The Bride and the Brute (7 page)

“Satan,” the man answered with a curt nod. “And not a more befitting name could there be.” The man turned his back on her and moved away.

Jayce watched the horse as it stared down at her with the blackest eyes she had ever seen, eyes round with fright. “You alone, too, boy?” she asked softly, trying to calm the animal.

“They just don’t understand, do they? It takes time, that’s all. You can’t just go in and demand an animal as grand as you behave.” She smiled gently and looked down at her hands. “Did Reese tell you that you mean nothing to him, too? Or does he reserve that humiliation for me?”

The horse nickered and pranced a few steps away before turning his back to her.

Jayce sighed slightly. “I won’t give up on you so easily,” she whispered.

Chapter Fourteen

Reese sat on the bed in the guest room he planned to occupy until the situation with Jayce was worked out. James bent over at his side, probing a bruise with his fingers. “I told you I’m fine,” Reese growled.

“Far be it from me to argue, sir,” James mumbled. He straightened and presented Reese with his white tunic.

Reese snatched it from his hands just as a knock came at the door.

James moved to answer the knock, but before he reached the door it swung open, and Nicole swept into the room. “Well done, Reese,” Nicole ridiculed.

Reese grunted.

“You’ve humiliated both your brother and your wife in one afternoon.”

“Humiliated?” Reese exploded, pulling the tunic into place. “What has Jayce got to be humiliated about? I gave her a place of honor! She is a guest here.”

“She is your wife,” Nicole fumed. “She deserves to be recognized as such.”

“I don’t have a wife.” Yet, even as he said it, he saw a vision of beauty. A chivalrous, brave beauty, rushing to save him on the field of honor. Even though I didn’t need saving, a stubborn voice inside him reminded. Still, what a brave, unselfish act, branding herself honorless to save him.

“Oh, please. Not that argument again! You treated Jayce deplorably,” Nicole said, intruding on his thoughts.

He straightened off of the bed. “I protected her honor,” Reese countered. “Even against my own brother.”

“She gave up her honor because she saw you were hurt. She lied to protect you.”

“Lied?”

“You don’t truly think she planned my kidnapping? Don’t be a fool. She knew nothing about it.”

“She told you this?”

Nicole shook her head sadly. “She doesn’t need to. And all you could do was embarrass her.”

“I did not embarrass her.”

“You said she meant nothing to you.”

“She doesn’t,” Reese grumbled, but could not meet Nicole’s eyes. He moved to the window to stare out at the darkening sky. Can Nicole be right? Reese wondered. In attempting to make Jayce welcome as a guest at Castle Harrington, have I made matters worse? “Where is she?”

Nicole raised an eyebrow. “I don’t know.”

Reese whirled on Nicole. “What do you mean you don’t know?”

“I haven’t seen her since the joust.”

Reese marched past his sister and moved toward the door. He threw it open with such force it slammed against the stone wall with a thunderous boom. He strode through the hallways like an ominous storm cloud. Two servants pressed themselves tightly against the wall to give him plenty of room to pass. One of the castle hounds quickly slunk into a side hallway at his approach.

How dare she twist his generosity into something he should feel guilty about? What did she expect of him? Or was it Nicole making him feel this way? When he found Jayce, he would make it very clear to her that he would never be forced into marriage with a woman he didn’t love. He wanted a happy life, a happy and devoted wife, someone to cherish him and their children. He would make it clear to Jayce he would not feel guilty about his position anymore.

And he would make it very clear that she should not look at him with those deep, innocent blue eyes any longer.

After a quick, fruitless search of the great hall, he headed toward the master bedroom. Jayce must have returned there after the joust. He threw open the door and entered. “I would speak with you---” His voice died like a wavering candle extinguished by a whiplash breeze. The torchlight from the wall flickered over the undisturbed bed. The room was empty.

The shutters framing the window banged in the breeze, drawing his attention. He moved to the window to gaze out on his lands. Darkness had claimed his domain. An uneasiness snaked its way through his body. She was out there. In unfamiliar lands. Unprotected.

Reese dashed from the room and raced out into the courtyard, his usual calm gait turning to a run as he sped toward the stables. He reached the building just as the stable master was locking the animals up for the night. With a curt command from Reese, the old man quickly reopened the doors. Reese brushed by him without a word and dashed into the stables. He guided his horse from its stall and pulled himself up onto his back, wasting no time in trying to saddle the animal. He had often ridden bareback when he was a child, enjoying the freedom it gave him.

But there was no enjoyment now, only a slowly building panic.

His stomach twisted as he imagined Jayce lying on the road somewhere, hurt and bleeding.

He quickly pushed the thought aside, telling himself this was his village, and no one would dare to harm her. Still, Morse’s hurtful words rose in his mind, and he knew it was not only physical things that could wound her. Guilt rose in Reese’s heart, and he knew if anyone had hurt her, it had been him.

He spurred the horse on. As he raced toward the village, riding past the enclosure that housed Satan, Reese wondered where to start his search. But then the eerie silence caught his attention. Satan’s incessant snorts and whinnies of disapproval were nowhere to be heard.

Reese reined in his horse, his gaze scanning the moon-kissed pasture. Where is that infernal beast? he wondered.

Then, he saw an apparition bathed in the glow of the moon, a ghostly vision floating above the fence surrounding the grazing land. The night’s breeze ruffled her dress and danced through the silken strands of her hair.

Reese squinted and blinked. The spirit abruptly vanished, and in its place he saw Jayce standing precariously on the fence. She held something in her hand that flapped in the breeze. It took a moment for Reese to realize it was a blanket. Then, he heard her calling to the beast.

Reese spurred his steed toward her as she sat on the top plank of the fence, beginning to ease herself over the side of the wooden barricade. Outrage and disbelief flashed through Reese. She was going into Satan’s pen. Didn’t she know how dangerous and unpredictable the warhorse was?

Before she could climb fully into the pen, Reese reached around her tiny waist and hauled her from the fence onto his own steed. “Are you out of your mind?” he demanded. His reprimand died in his throat as she turned those brilliant eyes on him. Those dangerous eyes.

Eyes that captured the pale light of the moon and radiated its energy back tenfold. Eyes that were capable of capturing much more than just the moon’s glow.

“What are you doing here?” she asked.

Her bottom pressing against his thighs caught him off guard, and for a brief moment he imagined what she would look like lying beneath him in the throes of ecstasy.

He silently shook himself and frowned, trying to regain control of the situation. “I might ask the same of you.”

“Where am I supposed to be?” she wondered.

The innocence of her question, the pure, untainted honesty of it, touched his heart. Where indeed? he queried. “Well, certainly not near this beast,” Reese retorted, glancing at Satan. The horse snorted once, indignantly, its dark eyes absorbing the moonlight but giving nothing back but blackness. “What in heaven’s name were you thinking climbing over the gate into his pen?

Don’t you know he could have trampled you?”

“It’s chilly,” she replied. “I was going to put this blanket on him.” She held up a worn cover.

Reese’s gaze shifted from the blanket clutched in her delicate hands to her eyes. “He has never worn a blanket at night. He won’t let anyone close enough to put one on.”

“You can hardly blame him after the whipping the groom gave him.”

“He wouldn’t need a whipping if he were not so uncontrollable.”

“You don’t tame an animal by whipping it and bullying it into subservience.”

She was gazing at the wretched beast with admiration. A slow, soft smile curved Reese’s lips as he stared down at the woman in his arms. He still held her close, his arm wrapped around her waist, his hand splayed against her flat stomach. Was he gazing at her with as much admiration as she was bestowing on the horse? Then he shook himself, and resolve sealed off the fracture she had begun to create in the stone wall he had built around his heart.

“He needs to be loved,” she added softly.

The words pried the fracture open wider. He knew the woman he held in his arms was unlike any he had known before. Brave and kind and beautiful. And thrust upon him by evil coercion. The thought that she had somehow worked her way into his mind, infiltrated his body like an invader, angered him. “Stay away from him,” Reese growled. “He’ll cause you nothing but misery.”

Jayce turned her eyes to his. Again, he felt that wash of affection overtake him and race through his veins, filling his very blood with the spirit of her being. Her eyes were large and trusting, her nose pert and turned up just a bit, her cheekbones high and well-defined. But it was her lips that attracted his attention. They were red and full and parted. Wisps of her hair curled forward, framing her face. A lovelier portrait of a woman could never be painted. Reese found himself lowering his head to hers, moving his own lips closer to hers, as if caught in some kind of magical bliss.

Satan pawed the ground, snorting, white puffs of steam erupting from his nostrils. The spell broken, Reese jerked back from Jayce, startling his horse, who lurched forward, slamming Jayce against his body.

Was that disappointment that filled her eyes? Or relief?

“I’ll take you back to the castle,” he said, and spurred the horse on.

But Jayce slipped from his grasp and his fingers brushed her breasts, sending a jolt of desire flaming through his body. She landed smoothly on the ground. “I have to put the blanket on Satan,” she insisted.

Her determination made Reese furious. Hadn’t he just told her the creature wouldn’t let anyone near it? Didn’t he just tell her it was dangerous? Reese quickly dismounted and stormed over to her, ripping the blanket from her hands. “You will stay away from that monster,” he commanded. He put his hand on the top rail and easily hurdled the fence, cursing silently as he landed just inside the pen.

How had he gotten himself into this position? He gritted his teeth as the warhorse turned surprised eyes to him.

“Come here, you damned beast,” he snarled, unfurling the blanket before him.

“No,” Jayce urged from behind him. “Speak softly to him. As if he were a friend.”

“I would speak softly to no friend of mine,” he growled, approaching the horse. Out of the corner of his eye, he saw her pulling herself onto the gate. “All right!” Reese called, holding his hand out to stop her. He locked gazes with Satan. “Wretched beast,” he grumbled. He cleared his throat. “Ummm. It appears to be a chilly night.” Reese scratched at his cheek. He glanced back at Jayce to see her watching him expectantly.

He felt ridiculous.

She urged him on with a gentle wave of her hand.

Reese turned back to the horse. “Why don’t you wear this?”

The horse snorted and took a step away from him, pawing the ground.

“This isn’t working,” Reese growled immediately.

“Yes, it is,” Jayce answered in a soft, coaxing voice. “You’re doing fine. Try again.”

Reese looked at the horse. “We wouldn’t want you to catch your death, now would we?”

There was thick sarcasm in his voice. “Now just stay put and we’ll have this on you in a---” He took a step closer.

The animal whinnied and reared slightly. Reese stubbornly refused to move as the horse pranced closer to him.

“Not this time,” he warned. “I won’t tolerate your temperament. I know you don’t much like me, and I could care even less for you. But it’s for Jayce. Just stay still a moment longer and let me put this on you.” He took a step closer, mumbling so only he and the horse could hear, “You wretched beast.”

The warhorse swung his snout forward and hit Reese hard in the stomach. The air exploded out of his lungs and he fell backward onto his backside. Reese looked up to see the horse’s sharp hooves pawing the air above him, kicking wildly just above his head.

Chapter Fifteen

Satan’s hooves slashed the air. But then the beast was gone, and in the animal’s place was the apparition Reese had seen on the fence. He lay still for a moment, a stunned grogginess clouding his thoughts. The vision was standing very close to the horse. Then he realized this seraph was Jayce! The thought of her in the demon’s pen sent tremors of terror racing through Reese’s body. His mind cleared instantly, and he lunged forward, pulling her against his chest, rolling away from the monster. When his momentum stopped, Reese lifted his head to find Satan at the other side of the pen.

“I guess you’re all right,” Jayce murmured.

His gaze was drawn to her. She was trapped beneath him, and Reese became instantly aware of the press of her breasts against his chest. Desire flared in his veins. He scowled, angry that any woman could arouse his passion so completely and uncontrollably quick. “I told you to stay out of the pen,” he growled after catching his breath.

“You were in trouble,” she replied. “I---”

“I didn’t need your help,” he answered. Reese pushed himself from the ground and held a hand out to her.

Jayce sat up. Reese could see the same agony etched over her features as he had seen on the field of honor. She ignored his hand and stood, dusting her palms on her dress.