The Hellion (The Lady Knights of Barony Book One ) (8 page)

His eyes followed the slope of her long neck and narrow shoulders to the figure he’d felt pressed against him earlier, now in plain view. She’d tied Simon’s brown belt at her waist, causing the borrowed white shirt to taper in and showcase her soft curves. The top button barely concealed her cleavage from view, and if his eyes weren’t playing tricks on him, her pink nipples were visible through the fabric. Where in God’s name were her undergarments? He’d have to remember to find her a vest.

He didn’t want to, but couldn’t stop himself from completing the picture, raking his gaze over her long legs wrapped in Simon’s black breeches. She wore her own boots.

Ava gazed back at him silently, daring him to speak, her eyes challenging his earlier assessment of her looks. If things had been different and she wasn’t his prisoner, he would have relented and told her the truth. He would have swept her against his body and kissed her senseless before proceeding to show her just how wrong he’d been.

God, had he been wrong. Lady Ava Longley was beautiful.

However, he wouldn’t tell her.

Instead, he moved around behind her to bind her wrists once more before shoving her roughly toward camp. His eyebrows shot up into his hairline as he caught a glimpse of her high, firm derriere. He groaned inwardly. The rest of the journey to Cardenas was going to be long and difficult.

****

After hours of trying to sleep, Ava gave up and sat up on her pallet. Julian had agreed to unbind her wrists and ankles for the night, as long as she agreed to sleep with a longer length of rope around her waist. The other end of the rope was tied securely around Julian’s waist; he’d wrapped it around his hand once as well for good measure. Even the slightest tug on the rope would alert him to any movement, so she took care not to shift any more than she had to as she pulled her knees up to her chest.
For as long as she lived, Ava didn’t think she would ever forget the look in Julian’s eyes when she’d come out of the pond, scrubbed clean. She’d never been a vain woman, and had never cared much before if someone noticed what she was wearing or found her attractive. Yet Julian’s opinion had meant something to Ava. To have those coal black eyes traveling over her face and body so slowly, so thoroughly, had thrilled her beyond all imagining.

“What are you thinking?” she whispered to herself as she stared into the fire. Julian Vincent was a lowlife kidnapper. There wasn’t one redeeming quality about the man, but still she was unable to keep her eyes from roaming over the rippling muscles that stood out against the back of his shirt. Her fingers tingled as she imagined running her hands along the valleys and planes, feeling the heat of soft skin stretched over hard muscle.

As if he felt her eyes on him, Julian stirred and turned onto his back. He heaved a heavy sigh, as if he was as frustrated as she and then turned to his other side. Julian’s eyes instantly connected with hers and widened in uncontained surprise before they softened, growing heavy lidded and sensual. Ava felt her face growing hot as a those dark eyes traveled slowly over her face. She wasn’t sure if she could ever grow accustomed to the heat in his stare. With the grace of a jungle cat, he stretched and pulled himself up onto his elbow facing her.

“Tomorrow’s journey will be long. You should be resting.”

“Concern for your prisoner? How noble of you, Julian Vincent.”

His eyes narrowed, the dark depths of desire now replaced with cold, hard annoyance. “I simply don’t care to prop you up in the saddle if you fall asleep while on the trail tomorrow and I certainly don’t want to subject myself to your snores.”

“You wouldn’t have to prop me up if you’d thought to provide me with my own mount. If you’re uncomfortable with my riding with you, it is your own fault.”

Julian’s jaw flexed, intensifying the anger that was taking over his expression. His eyes glistened like blackest onyx in the firelight. Ava’s lips parted and a gasp she hadn’t known was coming fell from her lips. She knew he was thinking of her tactlessness earlier. The space that separated them was small. If he wanted to reach across with one of his long arms to do her harm he very well could. In fact, he looked like that was exactly what he’d like to do at the moment.

Instead he laughed. The chuckle surprised her with both its warmth and its timing. What on earth could be so funny? When he’d calmed the spasms of his chest, his eyes twinkled with mirth.

“What manner of lady are you, Ava Longley?”

A smirk pulled at the corner of her lips. Why was it that he so enjoyed baiting her? More importantly, why was it that she so enjoyed it?

“I believe that the truth about me would shock you, Julian Vincent.”

He rolled his eyes and scoffed, “Doubtful. There is nothing shocking about a world that revolves around ball gowns, frippery, and foolishness
my lady
.”

Ava felt the indignation that rose up within her swiftly at his words

She sat up straighter and squared her shoulders, her chin achieving a haughty angle that only seemed possible when Julian was needling her. “I wasn’t born into privilege, you know.”

Julian lifted his eyebrows and grinned sardonically. “Consider me intrigued,” he said with a flippant wave of his hand that indicated she should continue.

“My father was a blacksmith and before I was born my mother was a shopkeeper’s assistant. They tried for years to bear children before I was born, but could not. They buried three sons before I came along. My father was convinced that a woman needed to know how to defend herself as well as any man. He taught me how to fight.”

“Thus your skill with the dagger.”

“As well as the axe, sword and bow. You know, if you had allowed me to help you with the hunting this evening, we would have had dinner in half the time.”

“And risk an arrow in my back? Not likely
my lady
.”

“As I was saying,” she interjected quickly, not wanting to ruin the conversation with an argument. She rather liked Julian when he wasn’t being annoying. As he lay now with his chin propped on his hand, his muscles stretched into a relaxed pose, he was at his least threatening. “After my parents died I joined Barony’s ranks along with my cousin Nell. Before long I found myself their captain.”

“Impressive.”

His words held not a hint of sarcasm. Julian seemed genuinely interested in her tale. Pride swelled Ava’s chest and caused her lips to pull into a smile.

“When the war with Barony was at its peak, I was at the forefront. My regiment and I, along with Queen Isabelle, led the last charge against the rebel horde when they attacked Guthrie Hall. The king and the majority of our fighting forces were over half a day’s ride away. We held the castle with only a handful of my soldiers, the queen, and a group of farmers and noblemen who’d never seen battle in their lives.”

Ava couldn’t stop her smile from widening as she remembered that day proudly. She’d never been happier to stand for something than she had on that day. They’d saved Barony, and she had been a part of it.

“After that last battle,” she continued, “King Serge lifted the laws barring women from knighthood in Barony. Queen Isabelle, along with me and three of my soldiers were knighted before the entire kingdom and that is when I received my title. So you see, Lady Ava Longley did not exist until a few months ago. I had to work hard for my title and my estate and lands, unlike the rest of the nobility.”

She came out of the warm haze she’d created around herself during the retelling of her life’s story to find that Julian was no longer looking at her. He stared pensively into the fire, his expression filled with equal parts turmoil and pensiveness.

“Tell me about it,” he said softly, his lips barely moving as he continued to stare into the flames. “Your estate.”

Ava shrugged. “It’s a mansion with too many rooms and grounds as big as the compound I share with over one hundred other women. There are tenants, farmlands, and cattle. There’s also a garden. I believe the caretaker oversees most of its maintenance.”

He shifted on his pallet and his eyes finally reconnected with hers. “You mean you don’t know for sure?”

“I don’t live there. It was a kind gift but Heatherton Manor comes with a lot of responsibility and my priorities are the blacksmith’s shop my father left to me, Barony’s women’s regiment and the people of Gladstone as well as the surrounding villages. Besides, Heatherton Manor is too big for one person alone. Perhaps I will move there when I have a family of my own.”

Ava didn’t miss the scowl that pulled at his mouth and brow.

“You don’t know how fortunate you are,” he said, his voice tinged with a mixture with emotions. Ava felt herself physically reacting to his sudden change in demeanor. Her heart seemed to ache for him. For a moment, she could almost see the lost, vulnerable little boy he must have been, a bastard son abandoned by an uncaring father. What drove Julian Vincent? What force had pushed him toward this life?

“Is it so important?” she asked, truly wanting to know the answer. “A house is a place made of stone. A home is what’s important, the place where the people who love you are. That’s a true home.”

“I wouldn’t know,” he said, his voice a low growl. Frustration edged his chiseled features. “I’ve never had either.”

Ava felt the strings of her heart being tugged even harder at his words. She unconsciously moved toward him, decreasing the space between them. Julian stared up at her from where he laid, his face a tortured mask that betrayed his vulnerability.

“Surely there must have been someone who cared about you.”

His eyes became immediately shuttered and guarded. He turned his back to her swiftly, effectively ending their conversation.

“Good night, Ava.”

Her jaw set in determination, Ava refused to be cowed. She moved closer—so close that her knee was touching his back—and tapped him on the shoulder.

“Oh, no you don’t,” she said. “I gave you my life story, Julian! The most you can do is tell me a little bit about yourself. Help me understand a man that kidnaps women for a living.”

“I do not kidnap women for a living!”

His mighty roar should have been enough to wake every animal in the forest, yet Simon remained eerily unmoving on his pallet a few feet away. His back to them, he snored loudly, shattering the silence that stretched between them after Julian’s outburst. The muscles in Julian’s shoulders bunched and rolled as he turned to face her again.

“I do what I have to do to survive. It’s all I’ve ever done,
my lady
. You with your loving parents and shining future could never understand what that’s like.”

Her hand tightened on his shoulder. “Make me understand. I want to.”

“My father is an extremely wealthy and well-known member of the royal court. I’ve no doubt you may have even rubbed elbows with him at one of your soirees. My mother was a maid in his house. From what I understand, his wife is a very jealous woman. When she found out that a maid was carrying her husband’s child, she had her thrown out on the street. My mother never did get over the heartbreak,” he laughed dryly. “She thought herself in love with him.”

“Then she must have loved you, your being an extension of him.”

His eyes hardened and glittered with anger. “No,” he ground out. “My mother despised me. She could barely look at me because I was the very image of
him
. I spent most of my childhood stealing to survive and to feed myself and became known in our village by my torn rags and empty stomach. When I reached the age of thirteen, a friend of my father’s took me in. He knew that what my father had done was wrong and told him so. From what I understand my father was quoted as saying that he didn’t give a damn if I died in the gutter; he was not going to claim me or take me into his home. Lord Kensington did what he would not. His family took me into their great house on a hill filled with servants and gave me a taste of the life I’d always wanted. I felt as if I belonged in that world too, adapted quickly to it. His son, Thomas, and I became fast friends and the two groomed me to become a society gentleman. I learned to dance, ride, fence, shoot and developed first class manners just like any other young noble.”

“It sounds as if you had a great life with Lord Kensington and his family,” she said with a smile. “I know the new Lord Kensington, Thomas Edwards. I was not aware that you were friends.”

Julian shrugged. “We don’t run in the same circles anymore.”

“What happened?”

“Word spread, of course. Lord Kensington and his family had no qualms about including me in their family outings, which included balls and other such events when I was of age. Of course, it was inevitable that I would run in to him again.”

“Your father?”

Julian nodded. “Once people saw us in the same room together and made the connection, the gossip spread. Every young lady that ever fought for my attention now spurned my advances in public. None of them wanted to be on the arm of a nobleman’s bastard. Of course, that didn’t stop the young jezebels and experienced widows from trying to sink their claws into me. I received so many clandestine invitations, I hardly knew what to do with them all. After a time, I began to grow weary of them, the entire court and their silly games. I’d had enough of their snobbery, so I left. That’s when I met Simon.”