Read Online What the Heart Sees by Marsha Canham - Free Book Online Page B

greenwood is vast and thick and filled with others who wait patiently for the Lionheart’s return; we will join them. I will become an outlaw on my own demesne and attack, harass, and slay whoever Lackland sends to occupy these walls. If it proves to be de Caux, then all the better. If he attempts to plant a crop in my fields, I will burn it. If he tries to rebuild my village, I’ll destroy it. If he comes into my woods to hunt me, I’ll lay traps and send his head to the regent on a platter.”
    He glanced over and studied her for the first time since she’d come into the chamber. She had a smudge of dirt on her cheek, and her sleeve was torn at the shoulder, but he thought he had never seen anyone so brave or beautiful.
    Not knowing the thoughts kindling behind the pale blue eyes, Cassie pretended to focus her attention on picking a sliver of wood out of her hand.
    He frowned and beckoned her closer to the window. “What have you done to your hand?”
    She slid her hands behind her back. “‘Tis nothing, my lord. A nuisance sliver.”
    “Let me see.”
    “Truly. ‘Tis nothing.”
    “If it truly is nothing, let me see.”
    She blew out a breath and brought her hand forward, holding it palm up. It was her right hand and the sliver was embedded in the fleshy pad at the base of her thumb, which was awkward to pick with her left hand, especially when the fingers were trembling.
    “You realize of course,” he murmured, taking her wrist and turning her hand into the light. “You are one of my most valuable assets at the moment, and should you suffer from a lack of care and attention, even for the smallest of injuries, it could entirely thwart my plans of becoming an infamous outlaw?”
    “I am? I mean...I could?”
    He plucked the sliver out with a minimum of effort and showed it to her before flicking it away.
    “Your bow-arm is, indeed, a most precious asset, as is the hand that guides the arrows,” he said, and raised her palm to his mouth, pressing his lips over the tiny bead of blood that appeared to fill the prick-hole left by the sliver. “And I could scarcely step a foot inside that forest without becoming hopelessly lost if you were not by my side.”
    “Oh.” The word came out more as a breath than a sound.
    “Yes. Oh.” His lips moved to her wrist. “And since this precious bow-arm is attached to this shoulder and this shoulder to this neck and this neck to...well...to everything you are and everything that humbles me to the core,” he said, drawing her slowly into the hard circle of his arms, “it behooves me to take very good care of every part of you.”
    Cassie’s lashes shivered shut as she felt his lips exploring the soft crook of her neck. Her senses were spinning, her body was hot and cold at the same time, tingling everywhere his hands brushed or touched. Her head fell back and his lips were there, caressing and exploring, travelling up the slender arch of her neck to her chin, her cheek, the tender underside of her ear.
    “Please,” she gasped. “My lord—!”
    “I am not a lord anymore,” he chuckled softly against her ear. “I am soon to be but a humble outlaw. But if you would have me stop...if my attentions are unwanted...?” He straightened a moment and the pale blue eyes stared down into hers. “By God, I never thought to ask if you even found me the least bit appealing. I never thought to ask if your affections were promised to another. I never—”
    Cassie whimpered softly, curled her fingers into his hair and dragged his mouth down to hers. Any doubt he may have had was silenced through a kiss that ended with his body hard and their hands eagerly tearing at each other’s clothes. At the first press of bared flesh, he swore a soft oath and scooped her into his arms then carried her the few short paces to the bed. There, while she wriggled and twisted her way out of her leggings and tunic, he stripped off his own garments and flung them aside.
    Naked, he joined her on