The Hellion (The Lady Knights of Barony Book One ) (12 page)

It was almost dawn and Julian needed to work out a strategy for his impending discussion with Ava. If there was one thing he’d learned about her in the last few days, it was that Ava was as stubborn as a mule. If she had it in her head to go after Dorian then she was not going to let him stop her. His first mission then, was to find out what exactly she was up to. If she had a vendetta against Dorian, most likely it was tied to King Serge and Julian definitely didn’t want to be in the way of that.

As he watched her, he couldn’t ignore the nagging of his conscience. It was trying to tell him that making love to Ava had been a terrible idea. While it had certainly been the most meaningful sexual experience of his life, it wasn’t going to make it any easier for him to let her go. Most women were gone from his thoughts the moment he spilled his seed on the sheets, but Ava had been different. Julian hadn’t even bothered to pull away to avoid impregnating her. With that realization came the thought that perhaps he hadn’t because on some level he wanted Ava to be his, truly his.

Suddenly, he was horrified by his actions. He leaped from his chair, sending it crashing to the floor in his panic. What had he done? If Ava conceived, he would be sentencing her to a life of shame, much like the life his mother had lived. Would she hate the sight of their son too? Would the knowledge of where the child came from make her sick to her stomach? Would people call his child the name he’d been branded with?

Bastard.

No. Not his child. As Ava stirred and sleepily rubbed her eyes, Julian decided that it wouldn’t be that way for any child of his. He’d never thought of it before, which was strange considering the number of women he’d bedded. Now the thought wouldn’t leave his mind.

Ava stretched and yawned, causing the sheet to slip down to her waist. Julian’s blood rushed straight to his most instinctual organ, causing him to forget everything but her naked breasts. She smiled at him lazily, her eyes still heavy with drowsiness and satisfaction.

“Is it morning?” she asked, her voice husky from slumber. Julian’s gut clenched and his member throbbed painfully at the sight of her awakening. He wondered if she was always so fresh-faced in the morning, or if it was his loving that put the sparkle in her liquid gray eyes.

More important things are at stake here.

With that reminder, Julian lifted Simon’s shirt from the floor—Ava had refused to don her dress again, deciding that Simon’s clothes were much more comfortable for riding—and dropped it at the foot of the bed.

“There are some things we should discuss,” he said.

The severity of his tone wiped the smile from Ava’s face and her eyes became shuttered and defensive.
She thinks you didn’t like it,
he told himself with an inward groan.

“It’s not what you think,” he said quickly, trying to lose some of the nervous tension that laced his voice. His hands shook with the effort. “You were amazing last night, truly. It’s something else.
Something serious.”

She nodded silently as she slipped the shirt on. Julian turned his back as she stood from the bed and buttoned it. He heard her slipping the breeches and belt on as well. Ava joined him at the small round table when she was dressed.

“Your conscience is nagging you because you think you took advantage of me,” she said before he could begin.

Julian’s head snapped up and their eyes met. Her expression was blank but her eyes were turbulent. He knew her thoughts must be as confused as his own. What sort of sick relationship had come of this kidnapping?

“Yes,” he admitted.

She shook her head. “I was naked first, remember?”

He couldn’t help a smile as he recalled the moment.

“It wasn’t a bargaining chip, you know,” she said. “I didn’t do it to coax you into letting me go. I did it because I wanted to know what it was like. I wanted to experience passion for the first time in my life and I’m glad I did it. Do you hear me Julian? Even after you do whatever it is you plan on doing with me, I won’t regret it.”

Julian’s eyes narrowed as the truth of what Simon had told him reared its ugly head. He crossed his arms over his chest and prepared himself for the ensuing battle.

“Ava, may I ask you a question?”

“Certainly.”

“Why is it that a woman of your impressive skill on the battlefield and headstrong nature has not yet made a break for freedom?”

Ava’s eyes narrowed as well and two molten gazes clashed. She didn’t move, didn’t breathe, didn’t make a sound. Julian had at least been hoping for a gasp of surprise. None was forthcoming.

“It’s just that you fought so viciously when we first captured you,” he continued when she didn’t respond. “I thought for sure I’d have my hands full with you for the entire journey. I even gagged you at first to save myself the trouble of having to listen to your incessant nagging, but you never even asked where we were taking you. Aren’t you the least bit curious, Ava? Don’t you want to know your fate?”

Ava stood, her hands gripping the table’s edge. “Tell me then, Julian. Tell me what you’re going to do with me.”

“You already know, so there’s no need for you to ask is there?”

“Tell me!” she bellowed, the strength in her voice reminding Julian that this woman was captain of an entire regiment. This was not a request. “I want to hear you say it!”

“I’m going to marry you.”

Ava’s eyes grew wide and shock filled their depths. Her hands dropped from the table and fell limp at her sides. “I don’t understand. That’s why you kidnapped me? But I thought—”

“The plans have changed, Ava. You and I will marry once I’ve returned you to Barony long enough to inform King Serge that you are well and sound. I’m sure that during the journey back we can come up with a reasonable enough excuse for your disappearance.”

Numb shock began to melt away and Julian watched the fight creep back into her eyes. “I know what your original plans were. What I don’t know—”

“We’ll get to what you don’t know in a moment,” he interjected, rising to his feet as well. He refused to be on uneven ground with her during this conversation. “What I want to know first, is what you know about a man named Dorian Blake.”

Ava’s lips turned up into a disdainful sneer. “The real question here is what do
you
know about Dorian Blake? What do you know about the man who paid you so much money to deliver me to him? Perhaps, he told you all about his stable of kidnapped women, some of them no older than fourteen. Maybe he even showed them to you. Tell me Julian, did you sample what the men in the West Indies will be paying for? Did you find the merchandise to be to your satisfaction?”

Anger and shame swirled within him in a potent mixture that left him feeling sick. Had he really fallen so low that he now dealt with a man who sold women in to slavery?

“Ava,” Julian said softly, his eyes unable to connect with hers. “I didn’t...”

“It doesn’t matter Julian, because you actually did me a favor. The night that you and Simon kidnapped me, I was preparing weapons and armor for my regiment. Our plan was to pursue Blake and his men after they kidnapped a group of women from
Trilor. We have reason to believe that he’s kidnapped women in other areas as well. King Serge wanted him stopped and placed the burden upon my shoulders.”

The sickness increased as Julian remembered reports of raiders in Barony’s village. There had even been reports of them back home in
Rinland. He hadn’t known about the kidnapped women or even thought to tie those events to a man like Blake.

“You were awake that first night,” he said. “You heard Simon and me discussing Blake.”

She nodded. “I knew then that I could use you to get to him so I played helpless. When you take me to him tomorrow, I have every intention of finding the missing women and bringing him to justice.”

“Ava, I won’t allow...”

“
You
won’t allow?”

Suddenly the space between them was gone and Ava’s slender index finger was jabbing him in the center of his chest.

“After all that has happened, you dare—”

He grasped her wrists in a bruising grasp, pulling her against him roughly. Fear for her mingled with his frustration over her stubbornness.

“I will not allow you to put yourself in danger!”

“I’ve been in danger from the moment I met you! ‘A means to an end’, right Julian? Isn’t that how you think of me? You were so convinced that I was like all the other ladies you’ve known and that I deserved whatever I was getting from that snake!”

“I didn’t know you then,” he whispered, his hold on her wrists slackening as he hung his head. “I wish I had.”

“You don’t know me,” she hissed, the venom of her words hitting him with precision. “You don’t know me at all if you think I’ll stop now. You owe me Julian. You will take me to him, leave me there then take the money and go on your way.”

“No! I won’t let you go to him.”

“Why, Julian?”

“Why, what?”

“Why do you want to marry me?”

Her sudden shift back to his original declaration surprised him. Ava’s calm and even tone surprised him even more. He found real curiosity in her eyes as well as something else. Hope? His heart dropped into his stomach and he gave voice to his very worst fear.

“You could be with child, Ava.”

Understanding filled her eyes, yet Julian also detected disappointment there as well. Her shoulders sagged and she sighed.

“You don’t want your child to be born without a father,” she said.

He sighed, relieved that she had seen things his way. “Yes,” he said. “We should wed immediately. We could—”

He was unprepared for the fist that connected with his jaw. His head snapped back and his thick body made contact with the table. If she was going to hit him, Julian would have expected a very exaggerated and feminine slap. He had forgotten what he was dealing with here. He vowed not to forget again.

When she came at him again, he was ready. Her second blow was aimed at his middle, but he caught her fist with his large hand and took advantage of her loss of balance to twist her arm behind her back. Julian’s other arm came around Ava’s waist and he pulled her up against him, trapping her between the iron band of his arm and the brick wall of his chest.

“Ava, try to be reasonable here,” he said, fighting to keep his hold on her as she squirmed in his grasp. She leaned back into his body, lifting both her legs from the floor before bringing one of them back to connect with his shin.

Pain vibrated up his leg and rattled his teeth. His hold on her slacked and she used the moment to jab her elbow into his middle. With a grunt, he released her and curled inward, not sure which hurt worse, his shin or his stomach.

Like a cat, she landed on her feet and leaped toward the table where he’d left the key. He recovered from the pain just in time to see her going for the key. Julian grabbed his chair from the floor and hurled it in her path, bringing her up short. Both the table and chair flew against the wall as one crashed against the other. The candle rolled to the floor and the flickering flame went out, casting the room into suffocating darkness.

“Ava,” he warned, his voice a low growl as he sensed her next move in the darkness. “Don’t.”

It was too late. She’d already crashed into him, sending both their bodies rolling across the floor. Knowing that his meaty fists could kill her, he stuck to trying to overpower her with his size, which turned out to be much harder in the dark than he’d thought. Before long, he was panting from the exertion and amazed at her strength. After awhile he lost her in the dark room.

Julian staggered to his feet, trying to quiet his harsh breathing, hoping that the blanket of darkness would eventually give way to the dim gray surroundings of one whose eyes had adjusted. He listened, wishing that Ava had put on her boots so that he could hear her footsteps.

That’s when he heard it, the whirring of something flying through the air.

Solid wood connected with his chest, splintering on contact. The force of it threw him against the door, which gave way and swung off its hinges under his weight. He flew through the doorway and landed in the hall, broken bits of chair raining down around him.

The bird-like figure of Ava soared over him with a running leap and disappeared down the staircase.

Ava could hardly believe her luck. She’d known that a physical altercation with Julian had been a gamble, one that depended on what role Julian chose to play. It was fortunate for her that he’d decided to be a gentleman because, truly, all it would have taken to stop her was one of his massive fists against her jaw.

When she was able to go running down the stairs and out of the inn’s front door without Julian’s broad frame crashing down the steps behind her, she made her way toward the stables on swift feet. For the first time in days, she ran uninhibited, flying swiftly over soft blades of grass. Because he didn’t pursue her, Ava assumed that Julian had been knocked unconscious.

Her luck continued to hold when she entered the stable. The flame-red hair she spotted in the furthest left stall could belong to only one person. He seemed to be preparing the horses for their final day of travel and had almost finished with Julian’s mount. She eyed the black beauty covetously as she crouched down to the stable floor, moving across the soft hay on silent hands and feet in a low crawl.