“Milord,” she said, cutting him off. “You misunderstand me. We needs,” she stressed the word, “take a rest.” She shifted her gaze meaningfully from his face to the trees they passed.
Dawning fell upon him.
“Oh.” He held his hand up to signal the others that they were slowing down.
Draven directed his horse to a small copse of trees. Reining to a stop, he helped her slide down the left side of his mount.
“Thank you,” she said coldly, then turned to make her way into the woods.
Draven took the time to check on his horse to make sure their combined weight wasn’t overly tiring to the animal.
Simon drew near. “Are you all right?”
Draven just glared at him.
For once Simon had the sense not to press him. He held his hands up, raised his brows and took a step back. “I can see the answer to that is definitely nay.”
Draven straightened from looking at his horse and pressed the palm of his hand to his thigh in an effort to pull his breeches further away from his swollen member. He didn’t know how much longer he could stand this without being driven mad by it.
How much unsated lust could one man be subjected to before he expired from it?
And why in the name of Lucifer did he have to be the experiment to see just how much one man could take?
All Draven wanted was peace. He’d have never gone to London at Henry’s bequest if he’d had any idea of the outcome, and right then the thought of handing himself back over to the king for execution seemed appealing.
He glanced to where Simon still stood by his side, looking into the trees where Emily and her maid had vanished.
“She wants to marry me,” Draven muttered to his brother.
Simon locked gazes with him. “She said as much to me.”
“Did she say why?”
“For some unfathomable reason, she likes you.”
“Don’t be ridiculous. She wants me dead is what she wants.”
“If I believed that for one minute, I’d never...” Simon’s voice trailed off.
“You’d never what?”
“Tolerate it,” he finished.
Draven pulled his dagger from his belt and handed it hilt first to Simon. “Here, take this.”
Simon frowned. “Why?”
“Take it and drive it straight through my heart before I perish in flames.”
Simon laughed and sheathed it back in Draven’s belt. “You know what they say. Lust cannot keep. Something must be done about it.”
“Are you so desperate for my lands that you would have Henry kill me for it?”
“Hardly,” he said offended. “Marry the girl and take her at will.”
Draven sighed. “Think you for one moment her father would tolerate me as his son-in-law?”
“He’d have no choice if you went to Henry.”
