Once He Loves by Sara Bennett

Author:Sara Bennett
Language: eng
Format: epub, mobi
ISBN: 9780061751141
Publisher: HarperCollins

Briar leaned back against Ivo’s chest, warm beneath the folds of her cloak, while the horse moved smoothly beneath them. Her body was unfulfilled, but the ache had faded somewhat. Ivo had been grumpy when they left, glaring at the man as if he would like to run him through. His display of bad temper had eased Briar’s, and she smiled.

“Next time you must find a private chamber that is not so popular, de Vessey.”

Ivo grunted and gave her a cross look. “I did not know it was popular when I reserved it, demoiselle. I thought you would need a place to recover yourself, that was all.”

“Was it?” she mocked, not quite so amused now. “So you arranged with the innkeeper to bring me there? Well, it seems others were also keen to avail themselves of his chamber. There was a queue outside the door, de Vessey. The host had no choice but to hurry us along.”

“Curse him.”

Briar laughed in delight. The sound surprised her; she had not laughed like that in a long time. She wondered if she should force a frown, suppress her high spirits. ’Twas not wise to feel so alive, not safe—if she had learned one thing in the past two years, then ’twas that. But she did not want to lose this lightness inside her, this new sense of optimism.

Deliberately, she leaned back into Ivo’s chest, ignoring his restless shiftings, and put her palm on his thigh.

He jumped as if she had been red hot, and removed her hand.

“Demoiselle,” he said through gritted teeth, “it is not safe for you to touch me yet.”

“Taking me to Sir Anthony has not altered my mind, you know,” she said. “I still believe Radulf arranged Anna’s death because she was inconvenient to him. Nothing else makes sense.”

“She was inconvenient to many,” Ivo muttered, shifting about again. “What of the others? You need to discover who her lovers were, near to the time of her death.”

Briar snuggled against him, returning her hand to his hard thigh. She loved the movement of muscle under his skin, but she would never tell him that.

“You are right,” she said, surprising herself and him. “Aye, I would know how matters lay between my father and Anna in those last days. I need to know for my own sake as much as theirs.”

He was silent a moment, and she pretended to gaze about her at the busy, narrow street, pretended that she was not totally aware of him, close behind her.

“I will help you.”

Briar tilted her head back so that she could see him properly. He glanced down at her, gave her a faint, knowing smile, and then concentrated on the road ahead.

“Why will you help me?” she demanded, not sure herself why his offer was so important to her. “Is it because you believe Radulf to be innocent?”

“There is that, aye,” he said thoughtfully, and removed her hand from his thigh. “But that is not really why I want to help, lady. It is because you need to be free of this burden you have placed upon yourself.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.