Free Knight of Her Heart (Conquering the Heart) by Alyssa James Page B

suggested that he was reining the kiss in as he would do a wild, spirited mount . The passion in his expression told her there could be much, much more and suddenly she found herself wanting to understand what else there could be.
    “We will do well together, Lady Lisette,” he told her steadily over the cheers of the crowd.
    You don’t deserve him . Her conscience raged at her. He deserves a better woman to wife.
    ’Twas true. When they were alone she must be firm in her resolve to confess her transgression and brave enough to accept whatever castigation she must bear from her husband. She would throw herself upon the mercy of this gallant knight and pray that he mete out a punishment rather than handing her over to the church for her sins. At least Genevieve was out of danger from Lord Collins.
    Lisette could not, would not, deceive the Earl of Romsey when it came time for her to join her flesh with his.
     
     
                 
                 
     
     

 
     
    Chapter 5
     
     
     
    The instant Lord Rowan was out of his suit of armour, he led Stormbringer into a stall at Collins’ keep and dismissed the stable boy. Today he would unsaddle his own war horse and brush him down.
    The events of the last few days swirled around in Rowan’s brain like a whirlpool of muddied water. He needed time alone before he joined the planned wedding feast. Time to steady and clear those muddied waters, to let the silt settle and put things into perspective. He needed an opportunity to regroup and focus on the man he was, rather than the man he had been reduced to in the last few days.
    Humiliation churned in his gut and made rage pound through his bloodstream. That he—the king’s first knight, leader of men in warfare and victor over the enemy on the bloodiest of battlefields—had been drugged and held captive for three days and nights and...used...by a woman for...her pleasure?
    Only once before had he been overpowered and dishonoured. On that occasion he’d been but a youth expelled from his home. He’d vowed it would never happen again, but now it had. His recent humiliation at the hands of an unknown foe had brought back all the demons he’d tried so hard to exorcise. This time he hadn’t been a youth overpowered by soldiers at the bidding of a jealous brother. This time his mortification was greater for he’d been a knight abused by a woman. A mere woman!
    Cringing, he let his forehead fall forward to press against Stormbringer’s neck. The fearless battle-horse gave a slight whinny as though he sensed his knight’s distress and couldn’t understand the reason for it. Raising a hand to stroke the horse, Rowan wanted to receive comfort from the close connection he had with the beast as much as he wanted to reassure it that there was no imminent danger.
    “I was as helpless as a babe, boy,” he confessed to his horse. “The cowards must have put something in my ale for I remember being dizzy and having the innkeeper and his wife help me to my room. Then I passed out. When I came to my wrists were bound at either side of my body, up above my head. They bound my ankles too, so I lay spreadeagled on a bed of hay.”
    Stormbringer whinnied again, sounding indignant on his master’s behalf.
    “Don’t worry, boy. I will hunt them down and make them pay.” His frustration at his inability to defend himself against faceless enemies slashed him to the core. Defender of king and country had been rendered powerless. He’d expected the worst, but there’d been no interrogation, no beating, and no torture. Instead there’d been hushed footfalls and the soft feel of a woman’s hands at his breeches.
    What had happened next had been an exquisite form of torture that—had he been free—he would have welcomed and savoured. Not so when the events were out of his control. The wench had taken him in her mouth and aroused him most proficiently with her lips, her tongue and the divine strength of her