by Joanne Rock
Her thighs.
Heat singed his veins at the sight of her and he thought he might combust when he remembered that medieval maidens didn’t even own panties. How did men function in a world where virtually every female walked around commando on a day-to-day basis?
But all his sex fantasies evaporated when she lifted the skirts high enough to expose the delicate metal bands around her hips, curving into a shield that covered her mound and dipped between her thighs.
Perversely, the shield was covered with an etched rose and padlocked with a heart-shaped chunk of metal. Whoever had done this to her was a bastard in the worst sense and Graham promised himself he wouldn’t be leaving Linnet’s world until he saw the man suffer.
“It is not as bad as it looks,” Linnet assured him, making him feel like the world’s biggest loser for putting her in the position of making him feel better about a wrong done to her.
“Bullshit.” He reached for the heart-shaped lock and tilted the tip of his knife inside the mechanism. “It’s worse.”
His fingers practically shook with anger as he worked, searching for any latch he might catch with the tip. Failure was not an option.
“Nay.” Linnet’s hand skimmed his shoulder as he worked, her touch igniting a heat he couldn’t afford to feel now. “I did not understand the full import of what the belt caused me to miss until you kissed me, Graham.”
His head shot up to search her face, and he found only sincerity and…desire.
“No.” He couldn’t let her think he was the answer to her problems. She’d have issues with men—with sexuality—for a long time and he needed to respect that. “But you don’t have to accept the first man who lights that fire. You could have any man you choose.”
Even in L.A., home to thousands of too-good-to-be-true women, Linnet would turn male heads wherever she went.
“You think I would accept any man who kissed me?” Annoyance slashed through her words while her body went rigid.
“I just meant that you don’t need to settle for anyone. Not me, not Kendrick, not anyone who doesn’t totally rock your world. I’m just saying that maybe the kiss happened because of the circumstances. Sometimes when situations feel intense, a lot of emotions can kick in that you might not normally feel.” He worked the lock slowly, searching for the move that would slide it free, but it was no easy task with Linnet’s bare legs sprawled out in front of him.
“You think we kissed because I’m on the run from my betrothed and you just happened to be here?” Her incensed tone told him how likely she thought his explanation. Obviously, she was offended. “Tell me, Graham, in your work as a sheriff in your lands, do you kiss every woman in distress?”
Okay, maybe not. Perhaps she had a point. But before he could tell her as much, his blade found the catch inside the lock and sent the arm popping free.
Relief poured through him, making him realize how tense he’d been. She yelped in surprise as she stared down at the metal lock dangling open. The rest of the device still remained hooked, but now that the padlock had come undone, she could unfasten the last of it on her own.
He would have helped if she’d asked him, but she just continued to stare downward, her long hair shielding her expression until she looked up at him through misty eyes.
“Thank you.” Sniffling, she dropped her skirts to cover her unlocked belt, embarrassment seeming to war with the gratitude he saw clearly in her eyes. “I am not happy with your words, but I am in your debt for the service you’ve done for me.”
Rising to her feet, she surprised him by dipping a little girlie bow—a curtsy?—as if to pay him some sort of Old World-style respect. What was he—the Godfather? He felt two inches tall that she would think she had to curtsy to a cop.
“I’m glad I could help. You want me to leave you alone so you can—you know—take off the rest of it for good?”
She must be dying to wrench it loose. But she shook her head and nodded toward the doors and the second-story balcony where they’d entered.
“I need to go somewhere special to take this thing off and free myself, because once it comes unfastened, I’m going to make very sure I never see the dreaded item again.”
And without another word, she exited onto the balcony and hefted the wooden plank to her shoulder as if to descend by herself. Little did she know, she didn’t have a prayer of going anywhere without him since her brothers could be searching for her even now. The way Graham figured it, unfastening a woman’s chastity belt implied a certain amount of obligation in a relationship.
Damned if he didn’t have to fall ass-backward nine centuries to make a commitment to a woman—such as it was. But at the very least, he could make sure she remained safe long enough to celebrate her newfound freedom.
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6
FINGERS SNAGGING on the rough-hewn plank that would lead her out of the keep, Linnet trembled with the knowledge that she could unfasten her intimate prison as soon as she reached her private place in the forest. She hefted the board and cursed herself for her weakness where Graham was concerned, even if he had saved her from—so much. Still, how could she have allowed herself to kiss a man who thought she would give away her favor so easily?
A splinter tore her skin just as the plank was lifted from her hands and thrust over the balcony to form a steep walkway down to the ground.
“You can leave if you want.” Graham stood beside her, glaring down at the grass. “But I’m invested in keeping you safe now, so you can be damn sure that where you go, I go.”
“News flash, babe.” She tested his phrasing on her tongue and found the strange words to her liking. “I plan to wash away some old fears when I remove this belt you’ve unlocked and there’s a creek not half a league to the west.”
“You’re going swimming?” His glare didn’t diminish as he turned it on her.
“Bathing, actually.” Her heart still fluttered wildly in her chest after their kiss. And now, no matter that she was mad at him, she found herself wondering what it might be like to bathe with him.
The thought brought with it a burning need to observe him without his garments.
“You might want to rethink that since I’m serious about going with you.” He backed through the open door leading onto the balcony from the bedchamber and retrieved his sword.
“I don’t need to rethink anything.” She lifted her foot to the plank to begin her descent and willed her toes not to tremble like her suddenly overexcited insides.
“You can’t wait another day to wash up? You sure as hell smell clean to me.” He reached for her hand, steadying her in spite of his obvious frustration.
“Unfastening a lock might not seem all that important to you, but in my life, this is a tremendous cause for celebration.” She itched to take the whole thing off, but hadn’t been able to accomplish the task in front of Graham. She’d hopped off his lap before he could undo the full restraint, preferring to remove it in private. Or underneath the water of a fast-rushing stream.
She’d edged down the board far enough where Graham either had to let go or join her.
“Splashing around in a cold-water stream full of rocks and sticks is your idea of a celebration? What you need is a six-pack and a cigar.”
He followed her onto the plank as he grumbled, however, and Linnet hoped she hadn’t made a mistake by maneuvering him into joining her. But she couldn’t remain in the house with him after the awkward encounter they’d shared. His presence made her restless with want of his kiss and his rebuff stung.
She’d hoped maybe the cold sting of the creek water would ease the heat in her veins.
“You owe me a story while we walk,” Linnet hopped off the end of the board while Graham edged the rest of the way down. “Remember your promise to reveal your homeland if I allowed you to unlock the latch?”
“Trust me, you’d be just as glad to put that off to another day.”
“I would have been just as glad to forestall showing you my ste
el bonds, but you refused to accept any excuse.”
He muttered and cursed but did not argue. Linnet appreciated their activity since it delayed the need to sleep for a little longer. Her dreams waited her there, and she feared their growing urgency—a certain omen of Kendrick’s imminent return.
“I live in Los Angeles, California. Long Beach, actually. Don’t suppose you’ve heard of it?” He tugged his sword out of its case as they walked side by side.
“Los Angeles. That is a Moorish land?” Her lack of knowledge frustrated her. “My brothers possess scant education and even fewer books, so I am unfamiliar with this kingdom you speak of.”
“I’ve traveled pretty damn far to be here, so I wouldn’t be surprised if L.A. hadn’t made it on to a map yet.” He swung the sword in an easy arc, the way a warrior did when he readied himself for the practice yard.
His muscles strained against the fabric of his shirt, his arm flexing and stretching to wield the weapon. Linnet found she could not remove her eyes from his impressive form.
“Your home lies to the south, then?” She licked her lips in memory of Graham’s kiss and the last time she’d felt his arms about her.
“Not quite.”
“The east then?”
He paused in his lightning quick strokes of the blade through the air.
“Sort of. If you go east and keep on going. Far. You’d get to Los Angeles that way.” He grinned as if pleased with this answer.
She wanted to question him more about his language and customs, his culture and his people, but he seemed eager to quit the conversation and he had given her the basic answer she sought.
“Do you have plans to return?” The notion shouldn’t upset her, yet her heart jumped nervously at the idea. But perhaps that was only because she’d shared intriguing conversation with the man.
She didn’t want to think about the even more intriguing kiss. Or the delicious swirl of hunger that seized her whole body, not just her lips.
“I didn’t make much of a map on my way here, so I’m not sure I could return home if I tried.” He reached with his sword to hack off a branch of wild strawberries trailing over a dead tree stump. “But one of these days I’ll have to give it a go.”
“Are you ever going to reveal how you came to be in my wardrobe yesterday?” She plucked a berry off the branch he held out to her. Her teeth sank easily into the soft flesh as the juice burst warmly over her tongue.
“That question wasn’t part of the deal.” He halted his footsteps as they reached the creek. “I’ll be damned.”
“It’s pretty, isn’t it?” She paused to admire the view as well. “I’d forgotten how beautiful it was.”
A clear stream tripped over rocks at one side of the clearing to fall down a short hill in a misty cascade of water. The water was deeper at the basin of the falls, providing a pool perfect for bathing.
Apparently Graham thought the same thing, since he placed his sword on a rock and began to unfasten his shirt.
“What are you doing?”
“I thought we were here to bathe.” Shrugging out of his shirt, he reached for the placket of his braies.
“I’m here to bathe.” She thought she should probably protest his imminent nakedness, but the image of his muscular chest resembled a dream vision she’d had long ago, shortly after Kendrick had clamped her into the belt.
The vivid memory rattled her, tying her tongue as she struggled to recall pieces of that long-ago dream that didn’t involve torrid lovemaking and wanton sexuality.
“Oh my God.” Her words yelped from her throat.
“Too much for you?” Graham winked as he paused in unfastening his pants. “You could always just turn around.”
“It’s not that.” Well, partially it was that. In her dream memory, his manhood had been most impressive and incredibly…pleasurable. “I just had the unsettling sensation that we’ve been here before.”
“What do you mean?” Frowning, he kicked off his strange leather shoes with unusual lacings.
She debated how much to tell him since her visions had caused trouble for her in the past—mostly with her family, but once with a nobleman who’d stopped at Welborne Keep for a meal. Linnet had been struck by the image of him killing his wife as he calmly devoured a meal of roast pheasant, and she’d insisted that he leave. Her family had been as furious as the nobleman, but he’d departed during the night without a word.
His wife’s body had been found some weeks later by a pack of hunting hounds, only making her family more angry with her.
“I have visions sometimes. My mother called it the Sight but I do not think the images I see are always accurate.” She tried to shrug off the moment now that she’d attracted too much attention to her odd waking dreams. “Seeing you prepare to bathe made me remember a vision I had long ago.”
“You were dreaming about me before I even arrived. I call that a good sign.” His easy grin returned and Linnet counted her blessings he had not accused her of prophecy or any of the other, more hateful things her brothers had in the past.
Still, the details of the dream she’d had a few short years ago continued to plague her as she turned her back so he could undress. The memories taunted her with seductive snippets of what it felt like to be in Graham’s arms, to kiss his naked, wet skin with lustful hunger. To seat herself on his lap in the water and spread her legs wide for him. To open herself to him completely and rid herself of the innocence Kendrick coveted for his own.
What if that long ago dream—the one that had taken place beside this very creek—was a premonition? The notion created a sudden, unbearable ache between her thighs. Could fate have conspired to put Graham Lawson in her reach on the very day she could finally reclaim her own body?
The feelings he inspired in her suddenly felt less intimidating and more fated. Graham had already been the key to unlocking her future—and not just because he was handy with a pocketknife.
And hadn’t her visions of a hazy mystery stranger come to her more often lately? That could be a sign as well. As the warmth between her thighs became more insistent, she was seized with a powerful understanding of what she needed to do next.
As she heard the sound of Graham walking into the water, she turned around slowly again, ready to face what happened next in her dream—what she now knew should happen in reality.
The best way to celebrate her freedom from the cursed chastity belt would be to finally make use of the womanhood it had been shielding for so long. Today, right here by this very stream, she would embrace her desires in spite of her betrothed and give her virginity to Graham Lawson.
A MAN KNEW WHEN A WOMAN had something on her mind. He might not have any idea what she was thinking, but there was a definite air to a scheming woman. Graham hadn’t recognized the knowing smile when his ex-girlfriend had sweetly asked him to help out with the sword sequence on the movie set where she’d served as an extra. But he damn well knew the smile by now and Linnet Welborne had it.
She didn’t even give him any warning when she slipped her overdress—a surcoat, she called it—over her head. In her world, wasn’t that halfway home to naked?
“You could have warned me,” he called to her as he dutifully turned his back, the image of her undressing imprinted on his brain and making him throb despite the water temperature.
“But you already treated yourself to the view when you hid in my wardrobe,” she countered from the bank of the creek. “Or when you unlocked the belt. What would be the point in pretending false modesty now?”
The sentiment sounded downright dangerous to his ears. A beautiful, sex-starved woman who’d been denied all physical pleasure for three years made a point of telling him she wasn’t worried about her modesty. The cold water of the creek didn’t begin to douse the heat simmering in his veins.
“On the contrary, your modesty is totally called for because I really didn’t see much of anything.” He’d been a gentleman. Well, at least when he’d picked the lock f
or her, he’d been super respectful. He probably couldn’t say the same about his open ogling when he’d wound up in her bedroom.
But now he would not turn around until he knew she was in the water, her body safely hidden from view. He’d tortured himself enough earlier with superhuman restraint when he’d wrested her from her intimate prison. Speaking of which…
“Do you need any help ditching the rest of that belt?”
He asked out of polite concern, of course. He did not need any more temptation today.
“See for yourself.” Behind him, he heard the water splash as she apparently waded into the water.
“Is it—safe?” His imagination already painted a hell of a picture of her naked. The last thing he needed was to see the real deal and remove all doubt about how good she looked without clothes.
“Depends what you consider safe.” Her voice emanated from much too close. A few feet behind him, maybe. Her quiet strokes must have moved her quickly through the water to have covered that much distance already.
“Anything involving me naked while you’re in the water is probably not a good idea.” He turned around carefully, water reaching to the middle of his chest.
She held a bar of soap in one hand and the chastity belt in the other, the skinny silver shackle looking way too small to fit around any woman, let alone a tall teenager who might not have been done growing at the time. Compassion for her—for what this moment must mean for her—helped him put his libido in check for a few minutes at least. Thankfully, she hadn’t quite removed all her clothing since a wet, sleeveless garment clung to her shoulders while her breasts remained—praise God—underwater.
He promised himself he wouldn’t strain his eyes to see beneath the murky surface, but he had to admit, he was tempted.
“I’m free.” Her brow furrowed as if she was still trying to grasp the magnitude of the words. “That miserable, selfish bastard can no longer rule me from afar. I am free.”
Before he could comment on her newfound liberty, she folded her arm across her body and flung the chastity belt like a Frisbee before she watched it flip end over silver end through the air then land in the water to float downstream. Away from her.
