#erotic #timetravel #paranormal
The next day, with a healthy, new blush upon her face, Nevaeh accompanied her sisters to break the fast.
Hualryn met her as she approached the trestle table. With everyone observing their interaction, he leaned in and placed a chaste kiss to her cheek.
“Hualryn!” she rebuked, in a whisper.
“Don’t look at me like that.” Hual grinned. “Everyone here knows ’tis only a matter of vows. Where did ya disappear to last eve?”
“I couldna verra well stay all night, could I now?” she murmured, taking the chair he proffered.
“Well, I missed ya. Ye’ll have to make it up to me.”
A server placed a bowl of gruel before her. Just as Nev was about to lift her spoon, a group of Hualryn’s men joined them, boisterous and loud as always.
“Nevaeh McBenn, soon to be O’Cairnnon”—Hual smiled— ”welcome my brother, SaBástienne O’Cairnnon.”
Nev turned her attention from her intended to his sibling. Her smile slipped a little. In looks they were almost identical. She’d had no idea they were twins. She would have thought the overblown O’Cairnnon legend would have included such a significant fact in its folklore.
Without a word, SaBástienne nodded in greeting. His gaze was so intense, it was unnerving. He stared straight through her.
“Gud morn, My Lord,” she began, but had to pause to clear her throat. “’Tis a pleasure to finally meet you.”
The corner of his generous mouth lifted as he continued to peer right into her eyes. A trickle of awareness slithered up her spine.
Where Hualryn’s eyes were playful and mischievous, SaBástienne’s were piercing and calculating.
Unable to look away from him, she scrambled for something to say, but could think of nothing.
Slowly, he wet his lips with his tongue, and she was mesmerized by the action. Another shiver of responsiveness shook her, and a heaviness settled into her lower abdomen. Normally, she only experienced that kind of reaction to Hual. Something familiar danced in her mind. She tried to push it away. He reminds me of Hual, of course. That is all it is.
Nev pried her gaze from his and turned her attention to the meal as conversation went on around her. She ate mechanically, not tasting.
“Nev... Nevaeh.”
Hearing her name, she blinked.
“Are ya all right, lass?” Hual asked. Concern etched his handsome features.
“Aye?” she questioned.
“Yor cheeks were bloomin’ with color when you first arrived, and now ya are white as a sheet.”
“I am fine. Perhaps a tad weary, I suppose.”
“You and Bástienne both seem as if ya are in need of a wee nap.” Hual and his man resumed their exchange.
As she listened in, she was shaken to learn that Bástienne and his men had been attacked on their journey to Cairnnon. By all accounts, it had been a brutal assault, and a battle had ensued—although Hual’s sibling did not look the worse for wear. For a man who had troops dying in the barracks, he seemed completely at ease and undisturbed by the violence and inhumanity of it all.
Though she was absorbed in Hualryn’s version of events, she couldn’t help but continue to compare the brothers. Feature for feature, they were as near as two people could be. Yet their personalities presented a cavern-sized difference. Where Hual was animated and social as he spoke of Bástienne’s feats during the battle, the man himself remained silent, nearly brooding, neither adding to nor crowing about his triumph.
“Now that we are back together, Bástienne and me, we will be unstoppable. I will assume the title, but we will rule as one. I am a born leader, and Bás, a natural soldier. I will command the castle and its folk, and SaBástienne will defend us.”
Unable to help herself, Nev slanted her gaze to Bástienne.
Deliberately, he dipped his index finger into the swirl of honey that sat atop his gruel. He lifted the digit to his generous mouth and sucked at the sticky substance, all the while keeping her engaged. The gesture, coupled with his extreme regard, tripped an image in her memory—her knees over his shoulders, right before he bent his head and kissed her most intimately. It was as if he’d just wrapped his full lips around the tiny nub of nerves between her legs. She suffered a visceral reaction. Her lower body flooded with heat while the rest of her filled with shame.
Bástienne, pushed his chair out and stood. “If ya will excuse me... sweeting,” he exaggerated the endearment.
With it hanging between them, he walked away, leaving her no doubt.
Dear God! It wasn’t Hualryn I lay with last eve. It was SaBástienne!
She gasped. Her cheeks grew hot, her stomach roiled as the realization of what she’d done seeped into her. Nev jumped up from the table and ran from the hall. Hualryn yelled her name behind her. That’s why he’d asked where she’d disappeared to. To him, she’d deserted him.
Bástienne the Dark was too tame a designation to encompass the immense wickedness of the man!
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