Two Knights of Indulgence (16 page)

Nicolas cocked his head at her.
 
“Is that why you told me yesterday that you
saw the darkness in me?
 
Did you know
then that there was evil growing within me?”

“I saw darkness, but I didn’t know what I was seeing,
exactly.
 
It was confusing,
actually.
 
I could see the good man you
were, yet I also sensed the evil, and they fought against one another.
 
I didn’t understand it then, but now know you
are
a good man.
 
The darkness is … gone.”

Matthias tightened beside her and rose from the bed,
taking his warmth with him.
 
She
shuddered at the loss, wanting him to rejoin her and pull her into his embrace.

“Gaia told us there are other Illuminati coming.
 
We need to pack up and get out of here.”
 
Matthias began to pull on his clothes as he
spoke, his back to the two of them.
 
She
reached out to touch him, and he jerked, turning to look at her.
 
Britt felt his confusion and his anger.
 
She didn’t understand it, though.

Nicolas kissed her forehead and left the bed, putting
his clothes on as well.
 
He lifted his
watch from the bedside table, and she grew embarrassed once more when she saw a
mountain of condoms sitting there as well as a bottle of lube.
 
“It’s nearly one.
 
We need to call Thierry and get on the road
before dark.
 
Get dressed and we’ll pack
provisions while you continue to rest.”

“Who’s Thierry?”

“Thierry is another of our Templar brothers.
 
He’s the historian of the group and can find
the answers to our mysteries, such as what the heck you may be.
 
Gaia told us to contact him.
 
Apparently one of our brethren will need your
healing powers soon.”

Britt rose from the bed, gathering the covers around
her.
 
As close as she’d sensed they were
in bed, they felt ten times farther from her now.
 
She wanted to pull them back into the bed and
experience them without the evil within her, hiding her true self.
 
She wanted their intimacy.
 
Now, she felt lost and alone, even with them
both still in the room.

As the men left her, she collected her scattered
clothing and began to pull them on.
 
A
mass of black fleece lay on the floor, and she picked it up, bringing it to her
nose.
 
Matthias.
 
It was his.
 
She pulled it over her head and snuggled into it, his scent all around
her.
 
Britt closed her eyes and inhaled
once again, bringing his musky, male aroma into her.

Desire flooded her.
 
Yet she knew they had to leave before the enemy found them, so she
crawled back into the bed scented with their lovemaking and tried to rest.

Chapter Seven

Nicolas hung up the phone, his conversation with
Thierry very enlightening to them both.
 
Matthias had stood across the room, his eyes large after listening in to
part of the conversation on speaker.
 
He’d
sensed the truth all along, but hearing it had still been a surprise.
 
The female was an enigma, keeping them both
on their toes at every turn.
 
Too bad
they hadn’t had this information earlier; they could have asked Gaia herself.

Thierry had been researching an ancient manuscript
that hinted at a group of females who were daughters of the goddess, five women
who were gifted with a special power, all holding a piece of Gaia herself.
 
The purpose wasn’t clearly explained, other
than it appeared to be a cataclysmic event on the horizon, heralded by their
return to earth.
  
It could simply be to
help bring down the Illuminati or it could be for something far more
nefarious.
 
It stood to reason that Britt
was part goddess.
 
Thierry thought
Gabriel and Michel had found another of the females, the Seer.
 
It appeared Britt was the Healer.

There were three more women they needed to find and
protect:
 
the warrior, the sorceress, and
the princess.
 
Thierry didn’t know
exactly how they would find the others, but since two had been put into their
paths already, it stood to reason the others might be as well.
 
Gaia loved to play games of fate and chance,
so they just needed to wait the signaling of another.

“Thierry didn’t note anyone hurt.
 
Gaia said someone would need Britt’s
healing.”

“Perhaps it hasn’t happened yet.
 
They could be hurt between
Monte
Carlo
and the
Rhine
, as they’re on
their way to Alain’s German castle.
 
We
need to meet them at their final destination.”
 

Matthias gathered his bags over his shoulder, along
with his bow.
 
His sword was already
sheathed and on his hip.
 
They would have
to traverse the mountain on foot and make it back to the airstrip and their
private jet.
 
The lack of roads to the
cabin helped keep it off the grid.
 
He
hoped the Illuminati wouldn’t meet with them along the way, but if they did, he
was ready.
 
His anger was already
mounting after seeing the exchange between Britt and Nicolas this morning.
 
Unleashing it on some unsuspecting Illuminati
might actually make him feel better.

Having seen Britt interacting with Nicolas, seeing her
obvious attraction to him, had been hard for him to bear, but he’d swallowed
his pride and walked away.
 
He’d thought
there had been a connection between Britt and him, but apparently he’d been
wrong.
 
No wonder she’d sacrificed
herself
for Nicolas.
 
She wanted Nicolas instead of him, and he’d been the fool to think
otherwise.

All women wanted Nicolas.
 
He was handsome, his quick smile and jaunty
attitude gathering female attention wherever they’d gone, throughout the
eons.
 
Matthias was the hulking bully no
one ever wanted to face out of fear he’d turn on them, his sour frown and
disagreeable nature not lending itself to making friends.
 
Matthias had been insane to think she would
have chosen him instead of Nicolas.
 
Insane.

Add to it the fact she was more than likely a
demi
-goddess and he wasn’t worthy of her.
 
His blood-stained hands had dirtied her.
 
She deserved more than a man like him.
 
He had listened to Nicolas’ comments prior to
making love to her, saying he would back off after the act, giving him the
chance to claim her.
 
Those words had
buoyed Matthias’ hopes.
 
He thought he
had a real chance to have her in his life.

Pain lanced his chest as he let his heart touch on the
hope he’d had for the final time.
 
He
needed to get it together and stuff it inside, hide it away.
 
They needed to get her out of the country and
into the safekeeping of the other
Templars
.
 
Once they’d determined the new threat, he
would fight and contain the enemy, as he’d mindlessly done for eons.
 
After that, he would go away to lick his
wounds, alone.

A woman was a weakness.
 
He’d always said it and should have listened
to his own rhetoric.
 
He’d been stupid to
think he could have a future with a female.
 
The life he lived was that of a loner.
 
Matthias should be happy that he was within a brotherhood of men like
him.
 
Family was enough.
 
He didn’t need love.

So, why did he crave it so badly?

****

Britt followed behind the two men, placing her feet in
their larger footprints through the melting snow.
 
The day had been bright and blue, unlike the
past days she’d spent there under a menacing gray sky.
 
The drab, gray days they’d spent in the cabin
had affected her mood greatly.
 
It lifted
her spirits some to have a sunny day after the experience she’d had thus
far.
 
She needed the boost, considering
the two sour pusses she followed behind.

The two had barely said a word to her after they’d
left her room, only telling her to pack up and move out.
 
She would occasionally feel their stare as
one or the other would turn to check on her.
 
Nicolas was the one to check on her more often, or to offer a hand over
rough and rocky terrain.
 
Matthias
ignored her as best he could, the angry set of his shoulders confusing.
 

She had felt the stronger connection to Matthias, had
been attracted to his fierce honesty and animal strength.
 
Britt could see through the brute façade he
showed everyone.
 
There was a softer man
under his invisible armor.
 
When she’d
connected with him, he’d been open to her and she’d seen the man he was
inside.
 
He was loyal to his brothers,
loyal to his cause, and would lay down his life for any of his Templar
brethren.
 
He would lay down his life for
her, as well.
 
He sensed his desire for
her each time they touched.

Men in her age didn’t hold those kinds of convictions,
didn’t put others before themselves.
 
Here was her own knight in shining armor, yet he was shutting her out.

What had she done, or not done, to make him turn from
her?
 
She wouldn’t let him turn
away.
 
He was too good a man to allow him
to walk.
 
There was plenty of time.
 
She would make him see.

Her mind drifted to Nicolas.
 
She’d finally gotten to truly see the man
within once the stain of evil had been removed from him.
 
When she’d touched him, she’d seen his soul
and saw he was as brave, as loyal, and good as Matthias.
 
He, too, would lay down his life for his
brothers and had a singular devotion to his duty.

Her memories of their lovemaking made her blush all
the more.
 
Where Matthias had moved with
tentative strength, Nicolas had opened himself completely and given her all of
himself
.
  
She’d never
been taken in the way he’d had her.
 
Her
rear was still sore from his thick cock spearing her, yet all she could think
about was having him do it again and again.

Not without Matthias there.

They came as a pair, or not at all.
 
They were hers, she was theirs.
 
Britt wasn’t sure how she knew that, but she
did.
 
These two strong, brave knights
were hers, the visceral king and the seductive knave.
 
It felt right to be in their arms and at
their side.
 
She couldn’t answer the
questions running through her mind, though.
 
She’d known the two of them for a matter of a few days, and the thought
of leaving them made her chest ache.

Was it simply the connection they’d had fighting the
enemy?
 
Or the connection they’d shared
at her touch?
 
Maybe she was blinded by
desire, caught up in some abduction fantasy.
 
She could be the next Patty Hearst, brainwashed into joining the other
side, but deep down, she knew that wasn’t the case.

She’d always felt like an outcast as she’d grown
up.
 
Her mother had always wrapped her in
love, saying she was the child she’d begged the heavens for, but there had
always been a fear within that she wouldn’t be accepted by her deeply religious
mother.
 
There had never been anyone
she’d felt comfortable enough with to share her secret, one she’d been holding
for nearly three decades.

To have someone, two
someones
,
who seemed to find her magical and awe-inspiring, was invigorating.
 
For the first time in her life, she felt
completely accepted, warts and all.
 
She
felt wanted.
 

  
The fact they
were of the opposite sex was also a plus.
 
She wasn’t a virgin, but she’d not had many partners.
 
There had always been a latent fear that her
gift would freak out on her in the midst of a sexual experience, so she’d
always held tightly to her control and never let herself relax and enjoy the
moment.
 
With Nicolas and Matthias, she
wouldn’t have to worry about that.