He nodded. “You can’t go.”
“They’ll know we see through him. This is too dangerous. I can wish him out of here; I can lock him away in a tower where no one can ever find him again. This is too dangerous for you.”
“My men will grab him.” His finger traced her finely sculpted cheekbone just as the clock struck midnight, women were now rustling up their skirts and jumping up on the stage.
No one would remember this, would recall the orgy about to take place tomorrow. Crispin was a deceiver. A trickster. He would pick the best of the bunch, take them away to a hidden room in the castle, and in the morning he would wipe all traces of him from their memory.
The menfolk, the husbands, no one would remember. And if a child was conceived, no one would think it amiss.
Crispin didn’t just merely rape the women, he stole from everyone. His words were poison dipped in honey.
“And as for you…” With a groan full of longing, Robin slipped their masks up just enough so that he could dip his head and feast on her lips, running his tongue gently across the seam of them, coaxing her to open up to him.
Nixie’s mewls of pleasure spurred him on. She wrapped her arms around his neck, her small fingers clutched at the collar of his shirt, bunching it up in her fists as she molded her lower half to his.
His cock was so stiff it was painful. Twining her tongue with his, he wanted to growl at her. Wanted to tell her she was his. Only his. That his diabolical brother could never have her. Would never have her. But those words remained locked away in his heart.
With one final flick of his tongue, he forced himself to put her away from him. Her breathing was heavy. Her cheeks a flushed pink. Her dewy, bronzed skin almost seemed to glow like gold beneath the muted glow of the lights.
Suddenly a scream rent the night, and then another.
Remembering the plan, what they’d come here for in the first place, Robin nodded and shoved their masks back down. His body was still humming, still desperate to have her, own her. It took tremendous willpower to remember what he was about.
“Come,” he ordered, dragging her behind him as they tried to make their way through the suddenly confused crowd.
“What’s going on?” she asked, glancing over her shoulders. There were more screams, and now grunts.
Soldiers were moving in, withdrawing their swords and screaming above the crowds. It was utter chaos and madness. There was a loud roar, which caused her to glance to her right. Lying in the middle of the floor a fat friar monk groaned, grabbing hold of his head. Somehow during his stumble he’d pitched into the knights, knocking several of them down with him.
A few kicked out at him as they scrabbled to their feet, racing toward the stage. Nixie frowned, wanting to go help the poor friar up, but Robin clutched her hand tighter.
“We can’t, Marian.”
The spell Crispin had cast seemed to be completely obliterated as men and women both scrambled to try and get away.
“But Charming—”
“Ssh.” Robin, placed a finger over his lips. “If all gone as planned, then you’ll very soon, find out. We must hie off now, pet. Keep close to me.”
*
Robin headed toward a side entrance that quickly veered toward a hidden network of tunnels. They ran for some distance before a scraping noise behind them had Nixie glancing over her shoulder. “Robin,” she hissed, when she saw a shadow move.
Tensing under her hand he looked over his shoulder to where she pointed. Nixie wasn’t crazy, she’d just seen a shadow move.
“Wh—”
Just as he was surely about to ask her what she’d seen one of Crispin’s guards stepped out of the darkness. Robin kicked immediately into action, shoving her behind him before he pulled a dirk from his pocket and held it before him.
“You’ll leave us be,” Robin said it without a quiver in his voice.
“Oh will I?” The guard’s smile revealed a missing front tooth. His hair was shaggy and long, hanging about his shoulders haphazardly. A large, rugged scar extended from the tip of one eye to the corner of his lip. He had a grizzled, weathered appearance to his skin, and didn’t look like any of the other clean cut guards Nixie had seen prior. But though he looked like he belonged on a street corner panhandling, there was a keen intellect that burned on his face—like the man had seen years of war and death and had come out hardened and cynical because of it.
Nixie’s heart pumped with adrenaline as all around them she could hear the cries and scuffle of hundreds of feet running away from the ball. Here they were, hidden inside a “secret” tunnel that should have kept them safe, and yet, they’d been found. The thought that it might all be over, that all of Robin’s plans might have been for nothing, had her seething with fury.