I pivoted, scrutinizing the shadows. The armory stood vacant, yet a strange heat coursed through my veins. As I wheeled back toward the axes, my attention landed on an adjacent mirror spanning the neighboring wall.
Glass reflected my features. Dark hood. Hazel eyes flashing beneath the mantle. Crimped curls unraveling down my bosom. Curves for days. All that was missing was a fatal weapon.
Ripping the axe from my harness, I flipped the handle between my fingers, then charged into a sequence of moves. Fanning the weapon overhead, I circuited across the floor, delivering makeshift death blows.
In this moment, I held all the power. Instead of a liar and traitor, I became a fighter, a protector, a warrior in my own right.
Despite every blast of pain the movements triggered, I battled through them. Rotating into a squat, I raised the hatchet and froze toward my reflection, a fighting smile splitting my face.
That anonymous weight returned. The sensation of somebody viewing me.
“Warfare is a good look on you,” a suave male voice invoked from the doorway. “So is trespassing.”
Ah. I glimpsed a tall figure blocking the exit. “Here to get me in trouble, soldier?”
“Who? Me?” Feigning innocence, the man stepped over the threshold, his trimmed brown hair highlighted in filaments of red. “Now when have I ever led you astray, milady?”
I gained my feet while reeling the axe in my grip. “I’m no lady.”
“I’m no gentleman.”
My laugh came out dry. All knights were inbred from lofty households, held peerage titles, and touted their birth status like notches on their bedposts.
Regardless, my humor encouraged the man to lean against the jamb and make himself at home. Lively teal eyes and handsome face. At six feet tall, Rhun was built like a suit of armor and wielded a cock as long as a battering ram.
Doubtless, this man had been the source of the weight I felt. Just this once, I’d forgive him for that.
“Careful,” I warned, strutting to meet him at the door. “I can be loads of trouble.”
“Your type of trouble is worth it,” he intoned, withdrawing a dagger and skating it across my axe like a tease. “Especially if I lose the next round. I rather enjoy how you collect your winnings.”
The roundtable clock ticked in my head. About thirty-five minutes left. Overestimating this was out of the question, but that amount would be plenty to still arrive before anyone else. Considering the sucker punch of Rhys’s news about a certain, unexpected arrival, and with this edible male tempting me into a bout of combat, I could use a shot of endorphins. The preliminary buildup to a session of mind-bending oral sex after the meeting. Something else to look forward to.
Fully dressed, of course. No one saw under the hood but me.
Reliably, this knight worked around my sex-under-the-clothes rule without problems. He had a tongue as flexible as a whip, drawing out every climax until I shrieked myself hoarse.
Rhun and I traded conspiratorial grins. Then we launched into action, my hatchet flying up to catch his dagger. Smiling across the weapons, I lunged, and he catapulted backward. We emerged from the armory, eventide constellations spotlighting our blades as we advanced across the grass.
Knights paused their training. Keyed up for amusement, they approached to observe and shout encouragements.
“Take him down, Aspen!”
“Have at the bastard!”
“Make ’em sweat, lass!”
Flashing his teeth, Rhun leered like a copper fox. Chortling, I swung the axe left, then right, his weapon snaring mine each time. Like a mating dance, we thrust and blocked while the soldiers pounded their fists on the training fence, hollering as I drove Rhun through the gate and into the central lawn.
The impact rattled my bones. Pain shot across my joints, counteracting the thrill.
I stifled a growl, refusing to let them see what the skirmish did to me. Come morning, my muscles would pay for this much excess. Until then, I had two more minutes before my extremities gave out.
“Feel like surrendering yet?” I jeered, sweeping the axe horizontally.
“Take heed,” the knight crooned in a low tone, his linen shirt accentuating smooth pecs and a nipple piercing. “I might be repeating that line later, when I’ve got you arching beneath me and your cunt spread around my dick—”
Rhun froze, his graphic monologue snuffing out like a flame. The man’s features collapsed, fear steamrolled down hisface, and a pasty white color leached away his tan complexion. All at once, this brash soldier looked on the verge of pissing himself.
