A Knight in Central Park

chapterTwenty-Four

As the steel of the Sword must be tempered in fire and water, so must the soul of the Knight be tempered by adversity and compassion.

—Unknown

It wasn’t easy, but Joe sat up in bed. Somebody had dressed him in a long-sleeved tunic. The garment was soaked through with perspiration. He pulled it over his head, wincing as a sharp pain shot through his well-bandaged arm. The bed was layered with too many fur covers. He was thankful for the cool air coming through the arrow slits across the room.

For an instant before waking, he thought his miraculous travels nothing but a dream, but then everything came back to him in a flash.

He moved his legs over the feathered mattress, his bare feet brushing against the stone floor. He remembered the malicious look on the assassin’s face as they rolled on the ground. Joe was lucky to be alive. Moonlight filtered in through the arrow slits and narrow windows. His mouth was dry. He needed water. He stood, wobbled slightly as he set off to look about in the semi-dark for a pitcher of water. “Ow! Damn chair.”

Somebody moved within that same chair. His eyes had not yet adjusted to the dark as he reached out blindly. He felt strands of silky hair...a woolen blanket...a shoulder. “Alexandra?”

Startled, she jumped to her feet, the top of her head hitting his chin. Joe rubbed his chin and held back the curses begging to come forth.

“Sir Joe, is that you?”

“What’s left of me,” he managed.

Her hand reached out for him in the dark, brushing against his groin, thigh, abdomen, arms. “You’re cold,” she said. “You best return to bed so I may check your wound.”

“Another minute under all those furs and I would have been roasted alive.”

She bent over to retrieve her woolen blanket and once again brushed against what was now his full-fledged erection. “God’s teeth, I am sorry,” she said, leaving the blanket. She cleared her throat and said softly, “I did not realize you carried a weapon whilst you slept.”

“Handled properly,” he said, finding the pain from his injury quickly replaced by something much more promising, “you’ll find that my weaponry is hardly perilous.”





Alexandra laughed, then reached out a hand, this time purposefully seeking him out. She would never have thought she would find a man’s body so wonderfully fascinating. God’s creation was indeed extraordinary, she thought, as she ran her fingers down his rigid shaft, surprised by its unyielding hardness. “Mayhap to you it is not dangerous because you are familiar with its behavior,” she said.

He stifled a moan. “It’s not an animal, Alexandra. It won’t sit or roll over.”

“Then why,” she asked playfully as her fingers explored, “does it stand ever at attention, awaiting my orders like a lovesick pup?”

He released a long, shuddering sigh. “Because he likes you,” he said as she continued her exploration, sliding her fingers tightly around its thickness until he let out a growl and gathered her into his arms, carrying her only a few steps back to the bed.

“You are injured, and I do not wish to hurt you further,” she said when he placed her on the feather mattress.

“Trust me when I tell you that all pain left me the moment I found you watching over me.”

In the dimness of the room, Alexandra saw him as a silhouette, a dark shadow keenly watching her as he undressed himself and then her until they were equally bare. His hand fell upon her knee, climbing higher as he said, “It’s my turn to explore.”

Her fingers clutched the furs beneath her so as not to give away the urgency she felt.

“No resistance?” he asked. “No opposing defenses?”

“Never,” she said, feeling breathless as his palm glided over her thigh, teasing her and making her yearn for more. She raised her hips the slightest bit, hinting for just that.

Waves of excitement rippled through her body as he continued his exploration. She leaned her head back, inhaling deeply as his touch filled her with exhilaration. Never in this lifetime would she have dreamt that a man touching her so intimately could feel so pleasant, so freeing. She clutched the mattress as his hands continued their lovely assault. ’Twas difficult to breathe as her pleasure mounted. She was ready, and she wanted him inside of her. “Please,” she cried. “The beast...where is the beast?”

She saw the gleam of his pearly white teeth as he smiled down upon her, teasing her further when he asked, “What is it you want, Alexandra?”

“Do not tease. ’Tis cruel to do so. Lay claim to that which is presently yours, Sir Joe. I demand that you do so.”

He laughed, then moved himself over her, causing her to gasp in the darkness when he lowered his mouth to her warm flesh.

She shuddered. “Oh, you do not play fair,” she said between heavy breaths as he lifted his head and then moved upward, bringing himself full upon her. The mounting anticipation was quickly replaced with blissful ecstasy as she climaxed instantaneously, unable to contain a string of shuddering moans. Her sweet release lingered on as he covered her neck and collar bone with kisses.

She raked her fingers through his hair, urging his mouth impossibly closer, tight against her breast. She climaxed yet again, breathless, satisfied, and he pulled out before he exploded himself, letting his seed fall to the linen sheet.

Alexandra cuddled closer to his chest after he laid his head back on the mounds of pillows, trying hard not to be bothered by the fact that he refused to spill his seed within her. His pulling out only confirmed his eventual departure. She refused to think of it now, could not bear to imagine him living centuries out of reach.

A light whistling sound came through the wind-holes carved in the limestone walls as she looked at Sir Joe. “If you could leave this very moment, would you?”

“Alexandra,” is all he said as his hand lingered on her side. But no other words were forthcoming, which was indeed an answer in itself.

He would leave her.

After all they had shared, he would leave her.

“Do you truly not love me?” she asked.

Silence followed by an answer worse than silence. “I don’t know,” he said. “I honestly don’t know.”

“But yester morn, during the play, I thought...I thought perhaps you might have been speaking from the heart.”

He propped himself in a position that would allow him to look into her eyes, wincing from the pain in his arm. “I swear, Alexandra. I don’t mean to hurt you. I’m not sure I even know what love is. And even if I did, I don’t think I could ever love you the way you want to be loved...the way you deserve to be loved.”

“I love you,” she said, putting a finger to his lips before he could tell her otherwise. “You cannot take that away from me. I do not say the words to cause you guilt. I only say them because my heart tells me I must. I cannot bear to let you leave without fully telling you how I feel.”

“Alexandra—”

“Nay, let me finish, ’Tis all I ask.”

His heavy sigh stirred her hair.

“I love you not because of what we have shared in bed, or because you possess a handsome face, although both certainly add to your appeal.”

He pulled in a long breath, his hand resting on her thigh.

“I love you for keeping your promise, risking your very life in doing so. You are much braver than you let on. Fearless is what you have proven yourself to be, despite your kindliness toward my siblings and your obsession with cleanliness.”

He raised a brow.

“I do not lie.”

“No,” he said, “this time you do not lie.”

She propped herself on an elbow. “This time?”

He nodded. “You do trip over your tongue when you lie, you know. Your eyes grow round when you’re in the middle of telling one, almost as if you’ve already been found guilty.”

“You act as if I have been lying through my teeth since we met.”

“No,” he disagreed, his voice soft and reassuring. “Only twice...maybe three times. For instance, just before you let me walk off with that fake rock. And then again when you and your grandfather pretended to have a plan. And then...”

“I have heard enough,” she blurted, nestling once again into the crook of his good arm. “But verily I do not lie when I tell you that I did not plan for things to happen as they did. I never believed Grandfather’s tales until his stones brought me to you. But now that you are here,” she said, “everything feels as it should be, as if destiny truly does know best.”

“People make their own destiny.”

A rooster crowed in the distant hills.

“Whatever happens,” Alexandra said, choosing to ignore his statement, “say that you will savor the time we have left. Promise me that.”

His fingers brushed against her face as if he were hoping to forever remember the angles of her cheeks and the shape of her lips.

“I will cherish every moment,” he said at last, “I swear.”