The Warrior and the Petulant Princess Read Online Free PDF Page B

please stroke my back, please hold-
    “Perhaps you have learned,” he remarked breaking into her thoughts, and walking behind her he gently unbuckled the leather straps.
    “Ooh, Larian, that was very difficult,” she breathed, rubbing her jaw with her hands.
    “It was supposed to be. Lessons are only learned if they are difficult. Give me your hand.”
    He reached out, and as he pulled her into his chest, and held her in a firm, gentle embrace, she dissolved against him.
    “I could stay here forever,” she whispered.
    Closing his eyes he drank in the feel of her, and willed his surging cock to return to sleep.
    “Come, we’ll drink and eat a little before I leave,” he murmured, indulging himself for just a moment to lean in and kiss her neck.
    She moaned as his lips touched her skin, and she pressed against him, tilting her head to the side begging for more.
    “Please, Larian, please won’t you-?”
    “No, my sweet Lizbett,” he breathed. “Come with me now, I must eat.”
    Leading her to the table set against the paned windows, he pulled out her chair, then sat opposite, and lifted the thin cloth covering the meal laid out for him.
    “This is so thoughtful,” he sighed. “I am quite hungry. I’ve not eaten since the dawn of the East sun.”
    “Since the dawn of the East sun?” she gasped. “How can that be?”
    “It is nothing,” he replied taking some of the seeded bread and spreading it with cheese and nuts. “I have gone through several passes of the moons with nothing to eat, but that which I could find under the leaves on the forest floor, or hanging from the branches of trees.”
    “That sounds terrible,” she frowned.
    “It is terrible, but it is also a necessary lesson. It taught me to be grateful for the fine food that crosses my plate, and if I ever need to I can survive with nothing provided.”
    “Um, Larian, may I ask…?”
    “Ah, manners,” he smiled, pouring some purplish wine from a carafe. “How delightful to hear you ask in such a polite way. When you do I am obliged to answer.”
    Momentarily speechless she watched him raise the goblet to his lips; his compliment had sent a fresh ripple of delighted satisfaction through her heart; she had pleased him and it felt sublime.
    “You are not from lowly birth as I thought,” she said softly. “I am so puzzled by everything. Please, can you tell me something of who you really are?”
    “Of course,” he said. “This wine is excellent. Would you care for some?”
    “I would, very much,” she nodded.
    “I believe either a please or thank you belongs on the end of that sentence,” he remarked.
    “Oh, yes, I would, very much, please,” she blushed.
    “I shall be watching you very carefully at dinner, Lizbett. I expect nothing but courtesy and humble manners.”
    “I’ll do my best,” she promised watching him pour the wine into her goblet. “Please will you tell me about your family, explain this mystery to me?”
    “My name is Lord Larian Lobergene, and I am from the Principality of Zanderone. My cousin, Fenderon, is the ruler.”
    “Zanderone? You are a Lord from Zanderone? The men from Zanderone have fought beside the soldiers in my father’s army. They are mighty warriors. I’ve heard they are skilled in many things, not just fighting battles. Is that why you said you were immersed in your education? Why you were eating from the forest floor?”
    “It is, Lizbett, and it is why I was sent here for the summer as a youth and slept in your barn with the horses. One cannot be a true and accomplished horseman if one does not know how a horse thinks and feels.”
    “Oh, my goodness,” she exclaimed. “I…uh…had no idea.”
    “Tholl taught me how to make their feet healthy and strong, how to find answers to their ills and treat them. Without our horses how would we do anything? When I returned home I spent one hundred passes of the moons living in our stables and caring for our mounts, then I was tested by the