They had five wagons, three of them empty of everything but wooden barrels, which they used to make a large protective semi-circle on the other side of a huge set of sand dunes that would protect them from the worst of the night winds. The horses were strung out on lines behind the wagons and a guard set.
Brody defied normal security precautions and found a location for Taylor and him to sleep away from the rest of the camp, outside the wagon ring. He built a fire for them. Taylor spread her saddle blanket. That would be her bed for the next three nights.
She stripped the mail from herself and plucked the sweat-soaked undershirt from her chest. Then, unable to stand it any longer, she pulled the shirt off, too. Then the leggings.
She unbraided her hair and rubbed her fingertips through the stressed roots with a sigh.
Brody sat watching her with a half-smile as he tended the building fire. “I would give anything to have a camera right now.” His smile faded. “I know why you took it all off. I wanted to every day when I was first getting used to it. But you’re sleeping in it, Taylor. I mean it.”
She grimaced. “At least let me air-dry the undershirt, first.”
He nodded. “We can wait that long. It’ll only take a few moments in this climate.” He picked up the undershirt, walked over to the nearest wagon and spread it over the side to dry. He came back at a slightly faster pace, hooked up her tunic from the sand where she had dropped it and tossed it to her. “I’d put that on,” he suggested. “Veris is coming.”
She struggled to throw on the tunic, suddenly all thumbs.
Brody grabbed the hem and hoisted it over her head. She managed to push her arms through the sleeves as he yanked it down over her body. She was still pushing her head through the opening when she heard Veris say, “Your guard said to come straight through.”
Taylor pulled all her hair out of the neck opening and brushed it out of her face. Veris stood about ten paces away on the other side of the fire.
Brody turned to face him. “That’s because the guard has standing orders to let you pass at all times.”
“I see.” Veris crossed his arms. He was watching her adjust the tunic. “No matter what I interrupt?”
“That’s right,” Brody agreed easily.
Taylor dropped her hands to her sides. The tunic covered everything it needed to. There was no way it was going to look like anything but a potato sack on her. It was what it was. She gave up and turned her attention back to Veris and Brody instead.
“You stopped speaking this morning,” she said to Veris. “You were going to say something, but then you looked at Alexander and stopped. What was it?”
Veris licked his lips. “That is why I am here.” He came closer to the fire, but stopped on the other side of it. He looked at Taylor again. “Do you ever wear the proper clothing of a woman?” he asked. He didn’t sound angry. He sounded stressed.
Attack, Taylor reminded herself. Attack the emotions. Keep him unsettled.
“I wore the proper attire to visit your lord. Did you enjoy that gown more than this?” She put her hands on her waist so that it was emphasized and the tunic was drawn in.
She heard his breath draw in. “No,” he confessed flatly.
Truth.
Brody stepped forward. “Come around the fire, Will. Don’t be a stranger. Neither of us is armed. Neither of us means you harm. I think you know that now.”
Will glanced at Brody’s big sword, planted blade first in the sand, next to the fire. He stepped around the fire and stopped two paces from their blankets. He was still armed, but his hands and head were bare.
He was studying Brody once more. “You set out this morning, knowing I would be left behind in Jerusalem. Why?”
“Those were my orders,” Brody said simply.
“Despite your lady’s failure to have me recruited to your task, you still went ahead as ordered.”
“Well, yes.” Brody frowned. “Was there another course you expected me to take? I don’t understand, Will.”
“You brought your lady with you,” Veris pressed.
“Tyra asked to come along,” Brody corrected.
Veris glanced at her. “Asked? You indulged her?”
“I wanted her with me,” Brody replied evenly.
Veris drew in a breath that even from a pace or two behind Brody and to one side, Taylor could see was unsteady. Brody’s quiet, truthful answers were not helping give Veris the vent he needed. They were acting like accelerant.
“Why go at all?” Veris demanded. “Why not leave her in the city to eat at me a bite at a time while you do as you are told? We both know she can do that.” He pushed his hand through his hair. “She has that power at least.”
Brody frowned. “Her name is Tyra,” he said flatly. “Or if Tyra is feeling very kindly toward you, she may let you call her Taylor, her true name. I’ll leave that entirely up to her.”
Veris’ gaze cut toward Taylor. “My apologies, my lady. It is a habit of speech. There has been one other “she” in my life of late and that one rarely deserves being fully named at all.”
He was talking about Davina, Taylor realized. She nodded her acceptance of his apology. She needed to let Brody control this conversation by keeping her mouth shut.
“I’m doing what I’m told,” Brody said, “because someone has to find the water for everyone to drink or we’re all going to die. It’s a simple equation, in the end.”
“You won’t die,” Veris pointed out.
“Everyone else will. Raymond told me to find the water. I’m finding water.”
“It’ll take three days at least,” Veris said.
“That’s right.”
“The siege engines will be built by then and Jerusalem taken.”
“I know.”
Veris looked Brody in the eye. “I will be gone, then. Back to Selkirk’s keep.”
Brody swallowed. “I know that, too.”
Veris stepped closer. “Yet you still go in search of water and bring your wife with you, the one person who might anchor me in Jerusalem for you.”
“You said not to pursue you,” Brody pointed out. Veris was barely a pace away from him now. Taylor could feel her own pulse rising just watching the two of them hover in this ages-old dance. She was afraid to move or speak in case she broke the spell.
“I expected you to ignore me,” Veris replied.
“I was going to,” Brody confessed. “After I got back with the water.”
Veris’ hand curled around the back of Brody’s neck. “Honorable intentions,” he murmured. “How irresistible they are.” He kissed Brody with slow, sensual thoroughness.
Taylor covered her mouth with her hand, holding in her gasp. She was so powerfully aroused by the sight of the pair of them kissing that she could barely stand still. But if she moved, they’d sense it. It was a wonder they couldn’t smell her arousal already.
Brody moaned softly.
Taylor pressed her hand harder against her mouth. Brody’s body was straining, aching for contact, but he didn’t dare press himself against Veris. The bigger man had to reach for Brody himself.
Finally, Veris drew Brody closer, his arm an iron band around Brody’s waist.
Taylor let her mouth go. The two of them were absorbed and oblivious to her. She should give them the fire and find a private corner somewhere else for the night.
She could feel herself smiling as she bent down to pick up her blanket.
Veris’ eyes were on her.
Taylor straightened. He was watching her as he kissed Brody.
Her heart rate zoomed into the stratosphere and she grew still again. What should she do? She couldn’t tear her gaze away from Veris’ eyes. This was the man she loved, the father of her child. Yet he was a stranger whose motives she didn’t understand and who frightened her with all the power and strength he wielded and could use against her because he didn’t know who she was or that she would die for him in a heartbeat.
In the end all she could see was Veris, the man she loved, kissing Brody, the other man she loved. She nearly wept at how close she was to losing that.
Veris lifted his mouth from Brody’s and ran his tongue along Brody’s neck. Taylor saw the flash of fangs and her breath stopped.
Veris had a grip on Brody’s head already. Now his other hand was creeping up to Brody’s shoulder. The classic biting position.
Taylor pushed her way through the sand a few steps and halted. What could she do? Veris was infinitely more powerful…
He was looking at her. No, not Veris, the predator in him. She could see the animal nature in his eyes, looking back at her.
His fangs extended fully and scraped over Brody’s neck. She could see Brody trying to move, but the hold Veris had on him was powerful. Unbreakable.
Taylor was aware that she was crying as she watched the teeth touch Brody’s neck, her tears running down her cheeks in scalding rivulets. She couldn’t save Brody despite sword, knife, mail, or horse. She was useless.
Veris was still watching her. His canines hesitated before they punctured Brody’s neck.
Taylor drew in a hot breath. Hope.
For long seconds they hung in that precarious balance.
Then in a blur of motion that told her Veris had used vampire speed, he let Brody go, stepped around the fire, climbed the sand dune directly behind them, crested it and was gone from sight.
Brody sank to his knees, his hands splayed in the sand for support.
Taylor hurried to him. “Up. Get up! Hurry!” She tried to lift him.
Brody stared at her, dazed.
“You have to go after him. Now! He’s left tracks in the sand, it will be easy to find him. He can’t go all night. Go after him. He’s completely vulnerable now.”
Brody reached up and touched her wet cheek, leaving a smear of sand behind. “I don’t understand,” he said, sounding groggy.
Taylor crouched down next to him and grabbed his face. “He was going to mark you, Brody. A permanent bond. Somehow, I got him to pull back. I don’t know why or how, but I did. He’s wide open, now.”
Brody straightened up and got to one knee. “I’m missing something,” he said, his voice stronger. “We figured Veris didn’t want to be tied.”
“No masters,” Taylor emphasized. “But he sees what we have. You and I. He wants it. He wants love. A sense of belonging. It’s what drew him to you the first time. It’s what he tried to claim just then. Equality. It’s why he keeps questioning the way you treat me.” She hauled on him arm. “Come on. Go get him. Go.”
Brody got to his feet. “You’ll be all right?”
“I’ll be fine. Go!”
Brody turned and followed the tracks Veris had left behind.
* * * * *
VERIS FOUND HIMSELF COMING TO a halt about a quarter of a league from the camp. Not far enough away to lose sight of the glow of the campfires above the top of the dunes but distance enough that he could no longer hear the humans. From here he could indulge in the petty illusion that he was alone in the world, even for just a few moments. He closed his eyes and let the peace the silent stars and the desert usually imparted, but tonight that quietness of the soul wouldn’t wash over him.
“Will.”
He turned to face the man who followed him and sighed. “What is your real name?”
“Brody.”
“Is that what she, what Taylor calls you?”
“Yes.”
Veris pushed his hand through his hair. “I was going to mark you.”
“I know.”
“I was going to mark you and I didn’t even know your real name.”
Brody stepped closer. “You’re being influenced by forces you can barely perceive right now. All I can tell you is that they’re not evil. This all works out, Veris.”
“Good Mary, Mother of God, you even know my name. How long have you known my name?”
“About a thousand years.” Brody cupped his cheek.
Fear circled through him. The only thing keeping it from tearing him apart was the calm in Brody’s eyes. It was like looking at the stars. “I haven’t lived for a thousand years.” It was all he could think of to say.
“You will. A thousand years and more,” Brody replied.
Veris veered away from that. It was more future talk. “I was about to mark you and I saw her face. She was crying. Real tears. For you,” Veris said.
“Taylor understands about markings. She carries mine,” Brody said. His voice was calm. “She knows they’re instinctive. She also knows I was a slave once and how much I would hate to be owned by another in that way again.”
Veris stepped back, breaking contact with Brody’s hand. “She stood there and watched and she knew that? But there was such…” He could barely bring himself to say the word. “Her face was filled with love,” he said harshly. “She was glowing with it.”
Brody smiled. “She does glow when she watches us.”
Veris frowned. “What?”
Brody picked up Veris’ hand. “You’re not going to understand more than a little of this, Veris. You’re a salty old bear and Davina has made you inclined to be suspicious, prickly and quick to mistrust people. Worse, she’s made you think there’s no such thing as love left in the world when your whole soul is crying out for it. You’ve been wandering this earth for six hundred years looking for answers and she’s messed you up so bad you can’t bring yourself to reach out for the answers when they’re staring you in the face. That’s why you wanted to mark me. Your instincts know the way. Your intellect is stymieing you. You managed to see past her once. You managed to find happiness that time. I really need you to try again because I love you and I want you back.”
Veris’ heart creaked. He stared at Brody, trying to make sense of the idioms, the implications. He knew there was something huge here that he could see if only he could push aside a few veiling cloths covering his eyes and think.
Then he properly saw Brody’s face and expression. The love there.
It was an echo of the expression that had been on Taylor’s face.
Brody loved him. He really did. There was no artifice, no hidden meaning. It was a pure, simple emotion. Genuine. Heartfelt.
All Veris’ concern over the motives of this pair dropped away. Yes, there were still meanings and intentions to be unraveled. Mysteries to be explored—too many of them to enumerate. And delicious first occasions to be experienced.
From the tightening of his body, he knew one of them would be now.
“Kiss me,” Brody whispered.
Veris was willing to obey that order. It was simple enough. He pulled Brody closer and took his time to really kiss the man. Not in anger or haste. But to taste him properly. Teeth, tongue, lips.
Breath.
“You smell of her,” Veris accused. It was like a fine layer hovering over the surface of Brody’s skin. But still he wanted to do it again. He slid his tongue between Brody’s lips and at the same time breathed his scent and her aroma, mixed with the smell of horses, sweat and sand after a day under the sun.
He was growing hard just by that alone.
The kiss grew more frantic, more direct. But still there was no contact between them except for their mouths and their hands on each other’s bodies.
Brody loosened his sword belt.
“Here?” Veris breathed.
“Why not?” Brody asked reasonably.
Why not, indeed? Under the stars, with the sand providing a smooth, white, rolling carpet that gleamed dully in moonlight, far from anyone or anything but each other.
Brody’s sword dropped to the sand almost silently, the sand muffling the impact. His hands immediately began to work on his tunic belt. He wasn’t hurrying, but he wasn’t stopping.
Veris’ excitement kicked up a notch. He dropped his hands to his own scratched and worn buckles. They came loose as they always did, as he had unbuckled them a thousand times before, but this time his hands shook.
His sword and belt dropped to the sand.
The night wind caught at his tunic, now it was loosened, and lifted it away from his hauberk.
Through all this, Brody’s mouth stayed in contact with his own.
When Brody removed his tunic and hauberk and undershirt, all in one swift overhead shrug, dumping them on the sand in an inelegant pile, he turned back to Veris quickly. His hand curled around the back of Veris’ head and brought his mouth back to Brody’s like he regretted the loss of contact.
Brody stripped the rest of his clothing without breaking contact again, then reached for Veris’ tunic. “Let me,” he murmured, his lips brushing against Veris’ mouth. He was breathing hard.
Veris could feel the tension in his own body, the tightness of the impending release. This was beyond anything he had experienced in more years than he cared to recall. He was almost afraid of the coming climax. He nodded, trying to control his runaway heartbeat, astonished at the level of excitement that something as simple as being undressed produced in him.
Brody stripped him, a layer at a time, taking his time. He turned it into a feast of sensuality and by the time he was done, Veris was trembling so badly, he could barely stand. His cock was jutting into the night air, throbbing with need.
Brody, his own cock thick and upright, ran his finger along the length of Veris’, making Veris moan in desperate need.
Brody smiled at the sound and lowered himself to his knees in front of Veris.
That stole what little breath Veris had left. He exhaled with a shudder as Brody smoothed his hands up Veris’ thighs. A hand curled around his balls and cupped them. The gentle pressure was heavenly, but was eclipsed by the touch of Brody’s lips around his cock. They bumped over the ridge of flesh at the tip, then slid like a hard, gentle band around his shaft, farther and farther and impossibly farther, before drawing back up. As they came back toward the head once more, Brody drew his tongue like a pointed digit over the underside of the ridge of flesh, flicking at it.
Veris’ hips jerked hard and the cry erupted from him as he drove his fingers into Brody’s hair in a desperate need to strive for the peak that was suddenly upon him now. Never had he been pushed so fast, with such precision.
Brody gripped the base of Veris’ cock and worked his mouth over the head, giving Veris exactly what he needed.
Veris exploded in a hard stream of cum that seemed to work its way up from deep inside his toes, drawing everything from his belly, his balls, his essence.
Brody took it all, to the last drop.
When he released him, Veris sank to his knees. It put them very nearly at the same level. His chest rose and fell still. “You’re laughing at me?” he asked Brody, for the man wore a small smile.
Brody shook his head. “I enjoyed that. It was… In an odd way it seemed like the first time.”
Veris shook his head. “You must stop doing that.”
“Enjoying it?”
“Talking about a future I don’t know.”
Brody sobered a little. “If you insist. It could be difficult, though.”
“Why?”
“I have no past here to speak of.”
Veris took a few seconds to unravel that. Then he felt laughter squeeze his chest. “You jest. Surely. If you have no past here, then you mean you are from…”
Brody nodded. “The future.” He smiled a little. “Yours, actually.”
You will live a thousand years and more.
Veris’ heart thudded. “What future do you come from? What year? How old are you now?”
“You already know how old I am,” Brody reminded him, with a grin. “I gave you my birth year when we first met.”
Veris knew Brody had avoided the question deliberately. “So…the subjective details, but not the general.”
Brody nodded. “We think it’s safer that way.”
‘“We’?”
“Taylor, me…and you.”
Again, his heart hammered hard. Brody seemed so sincere, kneeling there in the moonlight. That was the problem. So Veris pushed on Brody’s shoulder until the man was sitting back on his heels. Brody, despite being leaner and shorter, was still solid and thick with muscle. It took effort to move him.
Veris pushed Brody onto his back on the white sand. “I would give an eye tooth for a vial of oil so I could have my way with you properly,” he told Brody. “But that will have to wait for the next time.”
“I’m glad you think there’ll be a next time,” Brody replied.
Veris hesitated. “You did not go to all this effort for a single dalliance,” he said finally.
Brody made an impatient sound. “No, Veris. I was expressing appreciation.” He pulled him onto his chest with an impatient sound. “Who wounded you so much you lost your confidence this way? The man I know would never have questioned me about a next time. He would have assumed it was his God-given right.”
Veris tried to pull away, but Brody was strong. Stronger than Veris expected, and on this matter he seemed to be determined to take issue. Veris shrugged. “I of course do not understand this. It is future related.”
Brody shook his head. “Bullshit.”
The word made Veris blink. He wasn’t entirely certain what it meant, but the force that Brody delivered it with gave him a good general idea.
“This is Davina related,” Brody added. “And something before that or Davina would have been resolved back in France even before the crusade started.”
Terror seemed to swamp Veris in one black cloud. He tried to tear away from Brody as it grabbed at his throat, but he was in the wrong position and had no leverage. Brody hung on, his arms like iron bands around him, until Veris lay quietly against his chest.
“You wanted to kill Davina in Normandy, before the crusade started,” Brody murmured. “And by rights, you should have. Something stopped you this time. Something in your past changed.”
Veris closed his eyes. Now he believed, beyond a shadow of a doubt, that Brody was from his future. He had to be. No one else in the world could possibly know these things. He didn’t understand how it worked. There were whole roomfuls of knowledge he needed to fully comprehend it all. But he knew Brody was who he claimed. His future.
He felt Brody’s hand on his face. Reassuring. “I know about her, Veris. There is no need to explain.”
Veris shuddered as something inside him seemed to shift and ease. He was even able to lift his head and look at Brody. The man’s eyes were completely without judgment. They carried, instead, the same patient understanding—no, the same love—as they had since the moment he’d turned from his wife’s arms to face him.
The shudder this time rippled all the way down Veris’ body. It made him aware of Brody’s naked length beneath him, pressed up against him. Brody still held Veris locked against him, but his arms were free.
Veris kept his gaze locked on Brody’s eyes and ran his hand along his flank, just above the line of the sand that cushioned him.
Brody’s eyes widened a fractioned. His cock stirred against Veris’ thigh.
Veris pushed his knee between Brody’s, separating his legs and giving him better access.
Brody’s breath hitched. It was a tiny sound, but rewarding to hear. Veris slid his hand between his thighs and stroked the stretch of flesh between balls and anus and was rewarded again with Brody’s gasp.
This was almost too easy. Brody was tense and ready to break as Veris had been.
Veris weighed Brody’s balls in his hand. They were heavy with promise. He slid his hand higher and closed his fingers around Brody’s wide cock. It was silky hard and throbbed in his hand, the veins pulsing with the life-force that sustained them.
He glided his hand up the shaft and claimed the head.
Brody’s hips jerked. The arm holding Veris against Brody’s chest fell away.
As Veris began to repeat the gentle stroking, he watched Brody’s face and absorbed that exquisite moment when lust took the soul, the heart and the mind. Brody’s eyes closed. His face emptied of all expression except that of a man caught in the best chase of all. A small furrow appeared between his brows.
It would go quickly, this time. It had to. Without the bedroom privileges of privacy, oils and time to learn each other’s paces and pleasures, Veris accepted that. It was also one of the joys of first occasions.
But for right now he could take from this moment a petty sense of mastery as he controlled Brody’s body and played with it. Simple pleasure, bereft of pain and fear, freely given.
Sweet joy.
Brody came with a hoarse cry, his back arching as his hips lifted off the sand. He pumped ferociously in Veris’ hand, his cum pooling on his stomach.
He lay panting, recovering. He put his arm over his eyes. “You haven’t done that to me in…too long.”
Veris shook his head. “Future talk.”
Brody sat up on his elbows. “Sorry.” He looked down at his stomach. “How on earth am I supposed to clean up without water or cloth?”
Veris shrugged. “You’ve never heard of a sand bath?”
Brody shook his head.
Veris stood up. “It isn’t water, but it is nearly as efficient.”
There was sand all around them, so they didn’t have to move away from where they were. They were already stripped. So Veris demonstrated the process of a sand bath, using handfuls of the fine white sand to scour away dirt and sweat.
He spent more time watching Brody “wash” his body than completing the bath himself. Then, when he rubbed the sand over his flesh, he found it too sensitive to handle the rasping of the sand. He had been aroused once more.
But Brody was drawing on his clothes.
Caution flooded him. Veris crossed his arms. “You’re going back?”
Brody jerked his head toward the moon, sitting low in the sky. “It’s late. Taylor will be worried. And if Alexander is right about where the oasis is, tomorrow is going to be a busy day. I need to make some arrangements before everyone wakes.”
Veris pummeled aside his impatience and tried to encompass the idea that a woman’s concerns should be taken into consideration. Clearly, the future was a far different world from now. It explained in part why Taylor was so outspoken and forward.
Brody paused, his hauberk in his hands. “Come back with me,” he suggested.
Veris frowned. What did that mean?
“To my fire,” Brody added.
Veris found himself suddenly breathing hard.
Such a simple statement. Such a complicated step to take. It would be declaring to everyone in the camp their relationship. By the time they returned to Jerusalem, word would spread.
Davina would find ways to make Veris’ life miserable, if not end it altogether for such a transgression. For such a betrayal.
“And what about your woman?” Veris breathed, trying to make it sound as derisive as possible.
“Taylor would welcome you with open arms. You know that.”
He could still feel the touch of her fingertips on his hands. Her breath in his ear. Her lips on his neck.
Soft sweetness.
Open arms.
Veris shuddered. “I’d die,” he said truthfully. Davina would see to that.
Something in Brody’s eyes withered and faded to nothing. Veris watched it happen, dismayed. He wanted to reach out, to try to amend the error he had just made, but knew it was too late. Besides, it was better that Brody misunderstand.
Brody buckled on his sword silently. He squared his shoulders. His gaze wouldn’t meet Veris’. “I must return.”
“I understand.”
“Do you?” Brody said bitterly. His gaze lifted to Veris’ eyes. The pain there was unmistakable and Veris recoiled. “You’ve not understood more than a handful of everything else I’ve told you, but now you understand this?” He pushed his hand through his hair. “You know, you used to be the absolute best liar in the world, Veris. You could bullshit with the greatest. Straight faced, you could tell the most outrageous stories in the world. You could have sold sand to Fatimids and convinced them they were getting the bargain of the century. But you never, ever lied to yourself.” Brody’s mouth curled down. “Until now.”
He walked back down the dune without looking back.
But Veris was too busy trying to deal with the pain in his gut and his chest to care.