Read Online The Temptation (The Medieval Knights Series) by Claudia Dain - Free Book Online

have been challenged," he said, looking down at her. She straightened and met his look; her own hair was perfectly ordered, as was her composure. "Aye, I can wait a week for you, little wife, but now I think that you will not be so content to wait a week for me."
    "I do not know—"
    "Ah, yea, you know," he said, cutting her off while he ran a fingertip over the waves of her hair. "I accept your challenge, wife. I will not be the one to pant after you; at least I will promise you not to be alone in my panting. Nay, for I shall wring a cry from you, and only when I have your cry upon my lips will I take possession of you."
    The images were too strong, of taking and of crying out in passion and of his coming for her, pursuing her with all the relentless heat of dogs after a boar. She would be the boar for no man. He would not make her pant, and her only cries would be the soulful cries of devoted prayer. She would prove that to him, taking up the challenge he had set before her. He would not make her into something she was not. She would never be a woman who panted for a man.
    "You will wait long, my lord. If that is your plan, then this marriage will never be consummated." Another oft-spoken prayer.
    "You do not understand men, Elsbeth, if you say that. A man challenged is a man who must then win. What is more certain is that you do not understand me."
    She did not want to understand him. She only wanted him out of her life so that she could escape the burden of men. Did he understand nothing of her wants and wishes? Nay, he did not. His thoughts were all of himself, which was very like a man.
    "I cannot stand here," she said, wanting to be away from him and his vows and challenges. He was just like men as she knew them to be: self-serving, arrogant, and proud. She understood men well enough and had no wish to understand them better. "I bleed, I tell you. I must away."
    "Then away, Elsbeth, and I with you. I am your husband, ever at your side, in need or without," he said, placing his arm about her and hurrying her from the chapel.
    "I cannot walk so fast." she said, tripping over her skirts. "I do not need your assistance in this."
    "Aye, but I am a husband of an hour. I need to be needed. I need to be with you, even if I cannot take you, planting my scent upon you and within you, feeling you shift beneath me, holding me within your heat."
    "Stop! This is not speech a maid should hear," she said, putting her hands over her ears.
    "Ah, maiden wife, you are right in that, but you shall hear it and feel the need for me grow in your belly and in your blood, until you beg to be freed of your maidenhead. Until you pant my name and cannot think beyond having my hands upon you. That is what this week will bring you. That is my task."
    "This is no worthy task," she said, pulling away from him, wanting her own space to breathe and think and move. She did not want his hands upon her. She never would. If only he would believe that of her, then this marriage could end today.
    God above, let this marriage end today.
    "I have a maiden wife who will be a maiden still. It is the task I find before me. What can I do but meet it?" he said, grinning.
    He caught her up against him and held her like a babe to his chest. The ground seemed leagues beneath her, and she held onto his neck without thinking. The smell of him was like goldenrod and honey, golden and sweet and wild.
    It was certainly not how a knight should smell.
    "My garments will be stained if you hold me like this. Let me down. Let me find my own way, I say again, I know what I am about."
    "I am not afeared of blood, Elsbeth. I know the scent and look of it too well. If your garment is stained, I will buy you ten more to replace it, but I will not relinquish you. That price is too high. The feel of you in my arms is worth ten gowns and a cloak of ermine beside."
    "You talk of cloaks of ermine when all this is about is a woman and her courses. Or a man who has found his will thwarted by