Scarlet Moon (Once Upon a Time) by Debbie Viguié Page B

didn’t matter. All that mattered was that he loved her and wanted her, and that his lips upon hers were proving it more with each moment that passed between them.
    “All my life I have looked for you.” he said.
    “And all my life I have run, certain that I would lose myself if ever you caught me.”
    “Are you lost?”
    “I am found.” She answered with what was in her heart, her soul.
    “What if I devour you?” he asked at last.
    She pulled back slightly and touched one of his eyeteeth with her fingertip. “I hope that you do,” she breathed.
    He glanced down, “You’re bleeding.”
    She looked down as well, noticing with a sense of detachment the slice in her bodice and the blood staining her clothes. She pulled her hand away and let the knife clatter to the floor of the cart. She reached forward to touch his shirt, which was also ripped. “You are as well.”
    “So I am,” he answered, eyes intent on her. “Our blood flows together, Ruth. Even so, you and I are linked, our spirits running together, our hearts beating as one.”
    “Wherever you go, I shall go.”
    He gripped her hands, which were covered in their blood, in his and kissed them.
    “What do we do now?” she asked next.
    “I don’t know. I do know, though, that I need your help taming the wolf.”
    “I’ll do what I can,” she vowed.
    He kissed her again, his lips upon hers burning with hunger, demanding to be fed. In a moment she knew she would be lost, and she would give him everything. She forced herself to break away, though it hurt her more than anything she had ever done.
    “William, I can’t—”
    “I know,” he gasped. “I am sorry.”
    “Don’t be, for I am not, but we must venture no further along this particular path.”
    “Not till I’ve made you my wife.”
    She sat, stunned by the sound of the word on his lips.
Wife. He wishes to marry we.
She gazed at him with her heart shining in her eyes.
    “What will people say?” she whispered at last.
    “They’ll say that I’m the luckiest creature that ever walked this earth, on two feet or four.”
    She laughed, tasting the salt on her lips as she did so. “Whatever shall I do with you?” she burst out, unable to contain her joy and bewilderment.
    “You shall marry me, as soon as it can be arranged”
    She nodded slowly. “You shall, of course, have to ask my father”
    He threw back his head and laughed. “Do you think that he shall deny me as a suitor to his daughter?”
    “Perhaps he should,” she said with a coy smile.
    “Well, then I must strike fast before anyone can warn him. Perhaps while you are tending to the horses?”
    She cuffed him lightly on the arm. “You would have your future wife shoeing your horses?”
    “You and no other. When we are old and gray I still want to see you, in those ridiculous trousers, putting shoes on all our horses.”
    “And what is wrong with my trousers?” she demanded.
    “They are cut all wrong for your figure,” he said with a wicked smile.
    She slammed her fist into his chest in mock fury. He caught her hand and pulled it up around his neck. His smile slowly faded. “I am sorry, my love; the humor keeps me from doing to you that which I most wish and which would break your trust.”
    “I know,” she said, the blood burning within her veins. “I feel the same way.”
    He picked up the reins and turned slowly in his seat. “In that case we had best be on our way, quickly.”
    They rode the rest of the way in silence. Ruth’s mind raced almost as fast as her heart. It was madness to think that this could end happily, with her the wife of an earl. Her thoughts foretold some grave danger ahead of them, even as her heart sang within her breast.
    When the castle loomed ahead of them, she held her breath, a thousand emotions colliding inside her. Her mouth gaped in wonder at the castles sheer size. Within its shadow, stone walls loomed high above her, and she tilted her head back to gaze up at them. Around her,