He stared at her lips, needing the feel of them against his own.“I heard every word.Exasperating.Frustrating.And something about baseball.”
He leaned forward and kissed her.Her small sound of surrender sent his heart soaring.Tentatively her fingers rested against his chest, her touch electrifying.He pulled her into his arms, feeling Madelaine.Not Lainie Alexander, but Madelaine, the woman he’d loved and lost.The woman he thought he’d never see again.’Twasherbody held tightly against his,herlips he was tasting.There could be no two alike.
He pulled away before the kiss went too far.Before he swooped her up and carried her away.
She swayed.Her lips parted.Her lids fluttered open.Her eyes were a deep amber, the exact shade Madelaine’s got when she was aroused.It took every bit of self-control to step away from her.
“Go inside, Madelaine.Before I change my mind.”
“Change your mind about what?”
“About taking you back to my place and making long, slow love to you.”
He waited, breath held, hoping she’d take him up on the offer.To his great disappointment, she unlocked the door to the building and stepped through, closing it firmly behind her.
He stood on the sidewalk for a long while, the taste of her on his lips, the feel of her in his arms.
Her dreams weren’t dreams.They were memories trying to escape her tightly locked brain.In the daylight hours she was strong enough to fight them, but in the night, when her defenses were down, the memories came pouring out.
Hope, joy, happiness, elation—all of those emotions flooded him.He wanted to shout in exultation.To run after her, pull her into his arms and kiss her senseless, but he held back, for a darkness hovered around his happiness.Questions that needed answers.Why did she return to him?Who was behind this miraculous resurrection?
Now more than ever, he had to be vigilant.Madelaine’s rebirth could only mean one thing.Whoever sent her was after him and using her to get to him.He silently cursed, caught between duty and honor and the love of his life.Somehow he knew he was going to have to make a choice between the two and no matter what choice he made, it was going to destroy him.
Chapter Eight
France, 1307
“Well, well, well.What have we here?”the count said in a husky voice Madelaine knew intimately.
The other woman murmured something, then laughed.
Madelaine’s body strained, the urge to run so fierce she began to breathe too fast, her lungs sucking up the air.
Christien pushed his body against hers, crowding her farther into the shadows.
“Shhhh.”His lips were so close to her ear they brushed against her skin, causing her to shiver.
She tried to look over Christien’s shoulder but he shifted to block her view.
“Best not to look,” he said so softly she barely heard.
Behind him, her husband groaned.Madelaine slumped against Christien, aware of exactly what she was hearing and mortified to the depths of her soul.
They were trapped feet away from her husband who was rutting with his mistress.
She burrowed into the safety of Christien’s arms and rested her head on his shoulder.It had been so long since she’d felt safe that she was dizzy with it.
“Let me see,” her husband said, his voice thick with lust.
Madelaine stiffened at the tone of his voice.’Twas the same tone he used with her and what followed was always degrading and painful.
She looked up at Christien.“If he finds you here like this, he will kill you,” she whispered urgently.“You must get out of here.”
“Easy,chérie,” Christien murmured.“If we move, he will most certainly see us.Stay still,ma petite,and all will be fine.”
He didn’t understand the count’s power, didn’t know exactly what would happen if they were discovered.While it was acceptable for the count to rut with another woman, Madelaine’s husband would be beyond furious if he knew she even thought of another man, let alone spent time with him in the garden, his body pressed against hers in such a seductive fashion.She closed her eyes, more frightened than ever before.Not for herself, but for Christien who had done nothing but express kindness to her.
“Please,” she whispered.
