She heard Gerhard snort derisively. Then he said very quietly in her ear, so that she wasn’t sure she’d heard him correctly, “I’m sorry I didn’t get to you sooner. I couldn’t see where you’d run off to. I had gone in completely the wrong direction. I am most sorry.” His apologies made her insides twist, mostly with confusion. She wasn’t sure why he was giving them to her, especially since he was probably going to beat her himself, like he had planned to earlier. Another part of her, however, felt glad that he seemed to feel as though he had let her down in some way, as if he actually had some concern over her safety.
She normally could judge people and their intentions very well, but she couldn’t judge Gerhard. She had no idea what his intentions were, and why he would even rescue her at all. His actions couldn’t be more puzzling since he was apparently a man who was paid to deliver her to her executioner. She couldn’t decide whether to fear him, hate him, or trust him.
All she was sure of was how warm his body felt and how much she enjoyed having his arm around her. Enemy or not, she didn’t want him to let her go.
Chapter Three
Gerhard’s heart was still pounding in his ears. He had walked through army encampments on plenty of nights before, but he hadn’t once realized what a labyrinth they were until tonight as he searched for Susanna.
He had felt guilty about pressing her as soon as she left the pavilion. She was afraid and under an enormous amount of pressure. She had lost her world that day—so what if she skipped a meal or two?
He had just been looking forward all day to being able to come home and care for her, spend time with her, and when she refused to accept even the most basic of his gifts, his disappointment turned to fury… just like it had always done. But this time, he was with his lady.
His lady with the coal-black hair… Who was in his arms, invading his senses with the scent of soap and lavender. He had dreamed of being this close to her all year, and finally it was realized.
All he had wanted to do since he saw her was pick her up in his arms, carry her to bed, and bury himself into her. Instead, it seemed like the whole world was between them.
“Thank God they didn’t know you,” he told her again, now more to console himself than to console her. A feeling of dread crossed his thoughts as he said it out loud. They would have had their way with her if they’d known it was their enemy, the same woman they had been bawdily disclaiming while they were getting their blood boiling before the battle. His decree would have meant nothing to a crowd of drunken rogues. Fortunately, perhaps because they were drunk, they hadn’t realized how well she was dressed or how lovely her hair was, still done up and veiled skillfully. It should have given her away.
Arlo, one of the largest brutes he’d ever seen, wasn’t a truly bad man. He was just an idiot. He didn’t even know his own strength; he’d probably thought he was just giving her a couple of chiding pats. Gerhard couldn’t tell if Susanna was crying from the pain or the humiliation of being spanked like a child. Maybe it was a mixture of both that had upset her.
Of course, he’d been of a mind to give Susanna a spanking earlier himself, so he saw the appeal in it. In fact, if he was being honest, he was jealous that Arlo had seen that beautiful, round ass of hers before he’d been able to glimpse it himself.
“Come on, let’s get you indoors,” he said, still feeling her tremble in his arms and knowing that the snow beginning to gently fall from the sky wasn’t helping.
“I-it was awful,” she quavered. She looked like she was trying to stop crying in the same way he’d seen a fish swim against the current; she was trying so hard that it seemed like she was only making it worse.
“I know,” he told her, with another squeeze. “I know it was awful. I would rather you not have had that experience, Susanna, and certainly not in front of all those people. Please don’t run from me again.”
“And now you’re going to beat me, too,” she sniffled.
He brushed his thumb over the velvet covering her arm. “No. I will not punish you—I think you’ve been punished enough for the night,” he told her, although he had promised himself when he was mad with worry looking for her that he would throttle her when he found her.
Gerhard was glad when they finally reached his pavilion, where one of his guards was already sleeping outside with ale in his hands, worn out by the celebrations around them. He tilted his shoulders back and raised the tent flap before guiding the princess into the tent by the small of her back, not liking the space it left between them. The space where he had held her to him felt cold and incomplete.
Rennio was about to walk right in after them, and Gerhard put his hand out to stop him. “Where do you think you’re going?” he asked, raising an eyebrow.
“To get warm and go to sleep,” Rennio replied in an exasperated tone normally saved for dealing with snotty children. “Where else?”
Gerhard wasn’t particularly zealous about the idea of having another person in the tent. The reason why Rennio was such a good guard for the princess was because he was an excellent soldier, could think for himself, and most importantly, he’d had an injury when he was younger that prevented him from advancing on Susanna himself.
That being said, he certainly didn’t want him being any sort of distraction for either the princess or himself this evening. He wanted to be alone with her; he had waited so bloody long to be with her that he didn’t want his oldest friend fucking that up for him, especially because he feared that he wouldn’t have long with her.
He shook his head. “I don’t think so, Rennio.”
Rennio shot him a bewildered look. “What do you mean ‘you don’t think so’? I’ve been running through the camp looking for her, just because you couldn’t keep her in the tent! Now you won’t even let me in?” He pulled hishead back and then crossed his arms, studying Gerhard with a knowing glance. “Oh. Oh. I hadn’t seen it before.”
“What?” he demanded, figuring that Rennio knew absolutely nothing. Rennio knew as much about women as a pine tree knew of poetry. Women were completely outside of Rennio’s realm of experience or knowledge.
“If you want a night of making love, just go ahead and tell me. Might do her good, since she only has about a week left before she’s given over to the emperor,” he added, sarcasm rolling off his tongue. “I think she has enough to worry about without your attentions, my friend.” Rennio leaned forward, then clapped his hand around Gerhard’s arm. His brown eyes glanced toward the castle as he added, “Go pick yourself out a good wife. Have some children. You’re close enough to retirement, and you’ve lived through your youth. You’ve waited long enough to start breeding.”
He hated when Rennio called it ‘breeding’. It made him sound as if Rennio viewed himself somehow apart from the human race. As if his horrible manners alone didn’t make that impression strongly enough… “Please do not call it breeding. I’m not a Viking,” he begged dryly, knowing that the women in that castle held absolutely nothing for him. He wanted Susanna. He wanted her all to himself, every part of her, and he wanted her now and forever.
He had waited all year, then all day knowing she was in his tent, waiting for him. All he wanted to do was go in there and soothe her pain and run his fingers through her hair and torture himself by not having his way with her. “I think she’s done with company for today, that is all.”
“It’s cold out here!” Rennio reminded stubbornly.
Gerhard walked inside the tent, grabbed a fur, and then threw it outside. “Goodnight, Rennio.”
