Knight's Caress by Lynette Vinet Read Free Book Online Page A

swallow of the milk. Apparently he’d heard her for she noticed that he cocked a wary eyebrow at her, and she suppressed a delighted smile.
    When she’d eaten her fill, Tedric motioned to her to rise. Once again, he took her by the arm, and this time he led her away from the others, into a secluded glade of the forest by a small pond. Amberlie glanced wildly around, aware that now they were very much alone. Did he plan to rape her here?
    “I’ll not stay here! I’ll fight you, by God I swear you’ll not take me easily! I’d rather die than be raped by a barbarian!” Amberlie’s fear caused her to panic and she tried to wrench away from Tedric, but his superior strength kept her arm locked in his hand. Her fear was so great that she didn’t realize that Tedric was silently staring at her, watching her flail at him like a startled hen whose chicks were in danger from a fox. She came at him, her hand curled into a claw, ready to rake her nails across his skin and scar his other cheek. But in one lithe gesture, he grabbed her and turned her so that her back was against his chest.
    Her breasts heaved, her breathing was labored. Her attack had been like throwing stones at a mountain; Tedric wasn’t the least daunted. His breath wafted across the back of her neck, sending odd shivers down her spinal column. He spoke, his voice an angry growl beside her ear. “I’m not an easy target like Wulfgar for your venom, nor am I easily swayed by a pretty face and figure. If I’d wanted you, my lady, then I would have bedded you beneath the furs with me last night. I’d not have had cause to rape you for you’d willingly have stayed.”
    “You arrogant, conceited—”
    “And that snippish Norman tongue of yours would have been put to better use.”
    Amberlie gasped. As a widowed woman, she understood full well what this barbarian meant and what he’d have made her do to him with her tongue. “I won’t … pleasure … you in that way.” She could barely say the words, the thought was so abhorrent.
    “Which way is that, my lady?”
    “With … with … my tongue.” She felt like she was going to faint.
    “I don’t understand what you mean, my lady,” he answered, all innocence. “I meant only for your tongue to taste the sweet apples which grow wild in the forest. Is there some trick Normans do with their tongues that Saxons do not?”
    He was making sport of her, and Amberlie felt her entire body redden. Even the back of her neck felt warm, and when Tedric turned her to face him, there was a definite twinkle within his blue eyes. “I brought you here so you could bathe … and take care of personal matters.” He gently removed pieces of limp straw from her hair, souvenirs of her night upon the rushes. Amberlie moved back, suddenly very much aware that this was no ordinary man; Tedric was a man whose very touch caused a slow burn to begin in her blood—a condition for which she had no explanation.
    “How do I know you won’t look whilst I am bathing?”
    “You don’t, my lady, for I’m a mere man and you’re a beautiful woman. But I saw you bathing near Woodrose before I kidnapped you, and ‘tis somewhat familiar I am with your loveliness.” That remark sent a scarlet flush over the length of her body. Amberlie had forgotten that he’d been spying upon her.
    “I trust you will allow me some privacy.”
    “As you wish, my lady.” Tedric bowed deeply and went to sit beneath the spreading branches of an oak tree. He gazed up at the morning sky with such thoughtfulness that Amberlie wondered if he might be praying. She dismissed the notion. Tedric was a barbarian and a pagan, no doubt having partaken in the pagan revelries she’d heard about. Tales abounded among the knights about pagan orgies where the Saxons danced naked in the moonlight, the women mating with the men like wild beasts only to produce bastard children nine months later. Had Tedric danced naked with a willing wench? Had he mated with a