Return of the Warrior (14 page)

He went to get her some bread, cheese, and wine to break her fast, while they spoke about Ioan’s death at his sister’s irate hands.

Christian handed the bread to her after Corryn left them. “Do you miss your brother?” he asked quietly.

She paused for an instant as if his question startled her. He held her wine while she tore a piece of bread. “In truth, I do my best not to think of him at all.”

Christian watched the way she daintily ate her food. Like a queen. She was flawless in her manners and bearing.

“I’m sorry.”

She swallowed her bread and offered him a sad smile. “There is much in life that I wish were different.”

“Am I included in that?”

She looked up at him as if she were studying him. “At times, aye. But this isn’t one of them. I find you oddly endearing.”

He frowned at her words. “Oddly endearing? I think I have been insulted.”

She tore a small bite of bread and offered it to him.

His eyes never leaving hers, he leaned forward to feed from her hand. He took her fingers into his mouth and gently nibbled them before he pulled away.

He swallowed the bread. “Are you seeking to tame me, Adara?”

“Nay, my prince. I seek only to claim you. I don’t mind your wildness in the least.”

He was struck dumb by her playfulness as she stepped past him to join Corryn, who was ordering a group of men about.

Christian took a deep draught of the wine she’d neglected.

“You’d be better off to pour that down your breeches,” Phantom said as he joined him.

“What say you?”

“The look of you says it all. You’re aching to taste her again.”

Outwardly, Christian scoffed even though he knew that attitude for the lie it was. “You are mistaken.”

Phantom paused beside him. “Nay, Christian. Lie to yourself if you must, but never to me.”

Christian frowned at him. “Why are you still here? It’s not like you to travel with a group.”

“You offered me land.”

“Which I know means nothing to you. Not really. Why have you always been at my back all these years?”

“I respect you, Christian. You should be king, and if you are determined to seek your throne, then I am determined to help you.”

Christian couldn’t have been more stunned by his words. “What has gotten into you?”

“I wish I knew. Promise me that should I discover what it is, you’ll exorcize it.”

Christian laughed. “I wish the same promise from you.”

Phantom looked back at Adara, who was busy castigating her fool. “I know what plagues you, my brother, but from that I hear there is no cure.”

Christian sobered as he feared Phantom might be right. His wife was slowly seeping into his very soul.

He heard Ioan giving the call to mount. It’d been a long time since he’d traveled with an army. God be with all of them. They would have a long, hard journey ahead of them and then a battle.

He only hoped they all made it.

Adara spoke little as they traveled. Her gaze kept drifting over the knights and archers of this army.

“Is something wrong, Majesty?” Ioan asked.

“I was just thinking that even with the addition of my army at home, our numbers are too few to go up against Elgedera and win. Perhaps we sought you out too soon.”

Christian laughed at that. “There will be more soldiers to come.”

“Aye,” she said, remembering the man he had mentioned, “but this Lucifer will have how many men? A few dozen?”

“About that,” Ioan said. “He had just under three score when last I saw him.”

Her stomach drew tight in apprehension. “’Tis not enough.”

Phantom gave her a wicked grin. “I cannot believe I’m about to say this. But have faith, my lady. The Lord will provide for us.”

Adara had no idea what he meant by that until they reached Calais, where they stopped to rest and restock. The men had decided that the easiest way to move the army would be overland, which would be more grueling than traveling by sea, but would allow them to stay together in force for morale and safety.

It would take them approximately five months from Calais to reach Taagaria, which was two months longer than it had taken her by sea to find Christian. It was something that concerned her
greatly. ’Twas a long time for Thera to be on the throne without her.

Ioan had claimed his men could cover the distance in half that time, which set off an argument between him and Christian over the greatness of Ioan’s army versus their being too tired to fight once they got there.

“If we crawl down there like snails, the Elgederions will have too much time to prepare for our force,” Ioan had growled as they supped the first night after they left York. “I’m sure by now the little garrison that they sent to kill you has headed back home to tell them that we’re coming.”

“They won’t be prepared for us,” Phantom had said with a sinister laugh. “Trust me.”

Christian had shaken his head. “I’ve no wish to stress the men or the horses. A strenuous pace would cost us much in illness and injuries. What good does it to reach Elgedera with only a portion of our force?”

Ultimately, Corryn had come up with a compromise that left them traveling faster than Christian wanted, slower than Ioan could tolerate, while both men cursed the pace completely, every step of the way. However, Ioan had sworn that if any of the men or horses became injured or unduly stressed, he would slow his army to Christian’s pace.

Of course, Ioan had cheated a bit and pushed the army hard to reach Calais in just over a fortnight.

Now they were trying to find a place to stay
without pitching tents, but it looked as if Calais were under siege. Everywhere they went, there were soldiers already there.

“What is going on?” Adara asked as the third inn they tried turned them away.

“Abbot!”

A handsome man near the age of thirty and with long dark brown hair came toward them. He was dressed in a blue and yellow surcoat that covered his black mail armor.

“Dragon,” Christian said, offering his arm to the man. “What are you doing here?”

“Thomas sent word that you were in trouble. Some bastard has taken your throne, eh? So here I am with my men at your disposal.” He turned toward Adara and took her hands into his. He kissed the back of each one as if it were a holy relic. “And you, lovely lady, must be Christian’s bride. Thomas said you were as beautiful as Helen and I can see he did not lie in the least.”

“Thank you, Dragon.” Adara was both flattered and aghast at the man’s presence. “This is your army here?”

“Along with a few friends.”

“Who?” Christian asked.

“Falcon, Goose, Wyvern, and Sphinx have come. Together we have seven hundred and thirty-two knights for you.”

Adara was stunned at the number. “How could you gather so many so quickly?”

Dragon looked less than impressed by their
numbers. “Not so many now. Had we had more time…But more will join us en route as they’re able.”

Christian offered Dragon his arm. “My gratitude is eternal to you, Michel. Thank you.”

Dragon took his arm, then hugged him quickly. “We are brothers, Christian. No one threatens a single member without incurring the wrath of us all. You know that.”

“There’s no room here, either,” Phantom said as he left a nearby inn. He paused as he caught sight of Dragon standing before them.

Dragon’s eyes narrowed on him in instant hatred. “Phantom. Stab anyone in the back lately?”

The look on Phantom’s face was one of pure evil. “Never, Dragon. I only stab from the front so that I can see the expression on my victim’s face while he dies. Care for me to demonstrate?”

The hostility between them was tangible. “Come, Christian,” Dragon said. “I have saved room in my inn for you.”

“I appreciate it, Dragon. But I owe Phantom much and would rather he have the room than I.”

Dragon curled his lip. “Fine, I’ll allow him to join us as well.”

Phantom smirked at the knight who hated him. “Hurts so well to do the right thing, doesn’t it, Dragon?”

Adara had to suppress a smile at Phantom’s teasing, when it was obvious Dragon truly wanted to trounce the man.

Without further comment, Dragon led them to an inn on the outskirts of the city.

He left them alone to freshen up while he went to find Ioan and tell him that there was space for him as well.

“Why does the Dragon hate Phantom so?” she asked as she washed her face while Christian placed a small trunk of personal items beside their bed.

“Basically everyone hates Phantom, Adara. He was never one to go out of his way to make a friend.”

“Yet you befriended him. Why?”

He shrugged. “No one deserves to be alone. He needed a friend, he just didn’t know it.”

Adara smiled at him. “You’re a good man, Christian, and I think that one day you will be extremely grateful that you treated him well.”

“What do you mean? Do you know something about him that I should?”

“Aye, I do, but I promised him I wouldn’t tell you. It’s something that needs to come from him whenever he’s ready.”

He nodded. “Then I will respect you both and not ask after it.”

Adara went to him and placed her cheek against his just so that she could inhale the precious scent that was her Christian. She kissed him lightly, then withdrew even though she didn’t want to. Something inside her wanted to hold on to him and keep him near. But he often grew rigid if she stood too close to him for too long.

“Now sit, my lord, and let me look at your wounds.”

Christian hesitated. If he possessed a brain, he would tell her nay and send for a leech.

But he didn’t. Instead, he stripped to his waist, then sat down so that Adara could examine his injuries.

He closed his eyes as she trailed her hand down his back, touching his skin as she carefully inspected, then cleaned his few remaining stitches.

Adara felt that familiar heat start in her blood as she took in the whole of his muscled back. There was one little area at the base of his spine that she felt a peculiar urge to taste.

“You are healing very well. I think I should be able to remove the last of your stitches tomorrow night.”

She moved around him to look at his shoulder and side, but it was the swelling between his legs that captured her attention. He hadn’t touched her since they’d left York.

And it wasn’t from lack of trying on her part. But the man had an iron will that should be legendary. Even Lutian was stunned by his wherewithal.

Adara leaned toward him.

He shot to his feet and whipped his robe back on. “I should check on the others.”

He was out of the room so fast that she barely saw him leave.

“Fine, my Lord Difficult. You can run, but not fast enough.” Nay, she had plans for him yet, and little did he know it, but he was doomed.

Adara sat alone at a table eating her supper of lamb and cabbage while Christian and the others were off planning battle strategies…and still arguing over their pace of travel.

One would think that at the very least they would become bored with the topic and find something new to argue over.

“Has the Second Coming come and I missed it? If so, I need to find a priest quickly.”

Adara looked up from her food to find Corryn watching her from a short distance away. As always, Corryn was dressed as a bony man in a white tunic and brown leather breeches. “Nay. Why do you ask?”

Corryn shrugged as she drew near to take a seat across the table from her. “You look as if it came and passed you by.” She pulled a piece of bread from the loaf on a wooden trencher near Adara’s
elbow. “So what has happened to cause you to look so miserable?”

Sighing, Adara set down her knife. “I was merely trying to understand why it is that my husband runs from me as if I’m a leper.”

Corryn swallowed the bread she was chewing and gave her an arch stare. “Are you?”

“Nothing’s fallen from me yet.”

Corryn laughed as she reached to share Adara’s wine cup. “Men are ever woman’s bane. ’Tis a pity they look so delectable in armor, otherwise I would say good riddance and be gladly done with them.”

Her outspokenness was startling to Adara, who would never speak of such things…Of course, she might think it, but she would
never
say such. Then again, Corryn spent a great deal of time in male company.

“Does Ioan know you think in this manner?”

“Ioan?” Corryn asked with a laugh. “He still thinks I’m ten-and-three in age. Would you believe he told the men that the reason they can’t ever let me see them naked is that I was once a prisoner in the Holy Land and that the Saracens…” She paused as if trying to think of a way to phrase her thoughts. “Well, please don’t be offended, but that my male member was cut off for spite and that if I saw any of theirs, it would either devastate me or cause me to go insane and kill them while they sleep. More like, Ioan would kill
them while they slept, but he would blame me for it nonetheless.”

“Are you serious?”

“Aye. The man is most mad. He claims ’tis also the reason my voice is so high and unchanged.” She rolled her eyes as if even the merest thought of Ioan were too much to bear. “But let us return to your problem with Christian. I think you should tie him down until he learns not to flee from you anymore. From what I hear of our men, a lot of them like that.”

Adara burst out laughing. “I sincerely doubt it.”

“Nay,” Corryn said sincerely. “I’m telling you, they have many fantasies about it. You’d be amazed at what I overhear.”

Then again, she would not. Adara knew from her own guards, who sometimes became talkative outside her chamber doors, how bawdy most men became when they didn’t realize a woman could hear them.

But the thought of a man wanting a woman to tie him down…

Ludicrous.

“Well, I can’t imagine Christian being such a man. I think he fears ties of any kind.”

“Well, then, I know of something else that will have him eating from your hand.”

“And that is?”

Corryn’s eyes glowed as she took a drink of wine before she answered. “Find your fool and
meet me in my room. Trust me, after this Christian will be begging you not to leave him.”

Christian had postponed returning to his room for as long as he could. It had been easy to avoid Adara in the past few weeks. They rode hard all day, then at night they had to pitch tents. By the time their cot was ready and he’d met with Ioan and the others, Adara had been asleep.

So he’d spent hours watching her sleep in his bed while damning himself for not sating the ache in his groin.

But to what purpose? Aye, he intended to stay with her now that their marriage was consummated, but he’d meant what he said about not loving her. There was no way under heaven he would allow himself that fallacy.

Completely exhausted by all the day’s events and from arguing with Ioan for the last three hours, he opened the door to their room, then paused.

Adara wasn’t asleep. She was sitting before the fire wearing nothing but her silk bliaut, mending a tear he’d gotten in his robe yesterday when one of the trunks he’d been trying to put onto a wagon had slipped and ripped his sleeve. God’s blood, she was beautiful sitting there like a peaceful angel, oblivious to everything around her.

Her raven hair fell free around her shoulders to her lap, and had waves in it from her earlier braid that she had worn all day. Cocking his head, he
watched as she knotted the thread, then bit through it. He swallowed at the sight of her white, perfect teeth and the image he had of her sinking them into his flesh…

Aye, she was a tempting siren as she worked.

The worst part…it was a homey scene she presented. One that made his entire body sizzle with need and ache with want.

She turned her head to see him standing in the doorway.

Christian straightened up immediately and pretended that he hadn’t been staring transfixed by her. He tried to act as if everything were right in the world and that his groin wasn’t swollen and aching for her touch.

“Good evening,” she said with a tender smile. “I wasn’t expecting you back so early.”

Early? ’Twas almost midnight. But then, given how late he had stayed out in the past to avoid the temptation that was her body, he supposed it was rather early for him to seek his bed.

“We shall have an early start. No doubt you will want to retire very shortly.”

Preferably in another room. Or better still, shire.

But alas, he wasn’t to have such a reprieve.

“Ah,” she said as she folded his robe and placed it in the small coffer that they shared. It was sad, really, that all they had with them fit into something so small.

As she set about readying herself for bed, Christian couldn’t help but notice that her silk garment
was so thin her nipples were plainly evident beneath the gauzy material…as was the dark triangle at the juncture of her thighs.

When she crossed before the fire, the whole of her body was clearly visible to him.

His mouth watered.

“I have warm mulled wine for you,” she said as she indicated a small flagon that was resting on an iron piece above a candle. “I thought it might help you rest.”

’Twould take sheer drunkenness to allow him rest after this torment.

Adara went and poured him a cup before she brought it to him.

Christian thanked her, then took a sip of the warm, rich brew. Still, it was no substitute for what he wanted to feel on his tongue.

“Here, Christian. Let me remove those stitches.”

She came forward to help him disrobe. Christian remained unmoving while she pulled his clothes from him. Her soft hands felt like heaven against his skin and he yearned to feel them against more of his body.

One part in particular.

When she had him stripped to the waist, she sat him down on a stool.

“Lean your head forward.”

His mind dulled by his rampant lust, he obliged her without question. She brushed her hands through his hair and gently massaged his scalp. It felt so good that he had to bite his tongue to keep
from moaning aloud. Her fingers slid around the contours of his skull, tugging ever so gently on his hair, stroking and teasing until the pleasure was almost blinding in its intensity.

Then she moved her hands lower to his neck and shoulders.

His body became liquid. “What is this you do?” he asked, his voice thick.

Adara kneaded her fingers into his rigid muscles, easing them. “’Tis something Corryn taught me. She said she learned it from an Asian woman she met in Venice four years past. Do you like it?”

“Aye,” he breathed as her hands worked magic on his body. Her touch was forceful yet so tender that it caused no pain, only joy.

“If you lie down on the bed,” she said, “I can get to more of your back.”

Adara pressed her lips together to keep from smiling as he quickly complied. Corryn had been right. Her husband wasn’t complaining or seeking to leave her now.

He lay down dutifully as if he craved her touch.

“Put your hands under your head,” she instructed before she gently kneaded the muscles of his back like Corryn had shown her. Adara couldn’t believe this was actually working. Mayhap she should have listened even more carefully about Corryn’s advice on how to handle men.

She bit her lip excitedly.

Christian exhaled as complete ecstasy went through him. He’d never felt the like. Her hands
worked magic on his sore, strained muscles, soothing him in a way nothing ever had before. There was truly no one else like his wife.

The fact that she tended him…

It would be so easy to let himself love her. Something about her completely erased the pain of his past. Just looking into her eyes was enough to make him feel better.

But then people died. He more than anyone knew that. He’d lived the whole of his youth surrounded by the grim reaper and he never wanted to bury another person who meant anything to him.

It hurt too much.

Adara felt him tensing. “Shhh, Christian,” she whispered in his ear, moving her hands back to his head, to stroke his scalp and temple. “Put your ill-founded thoughts aside and think of nothing but happiness.”

She began humming in an effort to help him.

Christian closed his eyes as her gentle voice soothed him as much as her hands did. He felt so incredibly calm. Peaceful. At no time in his life had he ever experienced anything close to this.

It was perfection.

And he owed it all to Adara.

Adara smiled as all the tension left him. She gently dug her thumbs under his shoulder blades, then moved her hands down his spine until she reached the small of his back.

She traced one of the scars there. It was deep and angry as it ran from his hip down across his
left buttocks. She wasn’t sure if it had been caused by a sword or some other weapon or fall. Either way, he would have had to suffer much whenever he received it.

So much pain…

Before she could stop herself, she leaned forward and placed her lips to that spot. She heard Christian hiss in pleasure, but he didn’t pull away from her.

Smiling with hope, she slowly trailed her lips up his spine to his muscled shoulders. Even with all the scars, his back was perfect to her. Beautiful.

And she wanted to taste every inch of him. To know him as a wife should know her husband.

Christian felt himself growing hard as she gently laved the scars on his back. It was strange to feel so much pleasure over something that had given him so much pain. But then, that was Adara. It was what she excelled at.

Rolling over, he caught her before she pulled away. He cupped her face in his hand, then brought her near to kiss her. He could taste the wine on her lips, the desire, feel the heat of her body.

And he wanted more.

Every day they had been together had been pure torture. Being so close to her and yet unable to touch her…

Now his resistance melted under the onslaught of her presence. He was too tired to fight, too weary to deny himself her comfort. Whether he
liked it or not, he needed her touch to soothe him.

Adara closed her eyes and let the masculine scent and feel of Christian wash over her. He tasted of decadence and power. She couldn’t believe that Corryn had been so right, but she was grateful to the woman for her advice.

His kiss was fierce and passionate, filled with promise.

Love me, Christian.

The words were a prayer deep in her soul. He was all she’d ever wanted in her life. How strange to have every comfort and luxury her wealth and position could provide and to still want the dream of her golden champion.

He’d been the symbol of all things good to her. He was love. Nobility. Passion. She couldn’t imagine lying with any man other than him.

She trembled as he left her lips to trail his kisses down her throat to her neck. His hot hand cupped her breast, spreading chills over her. His grip tightening, he pulled her beneath him so that his weight was pleasant yet crushing.

His caresses weren’t slow and playful as they’d been before. Tonight they were bold and fast, as if he couldn’t get enough of her. As if he wanted to touch every part of her body at once.

And she was every bit as hungry for him. Her body thrummed with fervent need that was stoked by his own urgency.

He pulled the hem of her bliaut up so that the lower half of her body lay bare to him.

“What have you done to me, Adara?” Christian whispered in her ear before he licked her lobe and sent white-hot chills exploding through her. “I crave you more than I have ever craved anything.”

Is that not how it should be between husband and wife?
But she didn’t say those words aloud. They would drive him away from her, she was sure of it.

“Show me how much you crave me, Christian,” she said instead. “I want to feel you inside me again.”

Christian’s groin jerked at her brazen words. He felt her hands unlacing his breeches before she slid them down to cup him in her hands. He rubbed himself against her touch, delighting in the coolness of her skin on his fevered flesh.

“How do I feel inside you, Adara?” he asked, wanting to hear her describe it.

“Full and warm. It’s as if I can feel the tip of you all the way to my navel.”

He growled as she cupped him and gave a light squeeze. Hissing, he rolled over until she was on top of him. “Show me what you like, my lady. Our passion is in your hands.”

She bit her lower lip as she pulled back and removed her bliaut. Christian held his breath as she sat up on her haunches and surveyed his body. She trailed a blinding circle around his nipple before she spread her thighs and straddled his body.

His heart thundering, he reached to touch the part of her that was now opened for his delight. He watched the ecstasy on her face as he gently
stroked her with his thumb until she was thoroughly wet for him.

Needing more, he slid her back until he was completely sheathed by her body.