Dark Lord of Kismera: Knights of Kismera (8 page)

Drace’s hasty exit had caught Cearan’s attention and Ki glanced at her brother. “Whatever is the matter with him?” she questioned, confused by Drace’s actions.

A look of concentration crossed Cearan’s face as he took a deep breath. He then looked at Ki with amusement on his features. Being a man who loved the company of women, he recognized the scent Drace had left behind in his hasty escape. His sensitive sense of smell had detected the scent of an aroused man. He laughed out loud, making Ki raise an eyebrow in question.

Ki then gave him an angry glance. “What is wrong with Drace,” she demanded.

Cearan did not miss her familiar use of Drace’s name. “It is not a topic one discusses with a lady, or their sister.” He gave her a knowing look, which at first angered her further, her brows drawn together in her pique. Sudden understanding came to her. “Oh.” Ki said in a quiet voice and her cheeks bloomed with color. She stood, causing the remaining men to stand politely. She excused herself as well.

As she moved away from the table, Cearan was certain she was going to find Drace. “Ki, wait. Perhaps you should leave him to himself for awhile.”

His words fell on deaf ears as Ki was heading out the door.

DRACE STOOD OUTSIDE Pride’s stall. The stallion had come to the stall door when Drace first entered the stable. After Drace gave him a good scratching, Pride moved back to his hayrack and stood contentedly munching, eyes half closed. The horse’s ears flickered briefly at a soft noise behind his master.

Drace caught the faint aroma of citrus before he heard the rustle of skirts. He did not turn around. He leaned on the stall door, arms crossed. “Yes, my Lady?”

“How did you know it was me?” Ki whispered as she moved to stand be- side him.

“I smelled your fragrance. I got a good sample of it earlier.”

“Oh, I see.” Ki tugged at her skirt then smoothed it. She then brushed at her hair.

“You’re fidgeting,” Drace remarked, finally looking at her.

“I do not fidget!” Ki flared. She cleared her throat and spoke quietly, “It is my duty as head of the household to make sure that you have everything you might need. It has been brought to my attention that perhaps…,” she brushed at her skirt again, “You may have a need that…um…has not been met.” She felt her face flame and was glad that it was dark in the stable. “From the conversations of the kitchen maids...,”

Drace stared at her in disbelief, straightened from his relaxed stance and said, “Excuse me, but I seem to have misunderstood what you just said.” He rubbed a finger down the side of his nose.

“But I thought…,” she started, but he cut her off.

“Thought what? That I needed to get laid?” he exclaimed hotly.

“I do not know what ‘laid’ is, but if you need it, I am sure one of them can get it for you,” Ki said.

“You’re trying my patience, Lady. ‘Laid’ is sex. You do know what sex is, don’t you?” Drace asked, exasperation clear in his tone.

Ki seemed flustered. “Well, yes… I think. Sex is mating.”

“I do not need your help finding a bed partner,” he growled through clenched teeth. “Or to mate with, or to do whatever you want to call it.”

“I apologize, my Lord. I meant no offense. I was… out of line,” Ki said, so quietly Drace almost didn’t hear it.

Drace turned to her. The stable was dimly lit, moonlight filtering through the open window, but he couldn’t see her face clearly. “That must have been difficult. You have a bit of pride.”

“Yes, I know,” she admitted, which surprised him considerably. “My father used to tell me that all the time. I hear it still even though he has been gone six winters.”

Drace was silent for a moment, surprised that Ki would share that personal of information with him. “I’m sorry to hear that.”

She was back to twisting her skirt, her voice low and reminiscent, “My father, myself, and one of my father’s best warriors were riding a patrol. It had started to snow and a pair of dogues surprised us. My father did not even get his sword drawn, it happened so fast. I was wounded on my thigh. The other man was Jem, Estelle’s mate. He was wounded also, but we were still able to kill the dogues. He and I managed to get my father on a horse and ride for home. We had to tie him onto it. I knew he was dead, but I had some hope that maybe Nimbus could help with some sort of magic. I was wrong. It was too late. Jem had lost so much blood by the time we came through the gate; he passed within an hour as well. These things happen, but that was a day I had no pride.”

She was silent for a moment and Drace could tell she was fighting emotion. Instinct told him to approach her now would be folly. She was prideful at that moment. He gave her time to gain control, but was surprised at his strong urge to comfort her.

“Nevertheless,” she said after a moment, back in control. “I should not have assumed what your needs were.”

He put a hand on her shoulder and moved closer. “It has been awhile since I’ve slept with a woman, true. My
need
however, is your fault. Earlier tonight you looked, and smelled, so good to me—as you do right now.” He moved his hand cautiously from her shoulder to her neck. He had seen and felt her anger and he didn’t know how she would react to a more intimate touch. He also didn’t know how much experience she had with men. Judging from the offer she had made, he felt that it wasn’t much.

When Ki stood there quietly, Drace moved his hand from her neck to the back of her head, burying his fingers in that wondrous hair. He left his other hand by his side to give her an escape route if she bolted. He knew he was crazy to even entertain this idea, but he couldn’t seem to help himself.

His voice was husky when he spoke next, “I’d like to kiss you if I may—only a kiss.”

Ki felt the gentle tug in her hair but also noted how he had left her an opening to freedom. She chose to take a step closer to him. “Yes,” she murmured, surprised at the sudden desire to know what his kiss would be like and how glad she was that he did not accepted the offer of another woman.

“Yes, what?” Drace closed the gap completely and then put his other hand on her upper arm. He still moved carefully, afraid to startle her.

Ki felt a tremor move through her, knowing he also felt it. “Yes, you may kiss me.”

He leaned down and barely tasted her lips then felt her sigh against his own. He pulled her against him and kissed her again, slanting his mouth against hers.

He relaxed when her arms came around his neck. He pulled back and looked into her tawny eyes. One of her hands came up to pull his head back down. She moaned softly against his mouth. When he gently touched her lips with his tongue she rocked against him. He deepened the kiss, his tongue entering her mouth. She had eaten some sort of melon with her meal and she tasted both sweet and tangy. He tried to be gentle, but when she rocked against him again his brain fogged and his mouth became more insistent on hers. Ki returned his ardor equally.

Drace suddenly became aware of a change in her participation at the same time he tasted blood. He jerked his head back as far as her hold in his hair would allow. Breathless, he cupped her face with one hand. “Ki, I’m sorry,” he said softly. He looked at her and could just make out the split on her lip where he had hit her that afternoon.

Ki pulled his head back down so that their foreheads touched. She was breathless as well. “Please do not be. I had forgotten the hurt until just now.”

“I should not have lost my head like that,” Drace whispered, referring to more than just the kiss. “I don’t rough-handle women.”

“That was acting out in self-defense and surprise, and I did say for you to draw blood on me. Please do not apologize for that.” She was still pressed tightly against him. “I can feel your interest.” She wiggled to prove it to him. He closed his eyes with a groan as she asked, “Do you wish to be laid with me?”

He chuckled hoarsely at her use of the new term. While his erection screamed yes, yes, he fought its insistence and listened to his brain instead, which whispered not yet. “I would, truly like to make love to you, but then I’m sure to wake up from this dream.”

Ki made a noise of surprise in her throat.

“The time I’ve been here has been so surreal and I’ve just now really accepted things as they are. But to be here with you like this and to have an offer like you just gave me is surely a dream,” he said softly, the corners of his mouth curling with amusement.

“It is not a dream, so please,” she tugged his hair, “Continue.”

Drace opened his eyes. “As tempting as the offer is, I think I need to get control of myself. I have only known you a few weeks and I’m not in the habit of ravishing beautiful ladies the first chance I get.”

She made a sound of protest, but reluctantly released his hair. He let go of hers also but still cupped her cheek. “You are so beautiful and right now I want you very badly, but it wouldn’t be fair to you to act on it. I hope you understand,” he whispered.

“Yes, I understand,” she answered shakily. “But that does not mean that I like it.”

He was having a difficult time not changing his mind with her pressed against him as she was. With a sigh of regret, he moved his hand from her cheek, took a step back, and gave her a quick kiss on her mouth, mindful of her split lip.

“Come on, I’ll walk you back, my Lady.” He smiled down at her and offered her his arm.

Ki accepted it and they walked back to the now empty hall. “You are right to refuse me, my Lord Drace. You need your rest to be ready for the morrow’s trouncing.”

“Ha, ha,” he retorted, joking with her as they continued on to the stairs.

They parted company at his door. “Good night, Ki, sleep well.”

She gave a dip of her head as she gathered her skirts for the climb up the rest of the stairs. “You as well, Drace.”

Drace closed his door behind him after she disappeared up the stairwell, thankful for the candle Estelle had left lit for him. He sighed and carried it to the bed and set it on the side table. He undressed down to his underwear and sat on the edge of the bed.

Drace sat there for a moment, excitement from their unexpected encounter making him restless. He rubbed his face with both hands. He still could not believe he had lost control like that earlier today and struck her. Never in his life had he struck a woman. And yet harder to believe, was how he had become aware of Ki Lionblade as a very desirable woman and the strength of his physical reaction. He had seen her as attractive from the first, but her aura of strength, fierceness, and arrogance had blinded him to the more vulnerable and passionate side of her. It was a surprise, a pleasant one, but certainly a surprise.

Finally, taking a deep breath and releasing it slowly, he lay down. If he didn’t come up with something boring to think about soon, he would lay awake with Ki on his mind all night. Thankfully, between being physically tired and thinking of grocery shopping, which he found boring with a capital B, he was out in minutes.

ESTELLE BUSTLED INTO Drace’s room at dawn the next morning. He was on his stomach asleep with one arm under his pillow, the other by his side, palm up. His dark hair covered most of his face.

Estelle watched him sleep for a moment and thought of her sons. She had seen them sleep that boneless sleep of the young that made them seem so innocent…more the boy, than the man they had become. She felt a tug of regret that it was time to wake him, and fought the urge to pull the sheet from his hips up to his shoulders, smooth the hair from his face, and leave him sleeping.

She pulled open the curtains and opened the two large windows, letting in the early light. A cool breeze flowed into the room. When she turned around, he had pushed his hair off his face and had pulled both arms up and under his pillow.

“I’m up, Mom. Now go away,” he grumbled, voice muffled by the pillow.

“You have five minutes and then I will be back. Lady Ki has asked me to braid your hair proper, and then down to breakfast with you, lad. Move it now.”

Eyes still closed, he pleaded, “Give me ten, okay?”

“I will give you ten then, but not a moment more young man,” she said firmly.

He heard her leave and roused himself. With a jaw-popping yawn he rose and went behind a screen to use the chamber pot. With a moments’ reminiscing of modern plumbing, he finished and hurried to dress.

He started to shave with the straight razor Estelle had provided, standing at the mirror, soft leather breeches riding low over his lean hips. Estelle entered the room at the same time he nicked himself for the third time.

“Would you like me to do that for you, my Lord?” she asked.

“Ouch! Damn,” he swore softly. “No, I got it. I need to figure it out sometime, I guess; might as well be now.”

“I cannot believe a lad your age never shaved himself,” she said, hands on hips and head cocked like a small bird.

He looked at her quizzically, raising one brow. “What?” It dawned on him what she was thinking. “Oh. I’ve shaved myself since I was a teenager but the razors I used were different.”

“Well, after you get through carving yourself, come sit down so I can do your hair,” she ordered. “Lady Ki has asked me to be your maid and will have my eldest son’s mate be maid to her now. I am thinking she does not trust the other young maids with your virtue. The way those little hussies talk sometimes. Humph!”

Drace finished without much more damage and toweled his face dry. He came and sat for her. “I heard mention of that ‘talk’ myself,” he added. He gave her a comically lewd wiggle of his eyebrows. “Maybe I like older women.”

Estelle snorted with laughter. “Come now boy, I do not have the stamina anymore for the young bloods.” She returned his comical look with her own. “Now if I were several summers younger, that would be different story.” She began brushing his hair.

“I remember my mother doing this for me before school every morning when I was little,” Drace remarked to her, looking at her in the mirror, “Of course she always kept my hair cut short. She said no son of hers was going to look wooly.”

Estelle said nothing at the brief look of loss that crossed his face as she gently worked through a sleep tangle. She ran a hand over his hair without the brush to let him know she understood.

She quickly did a slender braid on each side of his head that pulled his hair away from his face to behind his ears. She pulled a big needle and some yarn from her apron pocket, pulled all of his hair back and sewed the lot of it into a tight queue.

She came around to survey her work. “Now you look like a proper fighting man!” she exclaimed.

Estelle found a loose fitting shirt and tossed it to him. “Best hurry now, my boy. Lady Ki has already had breakfast and is gone to the training field to exercise her horse. I will see you later in the day.”

She hurried out with his thank you, and left him to finish dressing. He used the little frayed twig and some mint tasting salt she had given him to brush his teeth, and then headed to the main hall, wondering what this day would bring.

The daily r
outine changed to include Estelle braiding him ‘proper’, breakfast, and then exercising Pride. Afterward, he trained with Ki and Cearan, expanding his handling of weapons to include the dagger, battle-ax, and spear. He even spent time with Ka’Ril, learning the long bow, proving to have some natural talent with it. He gained basic handling of each weapon and was told by all his instructors that he would become proficient with more time and practice.

There had been no more intimate moments with Ki, but every once in awhile Drace would catch her looking at him intensely. He would give her a knowing look in return, and then get back to his work.

The day before they were set to leave for Ferndale, Ki changed the routine. After breakfast they practiced early. Then she requested that he ride with her that afternoon.

The mornings’ practice took a challenging turn when Drace faced Ki and Cearan at the same time. He had to give up the shield for a smaller sword in his left hand. By the time they were finished for the day, the muscles in his arms felt tired and weighted.

Drace met Ki later in the afternoon as she requested. Pride was eager to go for a run, pulling at the bit, as he and Drace waited for Ki.

Ki exited the stable leading a big, rangy, dark chestnut mare. The mare had white markings on her front legs and a snip of white on her nose. Drace thought she was a very pretty mare, but she also looked very strong and athletic. Ki’s mare also looked like she was ready for a good gallop.

Ki mounted her horse, and without speaking, headed out. Drace followed Ki through the east gates and trotted through the village. Several of the villagers called greetings to their Lady. Once outside the township, Ki gave the mare her head, and the mare was soon galloping with tail streaming. Pride was not a speed horse, but managed to give a good chase.

They galloped for nearly a mile across the plains, and then settled into a more sedate canter. The two continued on to where a small stream flowed beside a copse of trees. Ki asked her mare to cross, and with a small leap, the mare jumped across it. Pride waded over with more dignity, and arched his neck in greeting to the mare as Drace reined up
beside Ki.

Ki dismounted and tied the mare to a branch and then leaned against a tree and looked out at the plains. Drace left some distance between the two horses then stood next to Ki and looked out in the same direction.

Ki spotted something and pointed, “See, just there, two bison beasts.”

Drace squinted against the lowering sun. “No…oh wait, I see one,” he said as one of the large buffalo-like animals moved, throwing its head at flies then lowering it to graze again. The other came into his sight as it moved forward to more grass. They looked pretty much like buffalo, but with larger bodies and
longer horns.

As they moved into better view, he noticed the smaller of the two had a calf by her side, old enough to have the beginnings of horns.

“There will be more over that slight rise, I am sure,” Ki informed him. “They travel in herds. She is probably coming into season the way the bull is following her.”

The calf was feeling frisky and jumped away at something imagined, cavorting around his mother.

“It’s a nice view, but I don’t think that’s why you asked me out here, is it?”

“No, not really,” She gave him a quizzical look. “Do you miss your homeland?”

“Yes, sometimes I miss my world, especially hot running water and lights that come on with a flip of a switch,” Drace answered, thinking that this probably wasn’t what she had wanted to discuss with him.

“I wanted to tell you that I thought you were training well. I am pleased with your progress, but I cannot say these things in front of the others.”

“I see, you have to keep up the hard-ass image to the men.” Drace grinned.

“I am not sure what that means, exactly, but I do have to maintain respect, yes.” She moved away from the tree, the sword she wore at her waist rapping lightly in its scabbard against the trunk. “There is another reason I asked for your company.”

“Really?” Drace returned dryly, “And what is that?”

She came up to him and took his right hand in both of hers. “I find myself thinking of you at odd times. Remembering those few moments in the stables and wondering what being with you would be like.” She studied the large hand she held for a moment, tracing the calluses caused by his sword. She looked up at his face, “Having you kiss me again.”

Drace pulled her to him and held her close against his chest. “All you had to do is ask.” He lowered his head and met her mouth in a long, breathless kiss. He felt her tremble against him and he deepened the kiss when she moaned.

“I’ve wanted to do that again ever since that night in the stable,” he said hoarsely when he came up for air. He kissed her again, and with one hand on her bottom pulled her tighter against him.

Feeling his arousal, Ki wanted more, and when his hand gently brushed against her breast, her knees became weak. Ki’s hands went to the laces of his shirt, and soon her hands felt the heat of his chest. Drace broke the kiss and sucked in a breath at the feel of her electric touch on his bare skin.

Ki looked up at him questioningly while her hands continued to move over him. He stilled her hands by covering them with his own. She made a sound of protest.

“Hey,” he whispered into her hair. “It’s okay.” He stroked her hair with one hand then. “I’ve thought of this a lot. God, I want you so bad right now, I hurt.

She pulled back to look at him. “You are worried about if I were to become pregnant, yes?” When he nodded yes, she continued. “Would that be so bad?”

He pulled away from her. He almost looked panicked. “I don’t think that this is the best time to take that chance what with all that might happen. I don’t have…that… is…,” he fumbled. “In my world men have things to protect…ah, damn it,” Drace swore. He took a deep breath. “I do not have anything to keep you from getting pregnant.” He said in a rush, wondering why this flustered him when in his past it hadn’t.

Ki took his hand and kissed it gently. “I understand, I think, your concern. In my world women have the choice to mate when they wish. They do not have to mate for life if they do not want to. Matings such as Estelle and Jem’s are more rare but so special.

“There is a potion the herb-women make to prevent conception. I have already been to see Salene. I, too, feel that now is not the time to have a child, either by accident or design, but that does not lessen the desire I find I feel for you.”

Drace pulled her against him again and gave her a quick passionate kiss. “The first time I make love to you I want you in a bed, not on the ground, and for me not to smell like I do now.”

Ki laughed against his mouth. “I do not think I smell so lovely right now, myself. Come.” She took his hand and they walked back to the horses. “It grows late and it is not always safe so far from the strong-hold after dark.”

Drace gave her an affectionate pat on the bottom as he helped her mount her horse. Ki raised an eyebrow at his touch; she smiled, but she said nothing

On the return ride, at a more leisurely pace, Ki’s mare kept trying to touch Pride.

“I believe Valor is enamored with Pride,” Ki commented. At Drace’s chuckle she added, “I understand now how she feels.”

Drace’s humor turned into a look so hot she gasped at the jolt she felt. Ki cleared her throat and changed the subject. “Explain to me this hot running water and switch for light.” Indoor plumbing and electricity amazed and entertained her on the rest of the ride.

Once back at the stable, they parted company with several more lingering kisses. Drace let her go ahead of him, giving his body a chance to cool and his mind to clear.

After a hot bath, Drace felt he no longer smelled like a goat, and with the liniment Estelle had given him, he felt less sore. He realized how much he missed things like aspirin, antiperspirant, and aftershave. The soap Estelle had given him had a woodsy smell that was pleasant and, most importantly, was close enough to lye soap he could definitely get clean. The thing he missed the most was a shower. Drace didn’t mind getting dirty or sweaty, but he liked the ease of a thorough shower whenever it was needed, where his knees weren’t almost in his chest. He veered away from thoughts of sharing the shower with Ki. No use getting worked up again or he’d blow a gasket.