James’s smiled widened, becoming wolfish. “Och, ye have no idea, lass,” he said as he bent low to kiss her.
She pulled away, her face a sultry mask marked with mirth. “Ye did make me an offer once.”
His eyebrow lifted at her guile. “Och, lass, what offer was that?”
Tosia wrapped her hand around the back of his neck and pulled his face as close as he could be without touching her.
“Ye said ye didn’t bite unless I asked ye to.”
His sensuous face didn’t shift. “And?”
“And I’m asking ye.” She lifted her chin to expose the soft underneath of her milky neck. “Start here.”
And he obeyed, his lips and teeth running a ragged path over her inviting skin as he lay her back onto the grass.
Chapter Eighteen: An Unexpected Encounter
Acrunching soundedfrom beyond the trees, and James froze mid-thrust, his head twisting to his side as he listened.
“Wha—” Tosia started to say, but James slapped his hand over her mouth.
He lifted a finger to his lips in a shushing gesture, then withdrew from her body. He fastened his braies with one hand as he lifted his sword with the other — all in absolute silence.
Tosia brushed her skirts down to cover her thighs, but otherwise didn’t move. What was it he thought he’d heard?
When James stepped on light toes through the tree line, Tosia finally shifted onto her hands and knees to watch his trek through the wood, following far behind him, his body and the fragrant low bushes shielding her against the sounds he’d heard.
The first noise that disturbed the quiet majesty of the forest was a screech as James burst through the trees onto the unsuspecting English soldiers picking at a midday meal under a shady rowan tree. Tosia peeked through the brush to watch James do what he was best known for — finding vengeance and retribution in blood.
The first Englishman fell in an explosion of blood as James leapt down on him, his broadsword finding home in the crook of the man’s neck. Wrenching his sword from the man’s dead body, James turned as the other two English scrambled for their swords and out of James’s way. Tosia’s eyes flicked from the taller of the men to the shorter one.
The shorter one was also younger, with mussed blond hair, and his stained tunic hung on his frame. He wore no mail, no armor to speak of. He reminded Tosia of her brother.So young!What was he doing as a soldier?
James grappled with the taller soldier, who lifted his sword in a frontal attack. James spun and grabbed the man’s wrist before he could bring the sword around and stuck him in the belly like a pig. He dragged his sword across the man’s stomach as he removed his blade, and the man’s guts poured from his belly. The solider dropped his sword and tried to catch his innards as they dropped in a pile of steaming bloody offal, and he fell atop them.
When James moved again, almost in a dance, the length of his sword was an extension of his arm. The lethal sword edge dripped thick with blood as the point of his blade caught on the thin tunic of the youth, and a shriek tore from Tosia’s lips.
