Timestruck (14 page)

“How I have wanted you,” he whispered,
returning every touch she bestowed on him with his own tender
caresses. “Since the first day I met you, my beautiful Gina, I have
longed to hold you this way.”

She started to protest that she wasn’t
beautiful, but the words caught in her throat, for Dominick had
just reached the hot, liquid center of her, and his fingers were
working a magic she had never dared to hope for.

“Please,” she gasped, her hands stroking down
his back, trying to pull him closer. She was a great, throbbing
emptiness, and only Dominick could bring her the release she
sought.

He filled her so slowly that she feared she
would go mad from the drawn-out pleasure of it. He withdrew and
repeated the slow, sliding motion. And did it again. And again.

Gina dissolved into a pulsating joy that went
on and on as Dominick thrust faster and harder into her convulsing
body, until she heard his gasp of pleasure and he went completely
still.

It was a long time before she returned to the
full knowledge that she was lying naked, in a state of complete
physical contentment, on an old straw pallet in a dusty attic.

“This was no proper place to bed you,”
Dominick said, smiling down at her, “especially not the first
time.”

“It seemed like heaven to me.” He had said
the first time, as if there were going to be other times. The
thought made her smile, too. She stretched, feeling Dominick’s
strong legs still tangled with hers, and lifted her face for his
kiss.

“If I could find the way back to New York
City,” she murmured, “you could go with me. You’d be safe
there.”

His smile vanished. His face went perfectly
still. An instant later he lifted himself away from her and reached
for his tunic. When he spoke again, his voice was harsh.

“I belong here,” he told her. “This is my
home. And, whether you like it or not, Gina, you are still
traveling to Regensburg with me.”

“You can’t tell me what to do.” In the warm
attic she stood naked, facing him in outrage. “I am a free and
independent woman. I have rights. Don’t imagine you can order me
around just because you had sex with me.”

“Let me give you a lesson about this century,
since you claim to be a stranger to it,” Dominick said. Flinging
aside the tunic he hadn’t put on yet, he planted his fists on his
hips, assuming the posture of a male who was absolutely certain of
his own power and dominance. “There isn’t a person in Francia who
will dare to deny me my rights. I am master here, and you will obey
me. You gave yourself to me willingly. No force was involved
between us. It seemed to me that what we did was more than the
simple, lustful rutting your crude words imply, and, I confess, I
enjoyed it greatly. Nevertheless, I will not be charmed by feminine
wiles or coerced by foolish female anger. You will travel to
Regensburg with me.”

“You miserable male chauvinist!” Infuriated
by his attitude, Gina lifted one hand to slap him. He caught her
wrist, twisting her arm behind her back and forcing her against his
unclothed body. She went rigid, fighting the effect on her mind of
that sensuous contact of skin to skin.

“Is this how you treated your wife?” she
snarled at him. “No wonder she ran away to a convent.”

“What do you know of Hiltrude?”

The distrust was back on his face, making
Gina regret her impulsive words. But she wasn’t going to back
down.

“I wear Hiltrude’s clothes every day,” she
said. “Hedwiga told me that she divorced you.”

“That is inaccurate,” Dominick responded. “It
was I who ended my marriage to Hiltrude. Would you like to know
why?”

“Let me guess. Did she refuse to obey her
masters orders?” It was a nasty remark, but Gina couldn’t help
herself. She did want to hear Dominick’s version of the breakup, so
it was a good thing he ignored her comment.

“Hiltrude was Fastrada’s agent. Fastrada
suggested our marriage to Charles and promoted the idea until he
agreed.”

“You could have refused to marry her,” Gina
said.

“Refuse the king to whom I owe my lands and
title, the man who has been a second father to me, when he arranged
my marriage to a nobly born and well-dowered virgin? I think not.
In fact, I was willing. In those days I was not yet aware of
Hiltrude s duplicity.”

“Did you love her?” Gina asked.

“I tried. For a while I thought I did love
her, until I learned she was involved in one of Fastrada’s
intrigues. The contempt and lack of interest in her that I felt
when the truth was revealed told me I had never loved her at
all.”

“So you were a gentleman and let Hiltrude get
the divorce,” Gina said. “How did you manage it? I thought the
Church didn’t allow divorce.”

“As the old Frankish customs give way to
Church decrees, divorce does become more difficult,” Dominick said.
“Still, there are ways to end an unsatisfactory marriage.”

“Murder?” Gina suggested, and Dominick
responded with a mirthless grin.

“It has been done,” he said, “though not by
me. I’ll touch no woman in violence. I merely offered Hiltrude a
choice. I would send her to Charles in chains, under guard, with a
letter describing her involvement with Fastrada. Alternately, she
could request a divorce and go quietly into a convent, and I would
say nothing about the queen’s plan to ruin me through my wife.
Hiltrude is intelligent enough to fear Fastrada’s wrath if the
story were ever told, so she chose the convent. She used my
illegitimacy as an excuse the Church would accept, and after I
agreed to donate her dowry to the convent where she chose to
retire, our divorce was quickly granted.

“Having once been betrayed by a woman I took
into my home and my bed,” Dominick concluded his account, “I am not
likely to allow the same thing to occur again.”

“You said you trust me,” Gina protested.

“No, I did not. I said I choose to believe
your tale of travel through time, which is a different matter
entirely.”

Dominick’s fingers were still fastened
tightly around her wrist, pressing her hand and his against her
back, keeping their warm, naked bodies close together, and Gina was
finding rational thought increasingly difficult.

“I thought you cared about me,” she said,
rearing her head back so she could glare at him. “But you don’t. My
mistake. What’s wrong with me? Why do I have to learn the same
lesson over and over?”

She tried to pull away from him. Dominick
slid his free hand down over her hips, holding her closer, letting
her feel his renewed arousal.

“You hear, but you do not listen with your
mind and your heart,” he said. “I do not make a habit of bedding
every willing female I encounter.”

“What is that supposed to mean?” she
demanded.

“That I find you unusual, fascinating,
alluring. That I must go to Regensburg, and I don’t want to leave
you behind because I am going to need your help,” he said, and
smiled at her in a way that nearly melted her bones.

“How can I possibly help you?” she asked.
“Never tell me you intend to join that band of traitors?”

“Of course not!”

“Good.” She sighed with relief. “I didn’t
really imagine you were the kind of man who could betray his
king.”

“I intend to expose them,” Dominick said.

“Will Charles believe you?” she asked. “It’s
his son you’ll be accusing.”

“There has to be a way to extricate Pepin
from the influence of those wicked conspirators and save Charles
from harm at the same time,” Dominick said. “Before I can speak to
Charles on this matter, I need proof that cannot be denied, and I
must have evidence that Pepin is being used.”

“I’ve never been good at sitting around
twiddling my thumbs,” Gina said. “Considering that I am apparently
going to stay in the eighth century for a while, I’ll want
something useful to occupy my time. What could be more useful than
routing out a bunch of traitors? I’m with you, Dominick. Just tell
me what you want me to do.”

She didn’t add that if Dominick could expose
the conspirators, he wasn’t likely to be accused of being one of
them. Keeping Dominick safe was a prospect that appealed to her
strongly enough to make her forget her fears and, at least
temporarily, her concerns about returning to New York. She’d worry
about New York later.

“You do understand that there is a certain
danger involved?” Dominick was searching her face as if to discover
any hint of false intentions on her part.

“I am already in danger, just by knowing
about the plot,” she pointed out. “If we don’t stop it, we could be
trapped in the middle of it and both lose our heads.
Literally.”

“I do admire courage in a woman,” he said.
“Very well, then. When we reach Regensburg, I will introduce you at
court. I’d like you to gather information from the ladies you meet
there. I can’t question them; they’ll think I’m seeking another
wife, and that will place any young lady I speak to for more than a
moment in an awkward position. But you, as a female and a stranger,
will be free to ask almost anything you want.”

“Not just of the young girls,” Gina said. “I
can talk with the older women, too. Old ladies love to give advice
and to gossip, and unless they’re completely dotty, they often
remember details that other, busier people forget or consider
insignificant. That was true of my landlady back in New York, and I
suspect it’s the case here, too. Now, tell me how we get to
Regensburg.”

“It will be difficult,” Dominick murmured,
and bent his head to nibble at her earlobe. “The journey will take
at least a week if the weather is good, and for most of that time I
won’t be able to lie with you. I’m not sure I can contain myself
for so long.”

“Oh.” Gina hid her face in his shoulder,
breathing in the clean smell of him, feeling his wonderful strength
beneath her cheek. He released the hand he’d been holding behind
her back, and she put both her arms around his waist. She couldn’t
believe that less than half an hour after he had made love to her,
he wanted to do it again—and that she was more than willing. She
was eager, longing for the same glorious sensations and
heart-stopping release she had experienced with him the first time.
“I suppose we could lie together now. Couldn’t we?”

“I was hoping you’d suggest it.” His hands
were on her breasts, coaxing the nipples into hard peaks.

Gina’s gasp of pleasure went straight to
Dominick’s heart—and to his conscience. He prayed that he had
judged her correctly, that her fantastic story was true, for if she
was lying to him, more than his life was at risk. Far more
important was the life of the king of the Franks. Pepin’s life,
also, for Dominick knew Charles well enough to know that being
forced to execute his own son would break that noble ruler’s
valiant heart.

Dominick sank onto the pallet with Gina in
his arms. He was aware that her desire for him was intense enough
to overcome her fears about what he was asking her to do, just as
his incredible longing to possess her had melted most of his
suspicions about her.

Gina’s arms were around him, urging him
toward complete union. Driven by uncontrollable desire, Dominick
entered her in a swift rush, not being careful with her this time,
obeying his body’s hot insistence. He saw her wonderful green eyes
open wide in surprise, and a moment later he watched her shimmer
into ecstasy. As he buried himself deep inside her with one final,
forceful thrust, he hoped with all his heart and soul that she
really was honest and true. For, whether she was or not, he didn’t
think he could live without her.

* * *

“My plan is to present you as a visiting
Northumbrian noblewoman,” Dominick said when they were dressed once
more and back on the second level of his house. “However, no lady
would show her face at court without at least one maidservant.
Would you like to ask Ella to join you?”

“I don’t know how to behave nobly at a royal
court,” Gina protested, “and I don’t know anything about
Northumbria.”

“Just think carefully before you speak,” he
said. “If you must, use the confusion of thought resulting from
your recent severe illness as an excuse, and point out your very
short hair as proof that you were sick. I have every confidence in
you.”

Gina wasn’t so sure that his confidence
wouldn’t prove to be misplaced. If she made a serious mistake, they
could both lose their lives. She did seize on Dominick’s idea that
she should invite Ella along.

“Not just as a maid,” she said to Ella later
that morning, while the two of them were busy at their usual task
of spreading out the laundry to dry. “I’m scared to death to go to
a royal court. I’d like to have a friend with me.” It didn’t seem
at all strange to think of the ever-cheerful Ella as a friend,
though they had known each other less than a month.

“Harulf is to lead Dominick s men-at-arms,”
Ella said, her blue eyes dancing as she considered Gina’s
invitation.

“Well, then, you absolutely have to go with
us,” Gina told her. “It was Dominick’s idea, so I’m sure Hedwiga
won’t mind.”

Far from objecting, Hedwiga had altered more
of Hiltrude’s gowns for Gina to wear, and she supplied baskets to
pack them into, which that could be strapped onto the pack horses
that were to accompany Dominick’s party.

There was such a rush to be ready to travel
at short notice that Gina didn’t see Dominick again until evening,
when she found him in the garden. She still wasn’t completely sure
of him, so she approached him with some hesitation.

“You look sad, Dominick.”

“I may not see Feldbruck again until autumn,”
he said with his gaze on the distant mountains. “I don’t like to be
away from my land for so long.”

“I understand,” she said. “If I ever find a
place to call home, I’m sure I’ll be as attached to it as you are
to Feldbruck.”