The Warrior's Game by Denise Domning

Author:Denise Domning
Language: eng
Format: mobi, epub
Tags: Historical Fiction
Published: 2012-04-05T21:00:00+00:00

Michel jerked in surprise as Ami touched her mouth to his. He arched back from her, still holding her against the landing’s wall. Jesu, but he’d been ready to beat her for the wrong she did him and she wanted to kiss him?

Although night had crept up the stairs, cloaking the landing in dimness, the hall fire threw enough light into this small space that he could see her. Her head scarf was gone. Loosened by their struggle, tantalizing wisps of brown hair now escaped her plait to cling to the curve of her cheeks and trail in seductive promise along the slender length of her neck. Shadows marked the gentle slope of her cheeks and outlined her flushed lips.

It was the promise in her eyes that stirred him. Her ever-present hunger fair pulsed from her, enveloping him in a cloud of her desire. She’d lied in the courtyard, even if she wouldn’t admit it. He was the one to whom she’d give herself.

But Michel couldn’t afford to accept what she offered, no matter what he'd just told Mistress Hughette. That damned band. In order to soothe his hostess over what he'd done Michel had had to confide to her that he'd asked in secret for Amicia's hand.

Aye, he had asked. But John's and Sir Enguerran’s greed had seen to it that Amicia would never be his wife.

Marrying meant giving up his mercenary life and the coins and wealth in spoils it earned him. Once he traded his oath of loyalty to John for a wife's estates he was bound, body and soul, to England. But to accept Amicia and her estates as they were now would be disastrous. It would take every future coin he might earn in those financial ventures with his father and his brother for years to come to restore her estates to what John had portrayed them to be. Rather than advance himself and his potential children, Michel might find himself in the same position as his grandsire, needing to sell a daughter to a rich merchant in order to meet his obligations.

Given that there could be no marriage between them now, accepting Amicia’s offer tonight could well mean Michel might forfeit his life for using the king's ward.

Amicia made a tiny, forlorn sound. With her shoulders yet trapped against the wall, she reached out to rest her hands upon his hips. Even with the fabric of his shirt between her fingers and his skin, the heat of her hands seared him. Need thrust like a sword through his belly.

Michel breathed out in acceptance. Every man had to die someday and he'd be damned if he went without having first tasted her passion for him. He bent his head and touched his mouth to hers.

She sighed. Her lips were warm and soft beneath his. The scents of rain and Winchester radiated from her skin, but beneath it all clung that faint scent of roses. One of those wisps of hair trailed across his cheekbone. That woke Michel’s desire to see her hair loosened about her.

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