Read Online Nightbound by Lynn Viehl - Free Book Online

midnight.” She kissed his check before she swept out.
    “For nigh on five centuries that woman kept from me that she was changed by Nottingham
and
she and Rain were the last of Sherwood
jardin
,” Harlech said. “Yetwhen I confide in
her
, she cannot hold her tongue for five minutes.”
    As he had lied to Harlech since they were mortals, Beau wondered whether Viviana’s offer veiled something more damning. “If you have some doubt of me or this mission, brother, tell me yourself.”
    “When you were late to assembly, I questioned the men about you. I also asked Rainer.” Harlech lifted a hand. “I know, ’twas wrong of me to assume you were at fault. You are the most loyal of men.”
    A dull fear plumed inside his gut, making it difficult to keep his tone casual. “What was said?”
    “You know Rain.” Harlech rolled his eyes. “He nattered on about Nottingham and Viviana, and that time one of his trick blades landed in your ribs. I thought I’d go mad listening to him, but then he said something very odd. He claimed that you could not be out wenching, for you had not had a woman in months.”
    “Is that all?” Beau hid his relief by opening his case. “Well, that explains why your wife wants to fill my bed.”
    Harlech looked uncomfortable. “’Tis not like you to avoid females, Beau.”
    “In truth I thought I had tired of them,” Beau admitted. “’Twas not until I had Alys under me that I felt the need.”
    “The woman was immune to your scent, and you still took her to bed?” Harlech grinned. “Small wonder half the garrison envies you.”
    “I did not take her. ’Twas an accident; we fell together.” Beau paced across the room and back again before he regarded Harlech. “I will tell you this: I wantedto have her, right there, even as she was swearing to hurt me if I did. She thought me a brute come to rape her.”
    “No doubt.” Harlech saw his face. “Good God, man, you’ve never had a mortal female refuse you. That in itself must make this Alys seem like the most alluring Aphrodite ever to walk the earth. So, then. Did you force yourself on her?”
    Beau gave him a filthy look. “I may have unseemly thoughts, but never would I violate a woman.”
    “I never doubted it. I will tell you my great secret, the one that has kept me true and faithful to Viviana all these centuries.” Harlech smiled. “I have known any number of fetching wenches, and yes, a few who have thrown themselves at me, begging to see to my pleasure. When this happens, I see them as children too young to know what they are about.” His mouth curled. “And then I go and find my wife.”
    “Alys will not be throwing herself at me,” Beau admitted. “She has disliked me from the start.”
    “She will come to like you, Beau. Everyone does.” Harlech clapped a hand on his shoulder. “But likely she is indifferent to you, or her passions run another course. To cool your desire, I suggest you think on some Kyn female you might pursue, and the mortal solely as a sister. A very
young
sister.”
    A sister, when Beau could not even remember his mother.
    “And there is that look on your face again,” his captain said. “You’ve worn it like a mask every day since Byrne’s brother attempted to take the Realm. It reminds me of how you were when we were boys.”
    “’Twas a shock. I should have known those Saracens meant to harm us.”
And if I were to tell you the reason for that, you would have my head piked on the castle gates.
“As for women, I see you with Viviana, and our lady with Byrne, and I want the same for myself. A wife, a companion. But there are so few unattached females among our kind that thinking on them in that manner is the same as dreaming.”
    “I am sorry I have troubled you about it.” Harlech grimaced. “Only know that if you are in need of anything from a brother, you have but to find me.”
    As Harlech helped him pack, Beau’s thoughts drifted back to his brief life as a mortal. He