Page 28 of One Knight
“Are you sure that was all?” The darkness of the predawn hour shadowed his grim expression, and she decided a subject change was in order.
“We ride?”
“Behind the king,” he said with a measured tone. “Keep no secrets from me, Elisande.”
She swallowed and nudged her horse toward his destrier. “It was Alger. He didn’t want me to leave.”
As she feared, Henry spun on horseback, ready to deal with him.
“Please, I sent him away.”
He led his warhorse alongside hers. “Never again will he have the opportunity to speak to you alone. You are my wife.”
“I didn’t invite him to.”
“Don’t protect him, Elisande.”
She paused, realizing the only thing she could tell him was the truth. “I can be married to you, pledged to you until death, and still want nothingbad to happen to him. I cannot make that stop, my lord. It is at the core who I am—to protect all who I can.”
He frowned at her. “He will never get that close to you again, if I have anything to say about it.”
“As you wish, my lord.”
“Good. I’m glad we have an understanding.”
A shout went up, and the king’s entourage began to move.
“Let’s go. The sooner you’re back behind the walls of the manor, the better.”
CHAPTER 13
When they camped for the night, the king afforded Henry far better accommodations than he could provide Elisande himself. They were ensconced within the king’s camp, yet given privacy that befitted their newlywed status.
Well fed and washed, Henry reached for his bride.
“How are you feeling?”
“Surprisingly less sore than I expected, on all counts.”
“Good.” It was all he said before he laid his lips upon hers.
He wanted to drown out any thoughts of another man from her mind. He wanted her to forget where she ended and he began. He wanted to thoroughly sate her such that she couldn’t think, let alone speak.
His tongue stroked hers before trailing downher neck and across her chest to her nipple. Elisande arched into him as he sucked and nipped at the tender peak.
Her soft moans and muffled cries drove him to the edge of madness as he dragged his mouth lower, to the heat of her center.
Using his hand to cover her lips, he feasted of her body until he felt her muscles tense and then go liquid.
When he slid his body within hers, the decadent tightness of her sheath clamped down around him.
She was not only brave and beautiful, but exquisitely responsive to him.
Elisande held nothing back except cries that would attract the attention of the entire camp. After she dug her nails into his shoulders three different times, arching against him and collapsing beneath him, he finally let himself find his own completion.
His lady wife was fast asleep as soon as he cleansed her body, and he settled beside her to find his own rest. He pulled her small form within his arms. She belonged to him. By law and by God. No man would ever come between them. Not as long as he lived.
The morning sounds of camp rising came early, but Henry was too well trainedto grumble.
