Pursuit: A Bad Boy Romance

by Cristal Pierre

  “I know that you are sceptical about my intentions lady Edwynn,” The young lord told her calmly, “But I am no tyrant. I only want to make you happy. Your mother has informed me of your past pains. I am greatly sorry for your loss, for I too know how it feels to have a loved one stripped away from your side.”

  The wind clawed at Edwynn's hair as if it was comforting her. Each time that the death of her brother was mentioned was like a new wound being reopened. “I..” She began but words failed her. The life that the queen had bestowed upon her remaining child, was a life that Edwynn was not accustomed too. Edwynn had never imagined that she would be married even though it was her duty. In her heart she felt pain for not only did she feel torn but betrayed by her own feelings. In all her young years there had only been one man who had stayed in her life and he was no lord. He was a peasant, the complete opposite of what lord Morris was. Where he had rank, the peasant had skill. One way or another, she had to make a decision. “If we are to be married my lady,” The prince continued, “Then we should be spending our days getting to know one another. I brought you here because I know your heart belongs to your kingdom, as any future ruler's heart should. There is more than meets the eye with you lady Edwynn. You have your secrets as I have mine.” Something in the way he spoke the last sentence ignited the raven haired girls curiosity. The way his eyes glowed and the way he seemed so confident, made Edwynn believe that there was more to this man than just a title. Somehow she could sense that he had a secret all of his own. It was then that Edwynn began to wonder whether his secret was as dark as her own.

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  Chapter 4.

  “Married?” His deep voice questioned as she lay in the arms of the dark haired man. Edwynn felt her insides twist in a manner that she had never witnessed before. A feeling of her stomach rolling over as if she was feeling ill. “I am to be wed in a months time,” She whispered into the neck of the long haired man, nuzzling him as she placed a soft kiss upon his sweaty skin. The fire from the anvil washed over Edwynn's naked body and she relished the sensation of his fingers drawing circles over her bear skin. When he did not answer, Edwynn propped herself up onto her elbow gently looked into his eyes. “Something troubles you my love,” She whispered, placing her hand upon his toned chest. When he did not answer for a second time Edwynn grew concerned. “Asher?”

  “And when did you plan on revealing to me such a thing?” The dark haired man almost growled as he turned his fierce amber coloured eyes to look at the raven haired girl. Edwynn flinched away from the harshness in his voice. “I wanted to tell you as soon as I found out but I have been followed everywhere I go and I must take care. If anyone finds out that....” But the dark haired man cut her off. “That your what? Fucking a peasant? I am well aware of the consequences Edwynn, I have been since the start.” At that he rose to his feet. His naked body glittered in the firelight. Edwynn drank in his beauty whilst her heart threatened to break. “Asher,” She whispered. “It's not that easy.”

  “Perhaps not for you.” He said, dragging a torn shirt over his head. “But for me it is. Your a woman of royalty. I prepared myself the moment that I first took you that this day would come. It means nothing to me. I will find another.” Edwynn felt as if she had been struck in the face by the emotionless tone in his voice. Their relationship had been kept a secret for almost a month. She had met the dark haired man when she had been hiding in the woods on a moonlit night. He had been emerged from the darkness wounded and bleeding and had collapsed at her feet. Edwynn had taken pity upon the peasant and nursed him back to health. He had recovered more quickly than any man that she had known, but it was is eyes that had captivated her the most. Along with his emotionless personality. “You will not find another!” She did not even know the words that she had uttered until she saw the angry look sparkle in his eyes. “You owe me sir!” She scolded him. With a deep frown etched upon his for head, Asher growled. “I owe you nothing girl!” The blanket that she had been clutching around her body slipped from her grasp the moment that he had spoken. For a brief second Edwynn saw the hungry look within his eyes as he drank in her nakedness.

  “I saved your life.” She whispered.

  “I did not ask you too.” He replied staring at her coldly. “I did not ask you to nurse me back to health. I would have been fine. You should have just left me there.”

  “I do not abandoned those who need my help.” Edwynn replied weakly. Inside her heart was racing. She felt the tears rising. “I am a peasant girl!” The dark haired blacksmith snapped. “What we have done is nothing but a dream. It never should have gotten this far. I should have told you to go.” Asher dropped his amber eyes away from her then and Edwynn saw a look cross his handsome features that she had never witnessed before. Hesitantly she stepped from out of the straw cot and padded over to where the dark haired man stood. He towered over her, his eyes slowly turning to look back up at her. “What if I didn't want to leave?” She whispered, gently placing her hand beneath his stubbly chin, coaxing his eyes to look into her own. “I do not care that you have no title my love,” Edwynn whispered. “Even if I had tried to stop I don't think my heart would have let me.”

  With a pained expression upon his face, Asher whispered back. “You do not know what you risk if you stay with me Edwynn. You have a chance at life with the prince. He will be able to provide for you.”

  “I do not desire to be provided for.” Edwynn whispered, smoothing her hand across his face. “I desire you. And I always will. My wedding to another man will never change that.” At her words the dark haired black smith enveloped her into his embrace, strong arms entwining her body into his. He raised her from off of he ground and Edwynn wrapped her legs around his waste. His lips crashed onto hers, rough and demanding and Edwynn could feel his hardness pressing against her belly. With his free strong arm the weapons that he had been crafting clattered to the floor as he slung her onto the work bench and thrusted himself inside of her. Edwynn groaned aloud, her body moving in synchronization with his own. He bit down upon her bear shoulder, teasing and rough. Edwynn gasped as she felt her blood rise to the surface of her skin. He was like an animal and Edwynn craved it. She craved him more than she craved anything else in her life.

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  Chapter 5.

  “Do you even know how foolish you have been you insolent child!” The queen hissed menacingly at her daughter. Edwynn stood silent with her hands neatly clasped in front of her, head bowed low so that her mother could not see the disdain that lingered behind her blue eyes. “Leaving the castle walls unattended? Do you know how dangerous that is? Those commoners are like rabid dogs. They would rip you apart in an instant!”

  “I wasn't alone mother.” Edwynn replied darkly, raising her eyes to stare into the cold heart of the ice queen. “Your royal leech accompanied me before he ran off.” The fury that Edwynn saw in her mothers eyes was enough to match her own. The queen, though as beautiful as she was stormed towards her daughter, blue silk swinging in her wake, hair of raven curls bouncing erratically over her slender shoulders, her hand reaching to squeeze Edwynn's shoulder nastily. “You watch your mouth girl!” Queen Andrea spat. “Lord Morris is a man of power and rank. It would do you good to begin to see that. He is to be your chaperone now and has already begun to clear out all that god forsaken clutter in your room, the swords, the clothing, the armour; all of it is gone. You are a lady not some war monger. You will sit in your room with Lord Morris by your side and you will do your duty to your kingdom!”

  At her mothers words Edwynn swallowed the acid bile that threatened to spew from behind defiant lips. “I will do what I have too my lady.” Edwynn hissed before turning on her heel to leave her mothers presence. “How dare you turn your back to me.” Queen Andrea continued to rage. With her heart carved from stone Edwynn left the queen to her own disdain.

  When she arrived back to her chambers bitter tears had already began to form in her eyes. Edwynn slammed the door shut behind her and pla
ced her hands upon the wooden framework breathing heavily. Queen Andrea had resented Edwynn from the day she was born. If it was not for the kings insistence on keeping her, then the ice queen would have had expelled the defenceless Edwynn from out of her body long ago. It was Luscious, Edwynn's brother who queen Andrea had favoured. The queen adored her son. In her eyes he could do no wrong. Now he was dead the ice queen had no choice but to face her greatest mistake. Edwynn.

  Hands curled around the raven haired girls waste as she stood with her head buried in the door causing her to spin around and strike the intruder in the face. When she had finally regained her bearings and had heard the cry of pain escape his lips, Edwynn's eyes settled upon the black silken shirt that belonged to lord Morris. “My lord?” Edwynn questioned roughly. “What are you doing in my chambers?” Lord Morris rose to his full height, towering over her.

  “You escaped my sight the other day my lady. I was quite upset.”

  “I am sorry you felt that way my lord but I did state that I had business to attend too.”

  “Yes.” He replied shortly. “Rolling around with the towns blacksmith seems to be of a suitable choice of business Lady Edwynn.” Edwynn frowned at Lord Morris's reply.

  “What do you mean my lord?” The young lord scoffed at her weak attempt of innocence then.

  “You may play innocent with the towns folk Lady Edwynn but you do not have to play innocent with me. If you went to town seeking a fumble, you only needed ask me and I would have been more than happy to oblige you.” The golden haired lord approached her then. Locking her tight against the wooden door of her chambers with his arms on either side so that she could not flee.

  Edwynn stared at the man as if he was mad. “Have you lost your mind sir? How dare you speak so sordid to me.” Lord Morris laughed a mocking laugh.

  “I only speak the truth lady Edwynn.”

  “What truth? That I am the town strumpet?”

  “You are young my lady. As am I. Your mother has requested that we spend quite a bit of time together if we are to get to know one another.” With his left hand he brushed at Edwynn's face which made her heart pound furiously with excitement and anger. He seemed different than the other day. He seemed more rough around the edges, territorial even. “My mother does not make plans for me without my consent.” The raven haired girl lied. How had he known about the black smith? Had she been followed? Spied on?

  “Queen Andrea said that you would be a challenge. You have a hard exterior that resembles a stone wall lady Edwynn. It is rather appealing for one such as you.”

  Even as the voice in her head protested at the lords touch, lord Morris refused to let her indifference dissuade him from his plan. A wild look dominated the eyes of the lord. Edwynn saw the lips of the lord curl up into a smile that almost turned into a snarl. In an instant his lips crashed onto hers, she recoiled as if she had been burned. Tearing her lips away from his,with a firm hand she struck the lord across his face one again, this time staring at him with cold malice, disgust and anger.

  Lord Morris's hands rose to his face in a manner of protection. When he looked at her, Edwynn held her chamber door open for him, her eyes set dead pan upon his figure. “Get out.” She said dangerously. Arrogantly, the young lord pulled himself to his full height, hair of gold falling over his shoulder in a single ponytail. Upon his face a red hand print glowed, painful and ripe. Edwynn felt no pity for the bastard. With cold eyes he walked towards her, ignorant to her request. With expressionless eyes, he too eyed her with a animalistic hunger that only made Edwynn think of the dark haired blacksmith. “You will be mine my lady. It is almost guaranteed. You can defy the queen as much as you like, but you can't deny your heart for much longer.” With those last words ringing in her ears the lord swiftly removed himself from out of her presence, leaving Edwynn to slam the wooden door behind her in a fit of undeniable rage.

  Chapter 6.

  “Make it a little tighter Else.” the queen commanded the small maid on the morning of the fitting. Edwynn gasped when she felt the laces of the corset draw her last easy breath from out of her aching lungs. Standing upon a small stone podium in her bedchamber, Edwynn looked at herself. The dress that she wore was the dress that she would be wearing in less than a week. White lace and similar to the dress that her mother, the ice queen, had embroidered for her birthday, Edwynn resembled a vision of a true bride to be.

  The previous evenings events raced over and over inside the girls mind. Edwynn had thought that she had taken care when she had planned the meetings with her secret lover. Their encounters were usually after dark. There were times when they were meet up in the woods and make love beneath a moonlit sky, the dark haired black smith biting down upon her neck as if he was marking her as one of his own. There were only certain times when she did not meet up with her lover. Before she had met Asher, Edwynn was nothing but a ghost of her former self. Emotionless and grieving, she had felt nothing. But the night that the tall, lean, dark haired man had fallen out of the shadows in Hallow woods, Edwynn had found that she had purpose to live again. She hadn't planned for their relationship to become so complicated. In Edwynn's mind she thought that she had kept the mysterious dark haired man at bay. All the while she had believed that he had been the one who was falling in love with her, but all the time, it had been the other way around. And now another man had entered her life. A man that was soon to be her husband. Lord Morris was very different to the dark haired blacksmith in may ways. Confident and arrogant, lord Morris knew what he desired and he was not afraid to fight for it.

  Edwynn stared at her mother's reflection for a long moment as she continued to bark orders at the helpless maid. Edwynn's heart went out to the young girl who was pinning her wedding gown in all sorts of positions with little bobby pins, small cries escaping her lips as she pricked herself with nervous and clumsy fingers. “Mother the dress is tight enough. Any tighter and won't be able to breathe.”

  “That is the whole point child.” The queen quipped sharply at her daughter. “The tighter the dress the less protests will escape your infuriating little lips.”

  Not once in her twenty years had the queen shown her daughter any kind of affection. When she had been a child, Edwynn had found herself yearning for her mothers touch. She desired to feel loved. It was no surprise that she had turned to the arms of a peasant to feel such things.

  “Even if I did protest mother I am sure that you would find a way to make me marry a man that I do not wish to marry.” Edwynn replied rather casually. The look on the queens face suggested that her daughter had over stepped the mark. Again. “I do not see what is such a problem with marrying a man as such as lord Morris.” Her mother commented. “He is rich and he is stable. He will provide for you. You do not know the consequences of remaining unmarried Edwynn if you do not swallow your pride and listen to me for once.”

  “Why should I marry a man that I do not love?” Edwynn chided. “I am sick of being told how to live my own life. I was put on this earth to do more than be wed and bare children!”

  “Dangerous talk child.” The queen warned her daughter. “From what I hear, your idea of love is spending a night in the arms of a filthy commoner.” Edwynn felt the grip of her mothers hand on her wrist then, forcing her to turn around to stare the ice queen in the eye. Edwynn's heart pounded rapidly inside of her chest at the words that her mother had uttered. “If I find out that what I heard is true, then the pig that has defiled you will be executed without hesitation and without a trial!” For the first time in her life Edwynn felt fear. The thought of losing the man that she desired most made her feel ill. Edwynn swallowed. “If you believe that we betters marry out of love then you are truly deluded my child. We do not marry for love. We marry for power!” At her mothers words a soft knock echoed around the room causing the raven haired girl to jump. The ice queen turned her eyes to the sound. “Come,” She called, signalling for the messenger to enter. Upon seeing the man that entered the room Edwynn's heart b
egan to beat fast. Lord Morris's eyes drank in her beauty, a cold smirk stretched across his face. His hair fell over his shoulders like a golden river. He truly looked beautiful. “Ah, lord Morris.” Queen Andrea cooed as the young lord walked up to the queen and graced her hand with a simple kiss. “Has my husband instructed you with the requirements for the castle guards?”

  “Indeed my queen.” The young prince replied, his voice like a trail of honey. Edwynn caught the golden eyes of the lord looking at her in the mirror. Her chest had tightened at the sight of him and she seemed to feel disorientated. “Under orders of King Bahl I am to take my leave into town and find the local blacksmith. Under your husbands order he is to forge a hundred new blades for the wedding ceremony.”

  Somewhere in the room, Edwynn could hear the muffled voices of her mother and the golden haired man. She felt like she had fallen into a dream world. Standing upon the podium and listening to the man speak of the blacksmith caused Edwynn's head to spin. Around and around she felt herself moving, almost like as if she was floating. It was then that she felt the welcoming arms of the floor reach out to catch the falling raven haired woman, except the floor did not catch her, she simply fell hard onto the stone and cracked her head.