The Conquest (Peregrine 2)

He smiled down at her, for there was the softness he'd always known she possessed. "I should like to take you away with me," he said softly, touching the hair at her temples. "I would make love to you all night and into the morning."

She moved closer to him and put her face up to be kissed again.

Tearle kissed her slowly, softly, a gentle kiss for a virgin. "Now, my love, I must return you to your brother."

"Mmmm" was all Zared could say as she put her face in his neck, her lips on his skin. She'd had no idea that touching a man could be so pleasant.

Tearle pulled her away from him, and the look on her face made his body grow hot. He could take her if he wanted; he knew that. "We have to return," he said. For leaving her a virgin that night he was sure that in heaven he would be given a crown of gold.

He put her hand in his and started leading her back toward the tents.

They had gone only a few yards when Zared's senses returned to her. She shook her head as though to clear a fog from it, then jerked her hand from his. She had just given herself to the enemy. Instead of remembering that she was a Peregrine and the man her family's enemy, she had lost all memory and allowed him to touch her. Allowed him? She would have allowed him much more if he'd wanted it—which he had not. He had broken from her when she would have gone on.

She drew the little eating dagger from her belt, turned, and held it out as though she meant to thrust it into him. "If you ever touch me again, I will kill you," she said.

He, the hideous, odious man, smiled at her.

Zared lunged at him, but he easily caught her wrist and pulled her into his arms again.

"I have a half-healed knife cut and a bruised side because of you. I do not want more wounds."

"I will cause you a great deal more pain if you force yourself on me again."

"Force?" he said, still smiling, then he bent his head as though he meant to kiss her again.

Zared turned her head away. "No," she whispered.

He released his hold on her, and when Zared ran from him she could hear him laughing behind her.

Chapter Eight

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She ran all the way back to the tent, and when she arrived she was shaking. Severn was lounging on his cot eating an apple, and he turned to look at her when she entered.

"Someone chasing you?" he asked. "Colbrand's squire after you again? I do believe the boy senses your sex. He seems to have the brains his master lacks."

"Haven't you something to do?" she snapped. "No swords to sharpen? No women to court?"

"I have won all the women," he said smugly.

"Except the Lady Anne."

He finished his apple and swung his feet to the floor. "Where is Smith? Did you see him with another woman—has that put you in an ill temper? Beware, little sister, that you do not play too hard to get."

"You know nothing!" she yelled at him. "Nothing!"

He chuckled at her as he left the tent.

Zared sat down on her cot, her body stiff with anger. She was angry at her brother for being able to see nothing, at the Howard man for coming into her life, and at herself for the way she had acted.

"It would have happened had any man kissed me," she whispered aloud. "Had Colbrand touched me…" She trailed off, remembering the way it had felt to be touched by the Howard man. By any man, she corrected herself. It would have felt wonderful to have been held and kissed by any man at all.

"Yes," she said, standing. She was a Peregrine, and as her brothers liked lots of women, she, no doubt, liked many men. It was a shame, perhaps, that her family's sworn enemy could make her react, but that was the way of the world.

She just had to keep her wits about her and not allow the man to make her lose sight of what was really important, she decided. He was a Howard, and he had put himself in the Peregrine camp for a reason. Since Zared was the only one who knew who he was, did he mean to seduce her so that she would begin to believe him?

She didn't yet know what he hoped to gain from his disguise, but it was her duty to protect her family.