She offered him a cool smile and turned away, giving her attention to a rock.
“Even though you constantly try my good nature, I—”
“Itryyourgood nature?” She snapped back around. “I don’t even have to try not to like you. You make it—”
He covered her mouth with his, curling his fingers around her nape to hold her captive. He didn’t have to. Tanon went soft against him. When he pushed her back, she fell into the grass, accepting him into her arms. His mouth devoured her, feeding on her breath, her last shred of will. When he withdrew, it was only to seal her fate with a tender smile. For she surrendered her hopes of making him dislike her, and with it, the comfortable, dispassionate life she’d prepared herself for. There was no more use in denying it. She liked Gareth very much, and she wanted him to like her too.
He shifted his hard body. His eyes grew hot with desire as he settled his hips over hers. “You make it hard to be gentle.” His mouth dipped to her throat. She closed her eyes and lifted her hands to his lower back, instinctively pressing herself to the thickness between his legs.
She heard a sound to her left, like footsteps or…flapping. A shrill scream pierced the morning, followed by an equally chilling screech from Tanon.
Gareth rolled off her tearing two daggers from his belt while vaulting to his feet. He looked down at the raven cocking its head at him.
Tanon sat up. Her smile deepened into a giggle at the sight of him standing ready to defend her life against a bird. “My champion.”
Gareth tucked his blades back into his belt and cut her a wry look. “You’re quite mouthy for a lady.”
“You’re quite slow for a warrior,” she tossed back at him, up for the playful challenge that ignited his eyes with blue fire.Enfer,there was naught courtly about him. She was glad. “That raven could have plucked out ten strands of your hair before you took notice.”
He shrugged and crooked his mouth into a smile that kindled her blood. “My thoughts were occupied on what part of you I wanted to taste next.”
Tanon’s nipples tightened instantly. Instead of blushing, she felt her lips curl into a curious smile. She’d grown up a lady, but he made her feel like a woman.
Gareth’s eyes raked over her, settling on the firm tips of her breasts pushing against her gown. He felt himself go hard again. He watched her gaze dip there, surprise spreading across her features at the sight of his powerful arousal.
He glanced down at himself, and then back at her. “Aye, I’d say you needed protection from what I wanted to do to you.”
The notion of him doing anything to her with…thatmade her so nervous, she giggled into her hand.
“You’re laughing?” He sounded so astonished and insulted it made her laugh even harder.
“I’m doomed,” he murmured, but then smiled. Her gown was dirty and there were leaves in her hair. She looked more beautiful to him than the day before, or the day before that. The winsome sound of her mirth filled his soul, pulling him back to a time when he’d been innocent too. Before he became prince, and before he took up arms against his enemies in a struggle to regain what his people needed to survive. What his soul ached for since he was a boy. Peace.
Chapter Fourteen
“Iwant mywar.” Cedric, son of King Rhys’ brother, Owain, stared out over the timber palisade encompassing one of the twin towers of Prince Dafydd ap Gruffudd’s fortress. His dark gaze spread over the steep mountain slopes and wooded hillsides in the distance. Gwynedd. He enjoyed a deep inhalation of cool, pine-scented air. So much of the north was still unsullied by Norman invasion. The land here was as wild and as brutal as his dreams. His jaw, lightly dusted with chestnut stubble, tightened. This was where he would make his home after the war. Indeed, he decided he would live in this very fortress once its current owner was removed.
“Rhydderch of Powys and that dolt, Prince Amren of Gwent do naught while the Normans slowly advance deeper intoCymru. I understand some of Lord Benevere’s men on the central marches have takenCymrywives. Our enemy is seeping into our lives and our land like a disease.”
Standing beside him, Prince Dafydd nodded. “Your brother follows their example by marrying a Norman.”
“Aye, and after all the Normans have done.” Cedric returned his cool gaze to the landscape. “They attacked Ystrad Towi and left Llandovery in ruins before my uncle handed it all over to Gareth. They killed many, and my brother repays them by taking one as a wife.”
“Have you forgotten what your man, Bleddyn, told us?” Dafydd asked him. “Prince Gareth isWyfyrn. If he spoke the truth, then your brother has killed many Normans.”
Cedric’s mouth twisted into a smirk. “Wyfyrn, the people’s hero who hides behind a helm.” He laughed, but the sound was void of any mirth. “He’s afraid of the Normans. From the day we first met the king my brother has preached peace. King William frightened him with his vast armies. That’s whyWyfyrnhides. He killed a few Normans because they raped a peasant or burned a few huts down. He doesn’t possess the passion for war, the pride of theCymry.”
Beneath Dafydd’s bushy brown beard, his jaw twitched and his lips tightened. “Afraid or not, he snatches life from his victims like a wraith. Are we wise to underestimate a man who held Lord Hamilton of Chepstow captive on his own land, in his own castle, after he decimated the warlord’s garrison?”
“Of course not, Dafydd,” Cedric assured him, softening his voice. “That’s why we haven’t attacked Gareth’s village outright, but we’ve meticulously planned his death, along with my uncle’s. That is, unless King William kills Gareth before we do.”
“Do you think the Norman king will believe the attack on Winchester was ordered by Prince Gareth?”
“Aye. My men carry Gareth’s banner. But then, I don’t really care whose order he thinks it was. One way or another, I’ll force the Normans onto the battlefield, where I’ll ridCymruof them for good.”
“Can Bleddyn be trusted?”
“He’s been in my service for three years.”