“If you are certain?”
“Aye.” She took the first step away and then turned back to him. “It was more than I imagined it could be.”
“You are such an innocent,” he whispered, stroking her cheek. “Have a care as you go, Brienne.”
She ran down the steps and across the yard, pausing as a guard crossed several paces in front of her. Then she opened the door slowly and slipped inside.
Brienne almost floated to her chambers, ducking and hiding a few times when a servant passed, but she arrived in her room unseen. Once she caused the torch high up on the wall to flare brightly, drawing one servant’s attention so that she could sneak past him.
Minutes later, she lay in her bed, thinking on all that had happened between her and William this night. As she drifted to sleep, she realized the failure in her plan. She’d gone to him simply to seek pleasure and some memories she could hold on to in the coming days.
She’d come back in love with the man who honored her even when she did not.
“She is back, my lord.”
The servant’s whisper at his door was the word he waited on. He opened the door and dismissed him with a wordless wave of his hand.
Brienne and the warblood. Neither one could see what was plain to him—they had fallen in love right before his eyes. That mattered not. Though her virginity would have been an added gift to the goddess, using it to gain the warrior’s cooperation was worth it. Once he’d taken the maidenhead of an innocent, his own honor would demand he protect her.
So that when Hugh took her north, the warrior would follow and do anything to save her. Even forfeit his claim to lands and his duty to the king. Then he and his powers would be Hugh’s to command.
The girl was easy enough to manage—a few soft words and the name of her mother and she’d fallen into his hands to be molded and moved as he needed. Tonight had been the result. He knew she thought it her idea to pursue the knight, but a few subtle pushes and suggestions and she’d gone after him like a bitch in heat. Seeing the warrior’s desire for her in his gaze, Hugh knew that he would not reject her when she followed him.
Hugh held the image of the torch outside her chambers in his thoughts and became that fire, re-forming there in the corridor. Opening her door, he walked in and stood over the bed where she slept. As he watched her sleeping, she murmured words in a whisper. He leaned in and tried to discern what she said, but they were slurred. Her body moved then, sliding on the sheets and arching. She was dreaming of sex. When she uttered the warrior’s name, he nearly laughed aloud.
He left her chambers, using the candles in his chambers to draw him. Then he released his mirth and satisfaction. She had done her part and given herself to the warrior. On the morrow, he would invite William to join them—for a willing warblood would be easier to handle. But, willing or not, virgin or not, William de Brus would be in Hugh’s control and Brienne would be sacrificed once the gateway was open. Nothing else would matter after that.
William watched her leave,waiting until he saw her enter the family’s residence before retracing his steps back to his chamber. Once in his chambers, he closed his eyes and remembered the expression on her lovely face when she’d seen him standing naked before her.
Most young women would be shocked or embarrassed, but not Brienne. He smiled then, thinking on the way she just studied him as though trying to commit his form and appearance to memory. Then she’d touched him and he was lost.
’Twas a miracle he had enough control to not ravish her. The way that her lithe, young body responded to his mouth and his hands challenged that control, but he won even as he lost. She became an extension of his touch, moving with him, following his caresses, opening to everything he stroked. Then she had been like fire in his hands, exploding in waves of heat and wetness as he brought her to completion.
Never in his life had he wanted to be inside a woman more than he had wanted with her. He’d wanted to fill her as she screamed out her pleasure. He’d nearly spilled his seed against her body, so close was he as she shuddered and rocked on his hand.
Even now, his cock reminded him of his failure. But his heart knew the truth.
He could not take her virtue until she gave it to him. And she would not be ready to give it to him until her soul was her own and her heart was his. As he saw to his own needs in the silent dark of the night, he also knew the worst of it.
His heart belonged to her already.
But whether or not they would survive long enough for him to tell her was another matter.
ChapterTwenty
“Marcus?” She called out his name as she left her tent.
Marcus has not seen Aislinn since dawn, and he suspected she now had more to tell him. Her dreams came fast and strong now, tearing her from her sleep as the danger came closer with each day. From the terrible expression in her eyes as he walked to her, he knew it would arrive sooner than any of them had realized.
“You have been to the warrior’s camp?” she asked as he reached her.
“They had to be warned.” Marcus looked at her then, understanding that she knew. “What did you see?”
“It begins now. The firebloods rise. The evil one wakes. Many will die.”
“William?” he asked, walking at her side as she glanced around their camp.
“The evil one tries to claim him. The firebloods are divided, but it may be too late for that to help.”
