Love's Call (18 page)

She flashed a smile that had his stomach flipping as she snuggled closer. Avril rested her head on his chest, her hand tucked next to her cheek.

Roduch rubbed her back until her breathing fell into a deep, even rhythm.

Avril shifted closer in her sleep, her knee brushing his manhood, which shot to hard and throbbing in about two seconds.

He shook his head, willing it soft.

He groaned.

Should’ve stayed in the chair.

He would’ve had a better chance at real sleep.

Chapter Sixteen

No amount of battery, intimidation, or gold was getting Tynan anywhere, no matter how many inns in Greenwald he’d visited.

He paced in the room he’d rented at the
White Sage Pub
, but that wasn’t helping, either.

A ruckus outside the open window had him glancing down and scowling when he saw what the fuss was about.

Knights.

The group was a half-dozen strong, mail and armor clad, flying the pale green and silver flag of the Province, the seal of a howling white wolf depicted on it. Only a few of them wore helms. They observed the evening market crowd, nodding to the people as they rode slowly.

“What the hell?” Tynan asked the empty room, staring at the procession moving down the main thoroughfare.

“Nothing’s wrong.” A female voice pulled him from his thoughts, and he glared at the maid, who’d entered his room without permission. “They often patrol Greenwald Main in addition to the Provost’s marshals. Lord Aldern cares for his people.”

Tynan glared, and the smile fell from her face.

She stilled in the doorway, and his eyes rested on the tray in her arms, the full trencher of food. Steam wafted from the baked potato, as well as the slab of gravy-covered meat. His stomach snarled, reminding him his last meal had been very early that morning. But she didn’t have to know that.

“Did I call for you?” he barked.

“I’m sorry, milord. Your man bid me permission to come up.” She lowered her head.

Damn
Harlan.

Tynan’s gaze travelled her frame. Too round at the hip, but she might do for his aching cock. It’d been too long. Maybe he should thank his steward for the gift. “Where are my men?”

“They dine below, milord.”

“Shut the door and place the tray on the table,” Tynan ordered.

“Milord?”

“Do it and come here.”

The girl set the tray down as instructed, but squared her shoulders and glared. “I am not a whore. If you want one, I can get you one.”

“I didn’t ask for another. I told you to come here,” Tynan growled.

“My father owns this place.”

“I don’t recall asking. I own vast properties and have much gold.”

She didn’t even flinch at his honest brag.

He stalked over and closed the door, but was careful not to slam it.

The girl was small, like Avril, but that was where the comparison stopped. Her hair was blond, eyes were blue, and her body too fulsome.

He yanked the kerchief covering her fair locks. She whimpered when Tynan leaned to inhale her scent. She smelled good. Clean. Like an expensive whore should.

When he rested his hands on her shoulders, she started to shake.

“Don’t worry, I don’t want your cunt. I want your mouth.”

“I’m married.”

Ah, so the hips were due to something Avril had failed to do for him. The one had given her husband children.

“And? Your husband knows you work in an inn. Surely I’m not the first man to require your services.”

“My father
owns
my place of employ. I am not a whore. Let me get Betha for you. She’s our most popular.” Big tears made tracks down her cheeks, but her voice was steady.

That just turned him on more. “You will suck my cock. And I will pay for you.”

Her eyes widened and she shook her head.

His erection strained his breeches. Tynan guided her hand to his crotch, groaning when her palm made contact. He rocked his hips into her hand. His member throbbed when the girl whimpered.

“I thought you were in search of your lost wife, milord.”

“You do not speak of her unless you have information to help my quest. Have you seen her?” He grabbed her shoulders and shook her.

“No, milord. I remember everyone. She has not come into the
White Sage.
But I can help you. I will help you. Please, don’t force me. I know people that can ask around. I can get someone to help find her. Someone who knows the Province better than anyone. Please let me go downstairs.”

Begging made his blood boil and his cock pulse. He liked it best when Avril had begged him to stop. Pity, his wife hadn’t done that for turns.

“Get on your knees, and I won’t kill you.”

Sucking in a big sniffle, the girl did what he’d ordered, but she trembled from head to toe, quietly sobbing.

Both made him want her more.

“Open my belt. Touch me. Stroke me. Suck me. Show me you’re married. Show me you know your way around a man.”

She whimpered, but reached for his belt. When his buckle lay open, the girl slowly tugged the ties on his breeches open without being told.

Tynan patted her head. “Good girl. You follow commands well. I bet your husband enjoys you. If you’re good, I will thank him with more coin.”

“Your supper is getting cold,” she whispered, her face soaked with tears.

“Yours is waiting to be released. Do it now. You’re too slow.” Actually the anticipation made him harder.

He watched her plump lips, imagined her tongue moving up and down him in rhythm with her hand. He’d come in that luscious mouth, his seed would slide down her throat.

A shudder racked his frame and Tynan waited for her hand to bare him, encircle him.

Right when her fingers brushed his bare skin, the door to his room was thrown open.

“Sire.” Harlan panted, his chest heaving. Thick salt and pepper hair stood up at all angles from his run up the stairs. The steward looked at the girl, then back at Tynan and bowed deeply. “My apologies, sire. I had no idea you were indisposed.”

“What the hell is it, Harlan?” Tynan barked.

“We must leave now.”

“Why?”

“Your wife has been seen.”

Chapter Seventeen

After leaving Jorrin’s ledger room, Ansley consumed Leargan’s thoughts. Avril had been through much too much for a girl of eight and ten.

He couldn’t stop seeing his betrothed’s teal gaze, her smile, hearing her laughter as Avril confessed all her bastard former husband did with her magic. If someone so much as looked at Ansley with ill intentions, Leargan would kill them.

Tynan Mont was a murderer, rapist and master manipulator. He needed to pay, and he
would.
There was a place for him in Dread Valley, the penal territory of the continent, located in the South Eastern most Province, Dalunas.

The place was a sevenday and a half ride at best, but he’d love to be the one to slap the manacles on the bastard and lead the charge.

If he could keep Roduch from killing him. Leargan hadn’t broached the subject just yet, but he was going to attempt to leave the big knight out of the arrest entirely.

He smirked. If they knocked Roduch out and left in the dead of the night,
maybe
it would work. He was going to fight him on it, without a doubt. Probably would ignore a direct order from Jorrin.

Even if his friend didn’t realize it yet, he was in love with Avril. It was written all over the knight’s face. They might not have known each other long, but it didn’t matter. Roduch looked at her the way Jorrin and Tristan looked at their wives.

Seeing the large rock-steady man an emotional wreck over a woman should’ve shaken Leargan in his boots. But it only made him think of Ansley.

Ansley.

He needed to see her now.

“She’s in the tub,” Daicy said, pulling the door to the guest chamber shut. “I was just going to get fresh bathing linens.”

Leargan’s blood warmed and rushed in his ears; he fought for coherent thought.

Ansley. Naked.

“I’ll be right back,” the maid said, disappearing around the corner in the wide corridor. The nearest supply closet wasn’t far.

Shifting on his feet, he warred with what he wanted and what was right. His manhood stirred at the mere thought of his betrothed bared to him.

Their picnic flickered in his mind. Leargan had touched her, tasted her perfect breasts that day. How he’d had the control to
stop
still shocked him. He wouldn’t survive that again.

Leave. Now. Before you can’t.

“Here you go, sir.” Daicy pushed two fresh bathsheets into his chest.

“W—what?”
Stuttering?
Leargan cleared his throat.

“The soap’s right next to her, but she’s about done.”

Leargan looked at the soft material in his arms, then back into Daicy’s dancing brown eyes. No words came. Heat crept up his neck.

“You’d better get in there. Mistress Ansley’s going to get cold.”

“We can’t have that.” His voice cracked.

The maid winked and curtseyed before she headed away from him, whistling.

Leargan gave up on the idea of leaving. He slipped into Ansley’s room.

He heard the menacing growl the same moment as the splash and feminine yelp. He turned as quickly as he could and backed until he hit the door, eyes locked onto the black wolf.

On all fours, Ali stalked him.

“Ali, no!” Ansley’s order froze her bondmate before him.

The she-wolf whined but didn’t take her yellow eyes off him. After a few softer commands, Ali plastered her tail between her legs and sprinted to her mistress.

Ansley smoothed a hand down the her bond’s back, whispering until Ali licked her cheek and lay down by the friendly fire, claiming the hearth like normal.

“Leargan?” Ansley asked.

He shook himself.

Still in the bath. Naked from head to toe.

His erection went from half-mast to full steam ahead.

She didn’t look away, though her cheeks went crimson.

“Ansley…” Leargan croaked. He couldn’t tear his gaze from her shimmery wet skin.

She drew her knees to her chest, wrapping her arms around herself, but she offered a shy smile.

“She
is
going to eat me one of these days,” Leargan said, grasping for some control. He gestured to the wolf, but took a step toward her.

Ansley laughed, and it took his breath away. “Well…you came into my room, unannounced, and I’m…” She gestured to the tub. Then she tilted her head to one side, a twinkle in her teal eyes. “It’s funny, she never growls at Daicy.”

“Daicy said you were almost done.” Words fell from his mouth. He couldn’t even respond to her jibe. Leargan waved the clean bathsheets. “She gave me these.”

“Oh, is that right?” Ansley grinned.

“Aye.” He stared.

Virgin.

Leave now. You need to leave.

His erection throbbed, helping him ignore his conscience. Why hadn’t he left before Daicy had come back with the bathing linens?

“Why do you think Ali only growls at you?” She arched a brow.

Ansley was the most adorable thing he’d ever seen. He wanted her even more.

Leargan shrugged. “I have no idea. I’m harmless.” He grinned at her rich peel of laughter.

“That, Sir Leargan, I do not believe at all.”

He winked and closed the distance to the wooden tub.

She stood, her cheeks reddening even more.

Leargan’s chest tightened and he gave up on trying not to stare. She was gorgeous, and she was
his.
His breath caught as he perused her.

The water sloshed in the tub, taking his attention. His gaze followed the curve of her right calf, pausing at her knee, and continuing up to her thighs, his heartbeat increasing as he went. He stopped when his eyes rested on the red curls at the apex of her thighs.

Leargan gulped. He could see her,
all
of her. His imagination hadn’t done her justice.

Ansley wrapped her arms around her slim waist. Her hips curved subtly, and memories teased of how they felt pressing into his, moving against him, under him, the day they’d gone to the lake.

“I should go,” he breathed.

She was
perfect
.

Her breasts were large and inviting. His erection pulsed, threatening to punch through his breeches.

Leargan needed to go, before he couldn’t. But repetition of the idea did nothing to make it sink in.

It’s already too late.

“Aye, you should.” Ansley’s voice shuddered with obvious desire. Her eyes were already heavy-lidded and darker.

“Aye, I should,” Leargan repeated lamely. Instead of turning tail, he lifted one of the bathsheets, shaking it open and holding it wide.

“I don’t want you to,” she whispered. Ansley stepped out of the tub, raising her arms and grinning. “Are you going to dry me?”

He forced his arms to wrap the linen around her slim form, struggling for normal breath.

What the hell is wrong with you?

He’d seen women naked before. Had more than he could name. Why was Ansley Fraser rocking him to his core?

Her shoulders glistened with water droplets in the dim candlelight of her room, and Leargan wiped them dry with his hands. He drew her into his arms, the linen drying sheet between them.

The heat of her damp breasts sank into the soft fabric of the pale blue tunic he’d donned after his own bath.

She pressed forward, encircling his neck with her arms. The bathing linen fell to the floor.

Leargan groaned and lowered his head.

Ansley met him halfway, kissing him back. Opening for him, their tongues dueling.

He had to have her. He crushed her to him, molding her body to his. Resistance was futile. Leargan wanted her more than he’d ever wanted a woman.

Ansley was right; there was no reason to wait until they were wed. He’d make her belong to him right then and there.

“We shouldn’t do this.” Reason broke into his head, and he panted against her chest.

“We’ll be married, will we not?”

“Of course.”

Ansley’s eyes lit up, and she gave a brilliant smile that set his heart pounding. “Then what does it matter, now or then?”

“Because I always try to do the right thing. And taking a maid’s innocence outside of marriage isn’t exactly proper, love.”