Lady X

X wondered if he was unhinged. “No? Why not?”

“Because you are going to marry me, and soon!” he said as he grabbed her and brought her in hard against his chest.

Before she could stop him, he pressed her into his embrace and his lips came down roughly on hers.

She pushed at him. When this proved ineffectual, she balled her fists and pounded at his chest as she threw her head to one side and demanded, “Get off! Get off!” she shouted thinking he had truly lost his mind. It was time to use her wand. It would be a calling card sent directly to her father. Use your brains, Xie girl, she told herself.

“You are mine,” he said with a low throttled growl. “I can have you now and prove it. I can throw you to the ground right now and take you, over and over again. I will ruin you for any other man.”

“Try it and before you have a chance to touch me, I will tear off your balls with one hand, and stuff them down your gullet!” Exerilla threatened.

He stopped, momentarily taken aback surprised by her language. “What are you? Where did you learn to talk like that…like…?”

“Like a harlot!” She cut him off. “Isn’t that what you said I am?” She sneered at him.

He reached for her as she stepped backwards and X nearly called for her wand in that moment. There was the sound of horses, she thought as she looked past him.

David spun around, but though Exerilla strained to see, she couldn’t see anyone coming down the trail. No doubt they hadn’t come round the bend yet.

She folded her arms across her middle and with one raised brow told him, “You better ride off and leave me be, or I shall tell whoever is coming that you are a scoundrel and that you tried to rape me.”

He gasped as he was evidently shocked. “Rape you? I mean to offer you my name, you stupid tart! Now we’ll just have to see if I do so. First, all you will get is my cock.”

“Creep! If you try forcing me into anything, we’ll see how it ends!” she snapped right back at him, enraged more than frightened. She didn’t want to use her wand. She couldn’t chance it, but if she had to she would.

The sound of horses drew closer. He cursed before he hurriedly moved off and flipped the reins back over his horse’s neck while mounted the gelding. He pointed his animal toward the woods in the direction of the main pike, but he looked back as he moved off and with narrowed eyes as he hissed, “This does not end here, Miss High and Mighty bitch!”

She watched him ride off and realized she was shaking.

Her entire body was in a convulsion of tremors. She hadn’t been frightened, but she had been angry. She never liked losing control. Her mother had often warned her, she was a white witch with her father’s darkness. Her temper stemmed from his DNA. If she lost it, she could hurt someone. She always tried to keep it corralled.

She brought herself back under control as she walked down the trail as she wondered who the riders had been and where they had gone off to.

She walked some distance when she noticed a small creek so she cut into the thicker part of the woods to the water’s edge. She wanted to splash some of the cool fresh water on her face, when something made her stop and stand very still.

Not far away, she heard male voices. She amped up her witch’s volume and heard.

“Beloved boy, you know I must leave,” a stranger’s voice spoke sweetly.

“Not yet, stay Lucas. I’ve done what you asked,” Sir Jacob said pleadingly.

“What the hell,” Exerilla thought as she continued to eavesdrop unashamedly. She knew what she stumbled upon. She absolutely knew and it all began clicking together in her mind. She still felt the element of surprise.

“I cannot. People will wonder what it is I am doing in Dover. I have no real business here and no other acquaintances. In fact, I bumped into that Scotsman of yours earlier today. He is a downy one, not easily fooled. If he sees us together…he will know.”

“You could be visiting me, what is odd about that?” Jacob offered softly. “We are friends and you are stopping by.”

“Yes. that is precisely what I told him, but if he sees us together…for any length of time he will know.”

“I don’t care,” Jacob said.

“Ah, but I do. I enjoy my life, my status, and my friends. I don’t want that to change. I am not on a mission. I am simply trying to get through this life I was dealt. I mean to do so tolerably well. Don’t make demands of this sort, for I will give you up as much as I don’t wish to. I will protect the life I have chosen.”

“Do you not love me, Lucas?”

“I adore you, but remember this I love my way of life more,” Lucas answered.

A long silence followed, in which Exerilla was pretty sure just what they were doing. It was time to turn back and head for home. This was turning out to be one hell of an afternoon.