All Chapters of TO TAME A HAWK : Chapter 31 - Chapter 40

"THE KING MAY HAVE RELEASED YOU FROM HIS SERVICE, BUT I would never dream of releasing you from mine. You've serviced me so well in the past, I swear, I'm quite spoiled." Olivia wriggled closer on the low stone bench in the court-yard resting the curve of her ripe hip against the Hawk's muscular thigh.Lydia had returned alone to the house a scant quar-ter hour after she and Adrienne had left, shooting a smug smile at her son where he reclined at the great table with the infernal Olivia. Coffee forgotten, the Hawk had quickly steered Olivia to the gardens to see what his wife might be up to. When his mother looked at him like that, well, the woman had a mind like a well-oiled catapult, deadly in the attack.So he had strolled Olivia through the vast gardens at a breathless pace, his eyes peeled for the guards trailing his wife. Nothing. Time and time again his eyes had been drawn northward, to the flickering rim of firelight at the edge of the rowans."May I assume we'll entertain eac

"WHY DID YOU DO THAT?" SHE GASPED WHEN SHE WAS ABLE to speakHawk placed a finger beneath her chin and tilted her head back, forcing her to meet his flinty gaze."I will tear from you anything Adam gives you. Remem-ber that. If I find his body draped over yours, he will suffer the same fate." His eyes drifted meaningfully over a scrap of crimson silk stuck on the bark of tree, flapping like a dead thing in the breeze,"Why?""Because I want you.""You don't even know me!"His mouth curved in a beautiful smile. "Oh, sweet lass, I know everything about you, I know you're a complex woman, full of dualities, you're innocent, yet tough; intelligent"-He cocked a teasing brow-"but lacking a smidge of common sense.""I am not!" Adrienne scowled her protest.He laughed huskily. "You have a wonderful sense of hu-mor and you laugh often, but sometimes you're melan-choly." He crowded her with his body and gazed down at her with heavy, hooded eyes. Adrienne tossed her head, try-ing vainly to dislo

"Mag-nificent," she whispered, unaware that she'd spoken her thoughts aloud.But the Hawk wasn't unaware-he heard her one word and desire slammed through him so savagely that he shud-dered. Hot and hard, ruthlessly, the Hawk moved his mouth over hers. He slanted across her lips with a relentless hunger that caused stars to shimmer behind her shut eyes.Adrienne's eyes flew open for the sheer pleasure of look-ing at him and she saw that he was looking directly into them with such a smoldering promise of passion that she whimpered against his mouth.Hundreds of feet below, nature conspired with the raw, unquenchable mystery of passion in its rhythm; the sensual tempo of the waves as billions of gallons of water came in with a fury, then eased out. Wave after wave of sensation crashed over Adrienne; she was adrift in a sea of such pas-sion that she literally felt herself being reshaped, molded to this man's touch, just as the rocks below her were molded by the ocean's relentless caress.

Thirty minutes later she was ready. Tiptoeing through the kitchen, she'd found an oiled sack and filled it with crusty breads and cheeses and a few apples. Tavis snored in his chair by the door, his hand furled about a half-full glass of-she sniffed cautiously-pure grain alcohol from the smell of it. After a quick stop in the Green Lady's room where she'd left the boots Lydia had given her, she'd be ready to go.Slipping from the kitchen, she moved quickly down the short corridor and pushed open the door to the Green Lady's room. Her eyes flared with dismay. There the Hawk slept, a white linen sheet wrapped around his legs, his torso bare to the dawn's caress. His dark head tossed against the white pillows, and he slept alone-grasping in his arms the dress she'd worn that day she'd taken the dart.They called him the king's whore, she reminded herself. Perhaps there was actually a royal appointment to such a post. Or perhaps he was simply so nondiscriminating that he'd earned the titl

"COME, LASS." THE COMMAND WAS TONELESS AND UNMIS-takably dangerous. And even now, the mere word made her shiver with desire. The flush of heat stole her breath. "Hawk-""Don't." The word was a warning. "Now. Take my hand."What was he going to do? she wondered frantically. Be-hind her, she felt Grimm step closer, edging her toward the Hawk."Wait!" She held out a hand to ward him off."Move, milady," Grimm said softly."Don't lock me in a room!""How could I not?" Hawk sneered. "Knowing that you would go back to a place where it seems you knew little joy-yet you would rather be there than here with me!""You don't believe I'm from the future!" she gasped."I'm beginning to," he muttered. "How do you think I knew about this?" The black queen glittered in his hand.She shrugged. "How?""You, my sweet wife, talked about it when you were poi-soned. Worried and fretted and tried to find it""But I only just remembered.""Your sleeping mind remembered sooner.""But how did you get it?"It w