She Owns the Knight Read Online Free PDF Page B

finally coming out into the huge, bustling, inner courtyard.
    She gazed at what looked like a small city enclosed within the walls. The huge keep in the middle dominated, and buildings were set around the outer edges: barracks, stables, and other outbuildings. People were busy, some carrying trays, others pulling horses behind them, some children playing, but most stopped what they were doing to stare at Gillian.
    This was just so amazing. She’d had no idea her imagination was so rich.
    Her knight rode his destrier up to the keep, and in one smooth move, dismounted with her still in his arms and easily carried her up a few stairs, through the open doorway, and inside the keep.
    Gillian, limp as a wet noodle, enjoyed every moment of it. She laid her cheek against him again, soaking up the tingling, melting and thrilling sensations he inspired in her.
    The muscles in his arms and chest shifted as he moved and when he came to a stop, he wasn’t even the least out of breath. She, on the other hand, was losing her own.
    Wow. Just wow.
    Once inside the castle her knight bellowed something and it took a moment for Gillian to decipher his words.
    He was calling for someone, and his accent! Fabulous! She wanted to squeal. This was simply the best dream she’d ever had, bar none, in her entire life.
    An older woman, dressed in medieval garb, came running, her head covered with a white sheet, a set of keys dangling at her waist. “Yes, my lord?”
    The knight set Gillian on her feet and when she stumbled a bit, placed a big, warm hand on her shoulder until she steadied herself.
    He didn’t remove the hand as he gave the other woman instructions. He turned Gillian and grabbed her cheeks with one hand and she wondered if he were going to kiss her, right there, in front of all the people who’d started to gather around.
    She couldn’t think of a reason why she shouldn’t let him. It was just a dream, after all. Her gaze dropped to his full lips, curved in an inviting smile. She might wake at any moment. This could be her only chance. She wasn’t going to protest and miss out.
    His hand firmly on her cheeks, he squeezed them together, forcing her mouth to gape open and looked inside. “Well-formed teeth,” he proclaimed and looked up at the audience.
    The servants leaned in for a look, murmuring and nodding their approval, and Gillian shrieked, as anger, outrage, and embarrassment boiled up inside her. “What are you doing?”
    She jerked away and slapped the knight’s hand. “What am I, a horse?” So much for her dream man.
    Her response visibly surprised him.
    Making sounds of disapproval, the woman with the keys took Gillian’s hand and led her toward stone steps going up the side of one wall. “Come with me, lass. I’ll see you settled soon enough.”
    Gillian glanced back at the knight, sending him a dirty look to let him see how disappointed she was in him, but at his bewildered expression, her anger dissipated.
    Okay, the guy was sort of a clod. But she was willing to give him a second chance because the man, as well as the place, was making her romance buttons hum on high alert.
    Since she’d no doubt wake to a nightmare, she didn’t want to waste even one tiny moment of this experience.
    Anyway, what was the harm in taking a look around the place before she woke up? After all, it seemed real enough that she might be able to use something she saw in her paintings. Imagined or not, the place felt so authentic she considered patting herself on the back for having such a great imagination.
    Of course she was assuming she’d eventually snap out of it and wake up in the real world. But what if she wasn’t able to? Was she simply unconscious? Or was it possible she was dead and her version of heaven included castles and knights?
    Uneasily she acknowledged that this particular fantasy could be tailor-made for her. She shrugged off the prickly sensation tickling her shoulder blades. If she saw her parents or brother,