She nodded and sat back down. In fact, she was ready to lie down. This drinking so early in the day was not good for her equilibrium. "Your third passion?"

He kept hold of her hand, running his thumb over her palm. For a moment he seemed to waver, but then he looked her straight in the eye. "To lie naked with you. To make love with you. To kiss you so passionately that 'twil make you dizzy. That is my third passion. And of the passions I have mentioned, 'twas not necessarily ordered properly. It just took me some time to build up the courage to voice this one."

Thank the gods she was sitting, because sure as hel her knees would have caved on her. And for maybe the first time in her life, she was total y speechless.

They stared at one another for so long that the sun could have set and she wouldn't have noticed.

Final y he broke the gaze and stood. "I should have not said such a thing. It was untoward." He bowed. "My deepest apologies."

Isabel grabbed his arm and pul ed him closer as she stood, so they were face-to-face, body-to-body. "I bet you one of our horses that you cannot get me out of this contraption cal ed a gown faster than Mary can."

He grinned, then cupped her face. "Oh, Countess, how you underestimate me."

CHAPTER FOURTEEN.

OH, how Isabel had underestimated him. In every single way. Arthur had her gown off in record time, kissing her senseless the entire way.

"You're good," she said, as her gown dropped to the floor.

"I very much hope, lady, that you feel the same way in a while."

Other than the gown bil owed around her ankles, she was naked, and suddenly felt shy. She covered her breasts with her arms.

"Oh, Isabel, please, no. You are so beautiful."

Isabel had no idea how the workings of men's tunics, breeches or other stuff worked. She was only able to shed him of his outer vest before being at a total loss. "I'm afraid I don't know what to do."

Arthur, who'd been fixated on her body, went stil and dril ed her with his gaze. "Are you tel ing me you are stil untouched?"

She had no freaking idea how to respond. She was at a total loss for words.

Viviane?

No answer. And it suddenly occurred to her that Viviane had promised her privacy at times like this. Great. Real y fucking great.

"Does it matter?" she asked. "I just have no idea how to deal with men's clothing."

"It matters very much to me," he said, looking and sounding angry.

He pul ed her gown back up over her body. His heaving breaths no longer sounding ful of lust and longing. They sounded ful of an attempt to resume control of his body.

"Please tel me what's so wrong, Arthur?" she asked, holding the unlaced gown around her. "What did I do?"

He picked up his vest, the only garment she'd managed to strip from his body. "I wil not take away something that is the province of your future life mate."

He headed to the door, shoving his vest back on with every stomping step.

"You wait just one minute, buster! Get your ass back here and talk to me."

He turned back, just as he was about to switch the latch on the door. "What more can I say? I am not upset with you, madam, I am upset with myself. I deeply, deeply apologize for what I was about to do."

"If you hadn't noticed, I was a very wil ing participant."

"Which was heady indeed. Truth be told, it overruled al else."

"Then why are you taking it out on me? And why am I suddenly madam instead of Isabel, or even Izzy? You might believe you're punishing yourself, but you are punishing me more. Why?"

He deflated just a bit, which hurt Isabel's heart. Abandoning the door, he approached her. "Let me help you with the laces."

"Fine, while you do, why not help me to understand what just happened here."

"'Tis not a nice story," he said, as he began lacing her like a pro.

"As if we al don't have many of those. Spil , Arthur, please."

"'Twas a time I was a bit too ful of bluster. Too fil ed with my newfound power and fame. I was but a lad but wanted quite desperately to be a man."

"I get that. But what does this have to do with us? With this?" she asked. "I believe the truth is in order."

He sighed. "Yes, you deserve the truth."

And a freaking good orgasm. But for now she'd settle for the truth. "Yes," she said, trying desperately not to start crying.

He nodded. "Then the truth you shal have." He gently pul ed her hands from her dress, seeming to need something to do.

"Tel me, Arthur."

"Where to begin?"

"Right after successful y freeing Excalibur."

He nodded yet again. "Soon after I met a young lady enamored with me named Elizabeth. She was lovely and sweet. I was feeling bold and powerful, and felt the world was mine."

"As you should. You had done something no one else could."

He finished lacing her up, then turned and sat back in one chair. Isabel again sat in the other. "Go on," she said.

"This sweet young girl al owed me to ... make love with her. 'Twas a hurtful experience for her, as I was very much not as worldly in some things.

'Twas my first time as wel ."

"You knew how to take swords out, but not quite how to put them in?" She saw his expression and chuckled. "I apologize. That joke was in very bad taste."

He cocked his head. "Unfortunately, al too true. I had terrible nightmares about what I had done. For I left without an apology. I, after al , had more important missions to accomplish. A few years passed, yet the nightmare of that day stil weighed on my mind. I attempted to contact her, to ask of her wel -being. But I was told she passed in childbirth."

"Holy shit! Here comes Mordred."

"I had nary a clue that the child was mine. I swear this to be true. Her sister took over care of the child and led Mordred to believe she was his true mother. She had hatred of me, though I attempted to make peace with her. But she would have none of it. I counted and knew he had to be mine.

'Twas twisted, 'twas a horrid time for al . I tried to make al right, Isabel. I truly did."

"I believe you, Arthur."

"The reasoning for this story is to tel you how much I fear ever hurting another woman in such a way again. And you, Isabel, I fear hurting most."

"I have to believe Gwen was also a virgin when you married her."

"That is true, but I was very careful, knowing this. I was very careful to make certain no harm would come to her."

"Then why did you freak out with me?"

"Freak out?"

"Why did you stop?"

He shook his head. "Do you not understand? My body was out of control. I wanted to take you. I wanted to ravish you."

"So? I wanted to be ravished."

Arthur stared at her. "I might have hurt you. I had already done that to another. I could not live with that."

"Did I appear frightened?"

"No, Isabel, but 'tis because you have no knowledge of the pain a woman endures the first time."

Like hel she didn't. Brian Gordon had been just as clumsy and clueless as Arthur. And, hel yes, it had hurt like hel . But she got over it. Rather quickly, actual y.

"You could have been just as gentle with me as with Gwen."

"I could not."

"Why not?"

"Because with Gwen I was in ful control of my faculties. I had learned from that first experience with Elizabeth. And Gwen was more of a piece of fragile artistry. 'Twas easy to treat her as such."

"I know I'm not a piece of fragile artistry, although the jury's stil out on how offended I am. But just what is so very different here?"

"I have told you, Isabel, with you I was not in control. 'Tis a fact that I have ne'er wanted a woman as I do you. Even as a lad, and ful of lustful thoughts, 'twas not as this."

Isabel wanted to scream. He was making no sense and at the same time too much. He was a gentleman and a gentle man. But her thrumming body was simply pissed off.

Then again it felt real y good to hear that he had wanted her that badly. Why hadn't she just said that of course she wasn't a virgin? That she had had several lovers over the years? Good lord, at her age you'd think her vagina had closed over permanently if it had never been penetrated.

The moment had come and gone, however, and her hesitation had cost her. Big time. To blurt out now that in truth she was very familiar with what he would cal bed sport would seem disingenuous. And would probably anger him because she hadn't spoken the truth to begin with.

She stood up, feeling a kind of defeat like no other. "I thank you for your honesty, Arthur. I wish only that I had done the same when you asked."

He, too, stood. "Your meaning?"

She couldn't seem to meet his eyes. "It doesn't matter now."

He reached out and took her chin, forcing her to meet his al too probing gaze. "To me it matters a great deal. In the end, Isabel, truth is al we have."

Oh, jeez, could she feel any worse? Her entire life in this land was a lie.

"May we discuss this at another time? Right now I am spent, and may I say, not in the way I had hoped. But I have much to do before the evening meal and need to get to it."

He stared at her for what seemed an eternity, then gave a short, curt nod. "Another time, then. I, too, have obligations. I have not gone through my swording and bow skil s as yet today, and must needs do this, lest I become fat and lazy. This evening, perhaps?"

Her laughter shook. It would take at least a year or more of total sloth for Arthur to gain a pound or lose an ounce of muscle. His body was finely toned from shoulders to toenails. At least it felt that way. How she wished she could have explored for herself. "Perhaps. We'l see."

"I wil see you at the evening repast, then?"

"You wil . I never miss a meal if I can help it."

He chuckled. And then before she knew it, he cupped her head and ravished her mouth. Her hormones, which had final y started to go back into dormant mode, sprang back to life as if zapped with electricity.

Arthur kissed like no other man she knew. His lips were firm and sure, intent on molding hers to their bidding. His tongue made only an occasional appearance, to taste her mouth and touch her own tongue. He didn't try to shove it down her throat as too many men had done, didn't use it as an oral fuck, just playing and teasing and basical y driving her crazy.

Long moments later he broke the kiss, but then laid his forehead against hers. "Oh, Isabel. Your taste and your scent and your feel are almost too much to bear," he whispered.

"Oh, right back atcha," she said.

"Until this evening?"

"Yes."

He stood back, albeit appearing total y reluctant to do so. His eyes swept over her, from face to feet. "Trust me, Isabel, you have no need of shyness. You are so beautiful."

He went to move past her, but she touched his arm and he turned back. "Yes?"

"So are you."

He grinned. "You are presuming. You may take back those words some day. I have many a battle scar on this body, Isabel."

Although the thought of him being hurt nearly made her shudder, she understood this was the way of this world. And then she thought of Curtis and Afghanistan, and realized brutality hadn't changed, only the nature of it. Stil , she couldn't wait to explore every single one of those scars. If she ever got the chance.

She walked with him to the door, but before he opened it she stopped him again. "Arthur? The next time we have the chance to speak, I promise the truth. Because you're right. In the end it is al we have."

He smiled. "I look forward to it. You have an endlessly fascinating life, Isabel."

If he only knew.