Dark Warrior (Warrior 2)

She had not expected such dire news. She thought they would have more time together. Their love would only grow stronger with time. She hoped the strength of their love would allow him to trust her enough to reveal his identity, sealing their future together.

Sadness settled heavily in her heart. How could she wed Decimus when she loved Michael? How could she live out her days with a stranger? A man she cared nothing for. A man she had feared for the last ten years. A man who tortured and killed the innocent. A man more evil than the devil himself.

The idea that he would hold dominion over her angered her. Choices, however, were not open to her. It was either accept and deal with the consequences of her decision or go insane from constant sorrow and regret.

She struggled with her thoughts and feared losing what sanity she had managed to retain. Her heart ached at the thought of never seeing Michael again, of him never holding her, kissing her, loving her.

Loving.

She would know no intimacy with Michael and the thought saddened her heart even more. It would be Decimus’s hands she would feel on her flesh and Decimus’s body joining with hers.

Her skin crawled with gooseflesh and she shivered.

“What shivers your skin?” Michael asked and pushed the weeping branches aside to join her beneath the tree. “You were gone too long.”

“It has been mere minutes.”

“Too long,” he whispered and stroked her lips with his glove-covered finger.

She was glad he had followed her. Precious little time remained for them and she wanted ever second spent beside him.

“The shivers?” he reminded.

She did not wish to burden him with her thoughts. The time they had left was for happy memories. “Concerns that I refuse to fret over right now.”

He took her hand and with one finger traced circles in her palm.

“I like those shivers,” she said, smiling as gooseflesh scurried along her arm.

He stopped suddenly. “I cannot allow you to surrender to Decimus.”

His words tore at her heart. She wanted so badly for him to rescue her just as he had done from her prison cell. But this time the Dark One could not. Her fate had been sealed.

“You cannot prevent it,” she said with regret.

“I cannot let you go.”

“Then do not,” she said. “You promised me you would always be there for me.”

“Aye, you have my word.”

“Then you mean that I will see you from time to time?” she asked though hurried to add: “Only if it does not present a danger to you?”

“I am not done with Decimus.”

She suddenly grew fearful, remembering the Dark One’s mission and realizing now he had even more reason to hate Decimus.

“I do not want any harm to come to you.”

“No harm will befall me or you. I will make certain of it.”

She realized then that he would always be nearby, rescuing, helping, plotting against her future husband and forever placing his life in danger.

And one day, possibly, rescuing her.

“You will keep yourself safe, promise me this.”

“I promise I will keep both of us safe.”

She rested back against his chest, her head on his shoulder. “We have this day to enjoy. I want to think of nothing else but the two of us and this time we have together.”

“You wish to shut out the world.”

She took his gloved hand in hers. “Aye, only you and I exist, nothing else.”

“And what is it you wish to do?”

“Be happy,” she said with a joy that sprang from deep within her. She jumped to her feet and spun around beneath the willow tree. “We shall eat, laugh, be merry—”

She stopped suddenly and dropped to her knees in front of the cloaked man she loved with her whole heart, her whole being.

“Love,” she said on a whisper. “I want you to love me.”

“I do love you. I will always love you,” he said, reaching out to cup her face.

She rubbed her cheek against his leather glove. “Nay, I want you to make love to me.”

The thought had been a faint echo in her mind, and she had paid it no heed when suddenly it had risen in a fury to overwhelm her.

“You do not know what you ask.”

“Aye, but I do,” she said with a soft conviction. “I do not want to completely surrender to Decimus, but I do wish to completely surrender to you.”

He took her face in his hands, holding it gently, lovingly. “I do not want your surrender.”

“Then take my love, for I give it to you freely, willingly, and from the depths of my soul.”

He rested his forehead on hers. “Do you know what you say?”

“Aye, I free myself of Decimus by loving you. He then can have no complete surrender from me and I can have what I ache for—you—if only for tonight.”

“My identity must remain concealed, for your safety as well as mine.”