I awoke in the night. Something seemed strange about that. Waking for me was something I had not done since disease had taken mother. Back then, when I awoke, my mother was always there to tuck me back in. After her death, I learned that father would not tuck me in at all.

But, tonight, I awoke in a pair of impossibly strong arms holding me closer than I’d ever been held before. I could feel Erik’s strong pulse pounding as his chest rose and fell steadily. He was still asleep, I realized, feeling his even breath tickle my hair. There were some ways to take out one’s frustration towards another human being, but the way I had taken mine out on Erik had been by far the most pleasurable. Judging by the red marks that formed constellations across my whole body, he had felt somewhat the same.

There was something strange about Erik, that was for sure. I could not stand him… but it was as he said. Why would I opt to stay with two strange men? Even if one of them was fairly kind, the other one seemed to enjoy nothing more than harassing me…unless I was in danger. Then, he suddenly became my protector, the person who would kill and die to make sure I was safe. Pulling myself from his life would be impossible. I had given him something to be able to hold, to pleasure, to protect. I had given him the reason to cease his selfishness… No, I could never keep myself from him. I silently rolled over so that I spread out over his chest. I allowed its rising and falling to rock me back to sleep.



“Oi! Sleepy! Wake up!” I felt deft fingers move across my feet. While said fingers had been moving someplace far more interesting the previous night, the tickling movement made me curl up into a ball.

“Erik…” I mumbled. “We have this damn room for the rest of the morning. Let’s make the most of it.” I felt him crawl back into the bed and, to my surprise, begin to kiss my neck. His rough lips moved with incredible gentleness along my collarbone.

“That wasn’t a come-on,” I muttered, rolling away from him. “I want to sleep some more.”

Rather than acknowledging my protests, Erik simply began to kiss my spine, moving up from the center of my back to my neck. I felt his warm hands slide around to gently fondle me.

“Erik,” I grunted in annoyance.

“Hmm?” he murmured, his lips moving against my ear.

“What has you so—” I cut myself off to moan softly. Damn, that man was deft with his fingers.

“That’s what shuts you up, then?” he whispered as his lips moved back down my body.


“You’re both late,” Simeon told us about an hour later as we stumbled down for breakfast. He was trying to maintain an elder-brotherly frown, but, from the way the corners of his lips twitched, I was fairly sure he knew.

“Sorry. You know what late hours newlyweds have,” Erik smirked.

“Good lord, Master,” Simeon looked liable to slump. “Could you have at least waited a week?”

“It’s your own fault,” I pointed out.



Erik seemed unusually twitchy as we rode on through the forest. Every noise threw him on edge and every sillouhette on the horizon made his hand leap to his sword. When we stopped to eat, he nervously paced around the edge of the clearing, I suspected this had something to do with the bounty we had discovered.



I felt stiff and cranky as the sun began to set. The air had become very warm as we reached the south end of the country, but neither Erik nor Simeon gave any indication of stopping.

“We’re very near,” Simeon said quite suddenly. The dark look that had permeated Erik’s face all day lightened minutely.

“Where will we be staying?” I asked curiously. For some odd reason I had always assumed that Erik and Simeon had lived out of their yurt, trekking across the countryside as permanent wanderers, but it made sense that they had some sort of home base here.

“It’s—” Simeon started but Erik cut him off.

“We’ll cross that bridge when we come to it,” his grey eyes flashed down to me as he intentionally tinted his voice with condescension. A corner of his mouth twitched as he quickly looked up. He gave a grunt as I gave him a sharp elbow to the stomach, but he laughed in spite of it all.

Suddenly, we came over a cliff. Spreading out below us was the clearest blue water I had ever seen. A soft white beach melted into a tranquil green forest as the land and sea separated. So this was the Cote d’Azur.

“This is…” I allowed my sentence to drift away with the breathtaking view.

“I know, Christelle…” Erik rested his chin on the crown of my head as he tenderly caressed one arm with his square, calloused hand.

“Master, we should finish our journey before nightfall,” Simeon glanced over his shoulder.

“Oh, come now, Simeon, you worry too—”

“Master,” Simeon cut Erik off, his dark eyes narrowed.

“…of course,” with a slightly darker tone, Erik wheeled the stallion about. I think he also recognized there was something Simeon wasn’t telling us. However, Erik trusted Simeon, and I, in turn, trusted Erik, so I did not allow myself to become too worried.

As a much more silent parade, we made our way along the cliff until we reentered the forest. We rode for a few more miles until we came upon a stoic castle.

I twisted so quickly in the saddle that I actually fell off.

“Dammit, Christelle,” Erik muttered irritably as he attempted to pull me back on.

“What is this?” I asked incredulously, allowing my feet to hit the ground. Erik stretched out his hand for me. I resolutely shook my head. Erik’s face twisted into a familiar scowl as I folded my arms across my chest.

“It’s abandoned, at least for now,” Erik snapped. He grabbed my arm and tried to pull me back into the saddle.

“So we’re stealing?”

“Forgive me, m’lady, but you are a hostage,” Simeon’s eyes twinkled merrily as a satisfied smile grew and grew across his face.

“He’s right,” Erik smirked. Fuming, I allowed him to assist me in getting back into the saddle. However, as soon as I was situated comfortably—

“Oof!” Erik grunted as I sent my elbow back into his gut. Out of more shock than pain, he fell from the horse.

“Hyah!” I laughed gaily as Charger quickly pulled away from his indignant master. Simeon roared with laughter as he kept pace with us, watching as Erik irately chased us, swearing madly.

Simeon and I finally stopped next to a window. I gave him an odd look. “The stables…?” I asked curiously.

“We’ve done this before. It’s easier this way,” Simeon shrugged uncomfortably. Tethering the horses next to a fountain filled with rainwater, the two of us walked up to one of the windows.

“This seems narrow,” I told him.

“Usually Master or myself will climb to one of the second-story windows and let the other in… but you’re far slimmer,” Simeon gave me a benevolent smile. “Speak of the devil,” he muttered, glancing over his shoulder.

“Oh, merde,” I murmured to myself. As Erik slowly approached, panting, I could see his face was dripping with sweat and his hairtie had come out completely. Simeon began to laugh again, and I could not suppress my own mirth as Erik began to chase me around the fountain. He managed to catch up to me long enough to scoop me up and dump me into the fountain. I only laughed harder as I gave him a well-deserved splash to the face.

“You did have that coming to you, Master,” Simeon finally managed to choke out through his stitches of hilarity. “I always thought you were too cynical to your lady.”

“Hmmph,” Erik offered me another begrudging hand, which I used to yank him into the fountain.

“You deserved that too,” I told him as he pulled his head up from beneath the surface of the murky water.

“You’re trouble,” Erik dunked my head in.

“So’re you,” I pointed out, shaking the water from my hair.

Erik, for once at a loss for a snide remark, rolled his eyes and crossed his arms.

“You deserve this too,” Erik flinched as the words left my mouth, but, rather than inflicting more punishment on him, I simply snaked my fingers through his long sandy hair and toyed with the ends, coyly taking water from the tips with my tongue. A little blush crept across Erik’s cheeks as he realized what I was doing. I got to my knees for easier access to his face. I laid a trail of kisses down his cheek, just barely brushing the corner of his mouth with my own lips. Moving gently so I was between his legs, I curled my arms around his neck and kissed him deeply, allowing my tongue to flutter against his lips. I almost laughed again to see how wide his eyes were with shock at my sudden advances.

“Oi!” Simeon finally made his way back to his feet. Embarrassedly, I shot away from Erik. I had completely forgotten Simeon’s presence. “You can finish that business when we’re inside. Erik, help me with the bags, and Christelle…” Simeon narrowed his eyes at me. I glanced at myself and so did Erik, who seemed to be quite taken with the water’s effect on my clothing. “After we get inside, for the love of heaven, change into something dry.”

Erik whispered to me as he helped me out of the pond, “You don’t have to if you don’t want to.”