Desired Read Online Free Page A

him, he felt he might reach out to touch her. He saw her eyes for the first time. They were liquid with tears. Green and gold flecks shone through the diamond-like drops that hovered on her lashes.
    A fierce protectiveness rose up in him. He felt her pain,her sensitivity, her vulnerability. The experience was new to him. Though he had vowed as a knight to protect womanhood, he had never met a female who stirred any emotion beyond lust.
    He reached out and a teardrop fell upon his brown hand. He had apported it from midair by magic power. He tasted it and all desire for another melted away like snow in summer. He gathered taut his muscles, swung lithely over the crenellated battlements, then climbed down the castle wall. Without rope or other device the feat was almost impossible, but Drakkar’s training made it as simple as climbing down a ladder.
    Back in his pavilion, Christian lay supine upon his bed, his arms folded beneath his head. He tested his senses.
    All seven of them.
    He saw the faint glow of moonlight through the silken ceiling, casting all into shadow. The shape of the unlit bronze lamp contrasted with a matching incense burner. The outline of Salome upon her perch was fiercely proud even in her sleep. His glance roamed the tent, seeing all, missing no finest detail.
    He could smell almond and frankincense from his own body. He could also smell the sandalwood incense burning low. It did not mask the faint ammonia of the gerfalcon’s droppings. From outside he could smell the smoke of the campfires, the fat drippings from the roasted game, the odor of sour wine mingled with the cheap scent of the whores. He smelled the rich brown soil, the tethered horses, chestnut trees, and beyond all, the tang of the sea.
    Christian could feel the cool night air upon his skin. Beneath his back and buttocks the linen sheet was rough-textured. His fingers felt the warmth of the amber in his silver amulets. His body heat made the metal almost hot.
    He could faintly taste the saffron and fennel from the meal he’d taken at the castle. The bouquet of the rich red wine lingered upon his tongue. He could also taste the iodine and salt in the sea air. Most subtle of all was the taste of the teardrop, warm and softly scented. His body stirred. His mind controlled it immediately and moved on to his sense of hearing.
    One by one he blocked out the raucous sounds ofdrunken laughter, music, barking dogs, restless horses and identified the sounds of nature. A faint breeze rustled the leaves, the fires crackled, a nearby stream gurgled, a night heron’s cry carried from miles away. Without strain, his acute hearing identified his own heartbeat, then that of his hunting hawk.
    He moved on to his sixth sense. Intuition was acute awareness when all the other senses were heightened. It was developed easily enough through deprivation. When his mentors had blindfolded him for seven days, his other senses gradually heightened to compensate for his eyes, until finally he had learned to ride, then fight in combat, seeing with only his mind’s eye.
    His seventh sense was still developing. Only occasionally had he reached this perfect state. It required that he go inside, deeper and deeper to the core where the supreme power known as Godhead could be tapped into.
    Christian knew he was about to experience one of his “visions.” There was a bright flash behind his eyes, then vivid scenes crowded one upon another. He was on a coast among a fleet of ships. When he realized the place would best be viewed from above, he elevated high above the masts of the sailing vessels so he could see the activities of the men below him. Knowledge came to him immediately that what he saw was the French fleet. Before his vision faded, he knew the exact number of ships and the location where the fleet was gathering.
    Hawksblood let go of his control and slept. His mind now freed of its rigid constraints raced like an untethered stallion across the desert sand. His