice, bringing my eyes up to hers again while trying to keep them there.
"That hardly seems fair." Her chest was still rising and falling with her escalated breathing, driving me to near madness as her hard nipples pushed into my chest. I couldn't help my gaze as it dropped to them once more. "Why shouldn't I be able to protect my king when I possess magic—powerful magic?" She seemed oblivious to the fact that I was staring unabashedly at her hard nipples. Her voice remained steady, earnest, even as my attention wandered lower still.
"Keep pleading your case," I growled.
"I believed I should have been given the chance to become one of the king's knights because I knew I could be a valuable one—I knew I could be valuable to him… and to you, Lancelot."
I closed my eyes against the sound of my name on her tongue.
"Do not say my name again."
"I apologize." She paused, and when I opened my eyes and glared at her, her breathing came faster. "The… the realm needs every advantage against its enemies, regardless…"
"Regardless of what?"
"Regardless… of who provides it."
"And do you know what Arthur would do to you if he learned the truth?"
"Kill me." She took a deep breath. "I know he would kill me."
I shook my head, moving closer to her so my breath skimmed her ear. "He'd fuck you first.Thenhe'd kill you."
She swallowed hard at my use of profanity, then breathed in deeply, and her chest rose, pushing those hard nipples intomy chest again before she breathed out and they dropped once more.
"Look how far I've progressed." She continued, as if she had no idea of the carnal thoughts parading through my head, no idea that I wanted nothing more than to reach down and shove my fingers into her slick heat.
"What you have done is remarkable."
"No… no one would have let me attempt as much if they thought me a woman." Her words carried a bitter truth I couldn't deny, and my eyes found hers once more. As they did, hers narrowed, and she tried to step forward, but I held her easily in place. She brought her hands to mine and tried to pry them away from her throat, but she failed.
"Please, Lancelot…"
"I told you."
"No," she interrupted, surprising me. Her fingers dug into my own. "I am the same person I always was."
I leaned in closer, glaring at her. "You are fucking nowhere close to the same person you were!"
"Yes, I am. I might look different."
I laughed acidly. But I couldn't comment. I couldn't find the words.
So she continued. "I've outlasted many men in these trials. I've earned my place here. I've demonstrated my worth, my abilities. Does my gender erase all that I've accomplished in service to Camelot?"
"What you did is against the law!" The words exploded from me, and she gave a panicked little cry as I pulled one hand from her throat and slammed my palm into the wall beside her, within an inch of her face.
"Please believe me," she started, her eyes imploring as she stared up at me. "Lance."
CHAPTER FIFTY-ONE
-LANCE-
