Read Online The Lion and the Crow by Eli Easton - Free Book Online Page B

that struck my father’s castle while I was on the road with Sir Allendale.”
    “Christian….”
    “Fear not. I was no fool, not even at thirteen. I let him taste my dagger, and I told him what he could do with his cock and his succubus. He threatened to tell my father I lusted after men. I threatened to carve off his staff and eggs in his sleep. You could say it was a stalemate.”
    William could not stop a smile at the thought of young Christian acting so boldly. “You did well. But I hope you are content to leave my staff and eggs where they are.”
    Christian’s hand stole onto William’s thigh. “As long as they serve me well.”
    William chuckled, but a tingle went down his spine. After witnessing Christian’s attack on the bandits, he had no doubt that the young warrior could be deadly.
    Christian sighed. “The lesson is thus: man makes God’s law and shapes it to suit his purpose. I believe there is a God, but what he thinks of my desires, or those of any man, no one can tell. I am done listening to priests on the matter.”
    “’Tis still a sin,” William said with soft conviction. “One corrupt priest does not change that.”
    Christian pulled away, his words angry and passionate. “No! I told you, William. I do not break faith with those who do not break faith with me. God broke faith with me. He took my mother, leaving me in a house of enemies. He ignored my prayers for help, night after night when I was only a boy. And his priest wanted to sate his own lust, not save my soul. I care not for God’s law! Or man’s either. There should have been laws of decency, laws of conduct, laws of family that protected me when I was young, but there were none. No law saved your sister from a husband who was a monster, nor helps her now. So what allegiance should I have to man’s laws? Should I believe it more of a crime for us to love one another than the harm my brothers did to me without any fear of retribution from my father or the king? Never!”
    William felt his pulse thud sickeningly for what Christian had endured, but he knew it changed nothing. “You mayn’t believe that you and I lying together is wrong, Christian. But that doesn’t change the fact that it is contemptible in the eyes of everyone else.”
    Christian’s jaw only set more stubbornly. “Then we must not be caught.”
    “Do you imagine it would not be obvious? Were we to be lovers in a lord’s castle or in a company of knights?”
    Christian got a calculating gleam in his eye. “Not if well done. One or both of us could wed—”
    William groaned and covered his face with his hands. “By the saints, he’s thought this through.”
    “What? The right kind of wife, one only interested in hearth and babes, separate chambers… It needs somewhere remote. My father was granted a small holding, four hundred acres in Scotland, by King Edward. I’ve been trying to talk him into letting me take it over, but he says I have not the experience, nor will he send me without a wife. In a place like that—”
    William pulled Christian tight, a stab of fear going through his heart. “Hush. Hush, I pray you. You chill me to the marrow with fear for you when you talk like this. You will bring yourself to ruin.”
    Christian stilled and pushed deeper into William’s arms.
    “We have another six, seven day’s ride ahead. Let me have you, hold you, for this long, Christian, and let us be content with our fate. I won’t waste time fighting about what mayn’t be. Can you do that?”
    “Aye,” Christian answered. He sighed bitterly, but his lips rose to meet William’s.
    The desperate need with which he pushed against William’s chest, as if they might never have this again, acknowledged every word that the older knight had said, even if Christian himself would not admit it.
    They lay their bedrolls next to each other by the fire that night and made love again, stroking each other to sweet release, indulging in endless kisses. It would