page23 (1/1)
She stared at his hand, suddenly afraid It wouldn’t be the first time they’d ridden double, with him mounted behind her But she didn’t think she could bear it Didn’t think she could bear the ht of early dawn, cradled lovingly, protectively in his arht at the time
She looked up at his face now and his eyes betrayed him The memory she wanted so desperately to avoid was fresh in his mind, too She stepped back, away from the memories, away from pain, and shook her head “I’d rather walk”
Andre watched Juliana walking away fro approval that shortly after her departure a discreet shadow picked up her trail and followed her from a safe distance In a corner of his mind he wondered why there weren’t two shadows, but knew he’d get a report before too long that would explain the divergence fro on
He’d seen it in Juliana’s eyes the way he knew she’d seen it in his—she reether down the ers of sunlight had not yet crept over the eastern sky, but dawn had already begun paling the dark blue of night They’d ridden down together, even though Juliana had ridden her own horse up the mountain He just couldn’t bear to be parted from her one minute before he absolutely had to And so he’d cradled her in his ar to a fully rested Balthazar Juliana’s gelding had trailed along behind the rope
Do not go there, his heart warned him Not now
By soed to suppress that uard a half length behind hi duties that awaited him The memory stayed successfully buried the rest of the day by sheer will He ed for several hours that afternoon andthe country
He met briefly with his cousin Zax to discuss the current threat assessment—and was perturbed by what had nearly happened to Juliana thatBut he trusted Zax as he trusted no other man, and when he immediately ordered increased security he knew he didn’t have to spell it out—Zax would knohat needed to be done and wouldn’t delay carrying out that command
His appointments with the head of the Zakharian branch of the Red Cross and the delegation of international business investment opportunities in Zakhar went off without a hitch A three-hour reception and state dinner with his cousins and the a for favored-nation status—Zakhar was sically situated at a crossroads—was followed by a perforo Perfor Arts Hall in the ambassadors’ honor
Only Andre knew that all the while he was s with the a Only he knew that he heard nothing of the reportedly nificent perfor bars of music He’d stood to applaud when the ambassadors in the royal box stood, and had shouted “Bravo!” along with the rest of the audience In between he fought a protracted battle with himself to hold back the memories that threatened to swamp him
But when he finally slept he could no longer deny the one memory that had haunted him for years The s inJuliana back to Zakhar The et
Then the dreaulfed him
Andre sighed and turned over, the si to work tonight He had ridden Balthazar until he’d finally taken pity on the horse and returned to this lonely, eh That he wasn’t exhausted enough to keep his desires at bay Not tonight
One roomed Balthazar, then led him into the stall, fed him and covered him with a blanket And then she will be thousands of miles away Safe from herselfand me
But it had been a mistake to let hi of herher was driving him insane His body throbbed and ached for release Not the release he could give hihts already, but the release he knew he could have with Juliana Only with Juliana