THE WARRIOR QUEEN (The Guinevere Trilogy Book 1) by Lavinia Collins Read Free Book Online Page B

again, his slid his other hand under my back and, pulling me towards him, entered me again. I wanted it as much as he did now, more even perhaps, and I found myself lost in the lovely whirl of desire. This time I moaned softly as he did and he buried his face in the thick hair at the side of my neck, moving against me as I pressed closer to him. I wrapped a leg around his back and he grasped it by the thigh, holding me faster against him, closer, harder as I felt the pleasure rising within me, the heat in my stomach, then at my heart, at my face. I felt the hot, sweet clench of it at the centre of me and the heat go out of me, suddenly, with a sigh, as Arthur groaned above me, and was still for a moment, breathing hot and fast against my neck, and then slid away. Slowly, I stretched my arms above my head and turned my face, eyes closed, to the sun pouring in at the window, to feel its soft red touch on my closed eyes, and then, opening my eyes, I reached for Arthur and laid my head softly on his chest. I felt sleepy again, but I did not want to sleep. I had not expected to like being with Arthur. I had assumed he would be clumsy or unkind, but I had been wrong. He stroked my hair with one hand, and with his other arm down my back, cradled me close.
    “Look at all this fire,” he said thoughtfully, running a hand through my hair.
    I kissed softly the skin of his chest, where I was resting.
    “Did you always know you would be a king?” I asked. I had been raised all my life in the knowledge of who I was – what I was – but Arthur had fought for his throne. I wondered if he had had a sense of it, in his blood. I had no idea what it must have been like, not to know who you were.
    “Me? No. No. Sir Ector raised me, and his wife. I hoped I would be a knight like my older brother Sir Kay. I never thought I would be here. I’m not sure if I would even say I wanted it. But I found out it was mine. The will of God. I was... I was squiring for Kay in this tournament, but he had forgotten his sword – I think he did it on purpose to annoy me, because Kay never forgets anything or misses a chance to play a joke on his friends – so I went to get him one. I didn’t want to go all the way home because I knew if I wasn’t back in time that stubborn old Kay would fight anyway with just his shield and get himself wounded. People said that there was a sword in the church in the town and I thought I would just borrow that one. There it was, resting in a block of stone in the church. I didn’t know then it was covered in writing. I couldn’t read then, so it could have been anything – pictures, numbers. I just put my hands on the sword and it flew out. I really was a boy then. Thirteen, maybe. Anyway, I took it to Kay, and my father – no, Sir Ector – was so shocked, I didn’t understand it. He kept asking Kay how he’d got it, and then everyone else around was shouting and demanding to know where he got it from, and eventually when my witch Merlin, who was not my witch then, came out of the crowd and asked him, Kay told everyone I had brought it to him. They made me take it in and out of the block of stone again and again and Merlin told me the stone said “Whoever pulls this sword from this stone is rightwise King of England”, and that was me. He told me that Uther Pendragon, the just-dead king, was my father, and the Lady Igraine was my mother.” He paused, for a second. “That was the saddest day of my life.”
    I knew what he meant. I would not tell him, but that was how I had felt, watching my father’s castle at Carhais disappear in the distance. On the one hand is the path that is decided for you, that might indeed be a path for greatness, and on the other hand is everything you love, and you never dreamed would change. But everything changes. Arthur has lost something like you lost . A father and brother and mother who now have to see him as a king. A self that he thought he was. And gained a heavy destiny. And