Suzanne Robinson (21 page)

Then Gray gave a wordless snarl. “What foul blasphemy is this?”

The point of his sword came up to prick Clement’s robe over his heart. The friar cried out in alarm, and Juliana lost her temper. Darting at Gray, she shoved him off balance. As he stumbled, she put herself between him and Clement.

“There’s no sin or blasphemy here, except in your evil thoughts. Friar Clement is a most holy man. But I
shouldn’t wonder that you fail to recognize it, for you’re deep in the mire of sin and deceit and no doubt blinded to all good.” She backed up as Gray stalked toward her with an angry-wolf glare.

“Then what are you doing here addressing a friar in such a wheedling tone?”

Clement sighed and shook his head as he held up both hands and stepped between them. Juliana was relieved when Gray stopped coming at her to scowl at the friar.

Undisturbed, Clement said, “Peace and good be with you both.”

“You’re a Franciscan,” Gray said.

“Yes, my lord.”

“Forgive me, Friar, but Juliana has tried my patience past bearing with her ungovernable ways, and when I heard her, I thought—”

Now Clement was flustered. “Yes, yes, well, no ill was done.”

“Now you know who he is,” Juliana said, “so go away.”

Gray shook his head. “You and I have much to talk about. But first I want to know why you’re here. What cause have you to plead so with this friar?”

“You have no right to question me.”

“She wished to take vows,” Clement said calmly. “So that she couldn’t be forced to marry you.”

“Clement, no!” she exclaimed.

To Juliana’s annoyance, Gray let out a bark of laughter.

“Vows,” he chortled. “Juliana Welles, you know you’re not meant for holy vows. Didn’t we prove it so in the Lion’s Tower? Vows. God save me.”

Turning red, Juliana appealed to Clement. “You see? He has no reverence or honor.”

Gray’s laughter broke off, and he gave her a stern look.

“I grow weary of your sharp tongue. You and I are going to settle things between us this day. I’ll not have a
contentious and unruly wife, for all that she rouses me to unbounded lust with her hot and heady manner.”

“Arrogant liar.” Juliana’s hand went to the knife in her belt.

Gray lunged at her, and he snatched the knife as she drew it. Juliana tried to get it back, but he held it high above her head.

“I’m in no mood to let you impale me just because you won’t admit you want me in your bed, my joyance.”

“Ooooo! You piss-ridden, caitiff whoreson.”

“Peace, mistress,” Clement said. “I beseech you.”

Juliana heard the note of chagrin in the friar’s voice. Gray had shamed her in front of Clement, just as he’d shamed her at Wellesbrooke. Was there no place she could find refuge from indignity? Juliana made another grab for the knife, causing Gray to hold it higher. As his arm stretched, she suddenly ducked under it and ran. As she dashed from the cave, Clement grabbed Gray’s arm.

“Wait, my lord. Remember her temper.”

Furious and humiliated, Juliana could only think of escape from her tormentor. Blinking in the sunlight, she rushed toward her mare, but the animal was gone. Gray’s doing, no doubt. She heard his voice and Clement’s as she ran up the hillside; he would come after her. Her only chance was to hide where he wouldn’t find her. There was another, smaller cave almost at the summit of the hill.

Grasping at saplings and tree branches, she pulled herself up the steep slope. The soil was loose, and the footing precarious, but she managed to climb most of the way to the cave before running out of breath. The clearing and Clement’s cave were far below now. She stopped, clinging to a stunted shrub and gulped in air. Then she began to pull herself up again.

“Juliana!”

She cried out and whipped around, trying to see how close Gray was, and lost her balance. Her boots slipped on a thick layer of leaves and loose soil. Juliana shrieked as she hurtled down the steep hillside at an uncontrolled run. She couldn’t stop herself. Her body seemed to plunge down the slope as if dropped from a cathedral spire. She tried to scream, but her heart was crawling up her throat.

Below her Gray shouted at her and burst into flight. He ran at an angle to catch her, flung one arm around a sapling, and scooped her up as she soared by him. Juliana felt her feet leave the ground. She careened into him, and he pulled her to his chest.

Gripping his tunic, Juliana clung to him, buried her face in his neck, and burst into tears. She tried to say something between pants and gasps, but all that came out was “Oh, oh, oh.” Gray braced himself against the sapling and wrapped both arms around her. She felt his lips on the top of her head.

“Are you hurt, my love? Juliana, answer me.”

“I—I c-couldn’t stop.”

Although she hated herself for her cowardice, one look down the sheer slope made her twist her hands in his tunic again and bury her face in his shoulder.

“But you’re safe now,” he said as he stroked her hair. “Come, we must get you off this hillside before you take flight again.”

Sniffing, Juliana wiped her eyes with her sleeve and turned in the circle of his arms. Her gaze met the steep incline. The ground seemed to dip and fall from beneath her feet. She gasped, and her knees buckled as she turned and threw her arms around his neck. He caught her and swore.

“Here, my joyance, put your arm around my waist. See? I’ve got you. We’ll climb down together.”

She listened to his calm, soothing voice for a moment. It wasn’t the words that allayed her fears and restored her strength; it was that tall, rampartlike body that supported her when the very ground beneath her seemed to give way. She remembered how he’d snatched her from the air with one arm. He wouldn’t let her plunge to her death.

Thus assured, Juliana was able to descend the slope with his assistance. Her fear ebbed the farther down the hill they went. By the time they reached the clearing, she’d regained her wits. She loosened her grip on him, intending to step away and leave. Dropping an arm behind her, he bent and swept her up in his arms.

“What are you doing?”

“I told you we were going to talk.”

Despite her curses and protests, he carried her back to Clement’s cave. The friar was nowhere in sight.

“Clement, Clement, help me!”

“He’s gone to the village,” Gray said as he set her on her feet.

The moment she was free she tried to rush around him, but he stepped in her path. Juliana almost bumped into him, but stepped back just in time. He was between her and the cave entrance.

“You’re over your fright, it seems.”

“Let me pass,” she said.

He shook his head, but he wasn’t looking at her face any longer. His glance had strayed to her chest. Juliana frowned and looked down at herself.

“Thunder of heaven!”

The neck of her gown was laced up the front from a point just below her breasts. Somehow, during her flight down the hill the lacing had come free and her undertunic had torn. Her breasts were exposed almost to the
nipple. Juliana drew the edges of the tunic together and scowled at Gray.

“I’m not going to talk to you. And cease staring at me in that lewd manner.”

“Why?”

Nonplussed, all thought seemed to vanish from her mind. Her fingers twisted in the laces and torn fabric at her chest. He was waiting for an answer, his eyes visible to her in the half-light of the cave entrance. She felt so odd under that emerald gaze. Being looked at by this man made her feel hot and disturbed and right lascivious. Each time they’d been alone, he had worked some magic that stirred her senses. Her body spoke in a strange language when she was with him. Holy Trinity, he was smiling at her in that pagan, sensual way that no good Christian ought to. Why, indeed.

“Why, Sir Knave …” She stopped for a moment because she sounded like a breathless child. “Because your stare is most unchivalrous.”

He took another step toward her and spoke in a compelling, sorcerer’s voice. “But Juliana, you hate it when I’m chivalrous.”

It was that voice that caused her dread. Not because of its threat, but because it made her want to obey. She stepped back and held out a hand to ward him off.

“I said go away. I’ll not speak with you.”

“For once you’re right,” he said roughly as his gaze raked over her. “This isn’t the time for discourse.”

He came toward her then, and Juliana bolted into the cave. She knew the place, and he didn’t. All she had to do was lose him in the blackness and slip around him while he wandered in search of her. She plunged deep into blackness, then stopped so that he couldn’t hear her footsteps. She’d heard him running after her, but when she had stopped, he had too.

Quietly and slowly, she drifted over to a wall and began to sidle toward the mouth of the cave. She was still deep in the bowel of the cavern. Although her eyes were open as wide as they would go, she couldn’t see a speck of light. She put out her hand, waving it back and forth so that she didn’t run into an outcropping of rock. Her palm met cold rock, and she moved her hand in the other direction.

She screamed as Gray snatched her wrist.

“Got you.”

Juliana burst into motion. She flailed at him with her free arm and kicked. They wrestled for a moment, and then their legs entangled. Suddenly they both lost their balance. With their feet tripping over each other, they had no purchase. She fell against Gray, who lost what was left of his balance. In the blackness she plummeted toward the ground and landed on top of him.

She recovered from the jolt first. Shoving her palms against his chest so that he gasped, she pushed herself up and slid down his body to land on the cave floor between his legs. As she moved, she heard him suck in his breath. Turning her back to him, she began untangling her legs from her skirt. She got to her knees, but he sat up then and caught her.

Juliana hadn’t realized she was still sitting between his legs facing away from him. His arms came around her and pulled her between his thighs and against his chest. One arm snaked beneath her breasts while the other covered her hips. She pounded his legs and arms until he squeezed her hard enough to stop her breathing.

Loosening his grip, he nuzzled through the abundance of her hair until he found her ear and whispered, “I’ve taken enough of your pounding. No more.”

“Then let me go.”

“I can’t, my joyance.”

There was a short silence during which she could hear his breathing grow heavy.

“You should never have wriggled down my body like some wicked incubus,” he said harshly.

“But I had to get off you,” Juliana said as she began to wriggle in an effort to free herself. “By my troth, you’re a troublesome knave.”

“Be still!”

She obeyed out of astonishment at the force of his shout. It echoed off the unseen wails and high ceiling of the cavern. They remained as they were, each breathing more and more roughly the longer they touched. Gradually Juliana became aware of her breasts. Her nipples were tingling. The feeling made her want to squirm, and it was all she could do to refrain.

Suddenly she felt him move. The hair that hung down her back was parted, exposing her neck, and he gently raked his teeth along it. Reaction shot through her body as it never had before. Her back arched and a knot of sheer titillation burst into existence between her legs. She heard a gasp, then realized it was her own. His tongue followed the same agonizing path down the back of her neck. This time she groaned.

“Ahhh,” he murmured. “So this is the secret.”

What secret? His hands rubbed their way to her breasts. His fingers found her nipples. Her eyes opened wide, seeing nothing, and she mouthed a protest. It died in another gasp when he responded by raking his teeth down her neck again. Her back arched, shoving her breasts against his hands.

Never had she experienced such churning, pleasureful torment. Even as she felt his hands slip inside her gown to knead her bare flesh, Juliana realized she might never feel this again. His lips teased the back of her neck. His hands worked down to her breasts, exposed them. Wherever
they roamed, they brought heat. The agony between her legs grew, and she began to writhe.

This time she felt something against her buttocks. He was rigid there. Without knowing why, she felt the urge to turn and thrust herself against that hardness. She tried to, but he stopped her by finding her lips and kissing her. One hand roamed over her breasts while the other drifted lightly down to her hip and the inside of her thigh. He urged her legs apart, then stopped.

“Say yes, my joyance,” he whispered as she arched against him. “I seek not to pillage and destroy, but to do your good pleasure. “Say yes, I beseech you.”

She didn’t want to think about the world outside this black cavern, or what might come after. His desire might be fleeting, and she might pay at his hands for her weakness. But his beauty and his artistry gave her such unparalleled pleasure. She wanted it. This she would have for herself, with this man who stirred her past bearing.

“Yes.”

He wouldn’t let her turn to him. Holding her mouth with his, he slipped his hand beneath her skirts to touch the top of her boot. Fingertips traced a path from her knee to her inner thigh, up and up toward that knot of burgeoning sensation. They lightly touched her. Juliana shrank away then, but his mouth left hers to whisper encouragement and to plead. But her body refused to slacken its rigidity until he nipped at the back of her neck. The teasing bites plunged her into chaos. She nearly doubled over in an attempt to escape, and her hands gripped his thighs.

When her fingers dug into the muscles that ran along the inside of his thighs, his hand returned to her core and began to caress her. At that first touch, Juliana bucked and reached up to tangle her fingers in his hair. Her legs
spread wider with each teasing touch. The feeling built and built until they began to rock against each other.

Her body burned and the knot of titillation swelled at his encouragement. Then he pinched her nipple, and she cried out. She thrust up against his hand, and as she moved, he came with her, lifting her and placing her on the ground. His hand returned to bedevil her. Again she arched her back while pulling him toward her without knowing what she sought.