Shadow Keepers: Midnight (4 page)

Right or wrong, he would have her.

“Anything?” His voice, rough with passion, ripped through her, awakening senses that she didn’t even realize existed within her. She wasn’t a stranger to a man’s touch—she’d been betrothed twice, and though neither man had bedded her, they had asked for and received kisses that felt as chaste and flat as those she bestowed upon her brothers.

Now, though …

Now her body tingled. Her clothes felt heavy. And an
unfamiliar warmth glowed between her legs. She shifted, pressing her thighs together beneath the folds of her skirt, but that only made the heat grow and she knew—she just
knew
—that she wouldn’t be satisfied until she felt his hand upon her there. His hand, yes, but also the whole of him.

“Carissa,” he whispered.

She told herself she was thinking only of Antonio. Of doing whatever she could to help her brother. But that was a lie. She wanted this—this feeling, this sensation. She was betrothed to an irritable old man, her future spread out before her like a desert. This man was an oasis, dark and strong and virile. A man who could make her feel all the things she’d dreamed of feeling. A man who could give her sweet memories to cling to through the long, hard days to come.

He was a man who could help her, and in more ways than one.

“Yes,” she said, tilting her head up to look at him. “Anything.” And then, before she could talk herself out of it, she pressed her lips to his.

His mouth opened against hers, his breath hot upon her. He clutched her tight, one hand around her waist pulling her close, the other holding the back of her head, his fingers curled in her hair. Their bodies melded together, their tongues finding, tasting, devouring. Her head spun with new sensations, and she felt as if she were falling and climbing all at the same time. She wanted to consume him and be consumed by him, and she lifted her own hands to his head, her fingers twining in the silk of his hair, trying to pull him even closer.

His mouth tugged and teased her lips, and she moaned as he trailed kisses across her cheek to her temple,
her ear. “You are certain?” he whispered, the words so low she almost imagined she hadn’t heard them.

“Yes,” she breathed, and then, to prove to him she meant it, she took his hand and placed it on her breast, hoping his touch would quell some of the fire that was burning through her. It didn’t. It only made the flame burn hotter.

“Please.” It was the only word she could manage, but it was enough. His hands were upon her, his mouth at her neck, hot and wild as her pulse beat against the pressure of his lips. His fingers were quick and nimble and had the laces of her bodice unfastened in an instant. He pushed her back until she was pressed against the side of the stable. Then his head dipped down, his mouth closing over her breast and his tongue teasing her nipple. He pulled away, and she sighed at the sweet sensation of the gentle breeze caressing her now-damp skin.

“Lift your skirts,” he said, and as she did, he knelt before her, his breath hot upon her thighs. Her sex tightened and quivered, and she shifted her hips, longing for something she’d never had but instinctively knew that she wanted.

Soon his fingers touched the skin that his breath had tickled, and she had to bite her lip to keep from crying out. She clutched her skirt tighter, and he slid his hands down, cupping her at the waist as his tongue traced kisses up her legs to the apex of her thighs. He laved her, the tip of his tongue touching her in the most intimate of places. It was a naughty, erotic sensation, and one that she wanted never to end. This was the feeling she’d longed for, the pleasure she knew would never be hers, and dear Lord she wanted it now—all of it, everything he was willing to give her, and more.

She shifted her hands, using only one to hold her skirt and the other to cling to him, to clutch tightly to his shoulder as the power of his intimate kisses ripped through her. He was driving her mad with pleasure, the sweetness almost unbearable, and she feared that if he didn’t stop she would explode, and yet if he did stop she would weep.

Something built inside her, like the heavens coursing through her, spinning faster, glowing hotter, until she could do nothing
—nothing
—except cry out and tremble as her body was ripped apart from within.

He caught her as her knees gave out, his arms tight around her waist, holding her upright. His lips on hers, letting her taste the sweetness of her sex. “More,” she whispered, her hands already working to push off the cloak he wore and to unfasten the laces on his white linen shirt. She wanted to speak, to tell him what his touch meant to her, how it swelled within her, but she couldn’t find the words. So instead she told him with her fingers. Exploring and caressing, touching and discovering.

Tentatively, she pressed her lips to his chest, breathing in the musky scent of him. He tasted of earth and desire, and when she tilted her head back to look at him, the expression on his face—on that warrior’s face, now soft with need and desire—almost made her come undone.

“I must have you,” he said, his voice a low growl.

She tried to answer but had forgotten how to speak. Instead she merely nodded, then took his hand in her own and cupped his palm roughly between her legs. He made a rough noise in his throat and pulled her closer, and suddenly his breeches were down and she felt the hard length of him pressed against her. “My cloak,” he
whispered, nodding toward where it lay now on the ground. “Not as soft as a bed, but—”

“I don’t care. I only want you.”

She lay down, tugging him down with her, not wanting to lose the contact between them. “I cannot wait,” he said, and she almost laughed, her relief was so great. She wanted him right then, that moment, that instant, filling her up and taking her higher.

She spread her legs, drawing him down. With fingers eager to know every inch of him, she reached out, stroking the velvet steel that was the length of him. She saw him tremble at her touch, and understood her power as a woman. “Now,” she whispered. “Please, please, now.”

He was both gentle and demanding, thrusting slowly at first until she could bear it no longer and grabbed his hips, forcing him harder and deeper. It hurt—dear Lord, it hurt, but only for a moment. Then the pain shifted, erased by a pleasure like no other she’d known. It ripped through her, so sweet and yet so tumultuous, and she never wanted it to end, and when he collapsed, spent, beside her, she sighed with the deepest of pleasure and curled up next to him, soft and satisfied.

They lay like that as time ticked past them, her fingers tracing idle designs on his skin, her body reveling in the joy that he had given her.

Then he shifted so that he was facing her, and he pressed a kiss to her lips so gentle it was like a whisper. “I will get your brother back, Carissa,” he murmured. “About that, I give you my word.”

“Someone comes,” he said.

Carissa sat up abruptly, her head cocked. “I hear no one.”

His face was firm; the softness she’d seen after he’d brought her to the brink of heaven had vanished. “Trust me.” His eyes met hers. “I must go.”

She nodded, straightening her clothes as she climbed to her feet. She was adjusting her laces when his hand took hers, and he tugged her to him. “Goodbye, Carissa.” His kiss was hard, and needful, and full of things unspoken.

“Wait,” she said after he released her. He’d stepped away from her with such speed that he was already all the way across the stable, his horse untied. How had he moved so fast?

He stopped, then looked at her in silence.

“I don’t even know your name,” she said, suddenly overwhelmed with an inexplicable sadness. He’d delighted her with a sensual feast, but now she understood fully what she would never again have with a man. She would be married and well cared for, true. But this moment—this feeling—was gone forever.

“Tiberius,” he said. Then he leapt upon the horse’s back, kicked the beast’s flanks, and was gone.

Carissa stood, staring into the suddenly empty darkness.

She heard the swift crunch of feet upon the ground. “Carissa?” Agnes’s voice echoed through the yard. “Are you out here?”

“Here,” she called back, as Agnes shuffled into the structure, huffing under the effort of moving her ample form.

“Whatever have you been doing, girl? I’ve been looking everywhere for you, and—” She cut herself off quickly, those perceptive eyes narrowing as she peered hard at Carissa’s face, then dragged her eyes down to Carissa’s chest.

Carissa forced herself to keep her chin upright, but she feared she knew exactly what Agnes was seeing—bits of straw in her hair and décolletage. Whether or not she could see any evidence of Tiberius’s lips upon her neck and breasts, Carissa didn’t know. Certainly she still held the memory of him there, and it took all her willpower not to lift her hand and stroke the spot where last he’d kissed her.

“What have you been doing, child?” Agnes repeated, only this time her words held a much sterner tone.

“Nothing that need concern you,” Carissa said, adjusting her skirt as she prepared to hurry past Agnes and back to her own quiet apartment in the palazzo.

Agnes’s firm hand stopped her.

“Nurse!”

“Don’t ‘Nurse’ me. Do you think you are too old for my switch?” She plucked a piece of straw from Carissa’s cleavage and wagged it in her face. “You are not!”

“I have done nothing for which I must be ashamed.”

“Then you
have
done something?”

Carissa said nothing. With Agnes, it was often better to hold one’s tongue.

“Nay, girl. I’ll not get the silent treatment from the likes of you. Speak to me now, or we’ll go inside and you can speak to your father.”

Carissa scowled. “Very well, then. I’ve set the matter straight.”

“What matter?”

“The stranger came here intending to rescue Antonio, but Father flatly refused him.”

“No!”

“Yes,” Carissa said, spurred on by the vehemence of Agnes’s response.

“But why?” Agnes asked.

“I don’t know.” Carissa frowned, remembering the invectives her father had fired at Tiberius, calling him a devil and suggesting that he would never trust a man such as him. “It makes no sense.”

“Well, go on, girl. What happened?” She crossed her arms over her breasts. “Or shall I guess?”

Carissa lifted her chin. “I persuaded him to ignore Father’s directive. He will rescue Antonio. He gave me his word.”

“Hmmph.” Agnes looked her up and down, her scowl growing deeper by the moment. “Persuaded him, did you? I can tell by looking at you how you managed that.”

Carissa wanted to shrink from the reprobation in her nurse’s voice, but she held her ground. “Think what you will, but I’ll not apologize for my actions. Antonio’s life is at stake. There is no sacrifice too great.”

Agnes snorted. “Sacrifice! By the Blessed Virgin, I saw the lad when he came into the palazzo. You made no sacrifice there, girl!”

“Agnes!”

“Come now, don’t be coy. We’re both women.” Her tone darkened. “But I know the way of things a sight better than you, I think.”

Carissa frowned, her amusement fading in light of the change in Agnes’s tone. “What are you talking about?”

“So he said he would help you? Said he would go out into the world and bring your brother back to you?”

“Yes.”

“And all he needed was a good, solid send-off. A woman’s warmth before he rode off, risking his life on our behalf.”

Carissa shook her head slowly. “It wasn’t like that. I—”

“You think it was your idea? That your feminine wiles persuaded him?”

“He swore,” she said, though her words sounded hollow.

“I do not doubt that he did. A man who would use a woman thus would have no moral code that would keep him from breaking his word.”

Carissa stood rigid, her mind in turmoil. He had sworn, true, but Agnes was right—she had no way of knowing if his word was good. Her father didn’t trust him, and yet she’d given him her body in exchange for a promise.

Flames of anger rose up within her, but the anger was directed as much against herself as it was against him. She’d wanted what he could offer so badly that she’d accepted his word without question, then reveled in her own satisfaction. But this wasn’t about her—it was about Antonio—and hot shame burned her cheeks as she realized how little thought she’d paid her brother under the guise of acting only for him.