Knights and Kink Romance Boxed Set (46 page)

Their mouths both clap shut with a
click.
I
do my best to put on my best dominatrix persona, and take charge of
our increasingly desperate situation. I scan the grassy area
surrounding us and spot a low ditch a few feet away. It’s a little
damp and muddy, but it will have to do.

“See that ditch over there? Both of you lie facedown
in it. Now.”

“But—“ they both stammer.

“
Now,”
I hiss. “Just do as I say before you
both get trampled into steak Tartar. I can handle things from
here.”

They both obey without further question, prostrating
themselves out full-length onto the floor of the grassy ditch.
Meanwhile, the buffalo herd is getting dangerously close. If I
don’t figure out what to do in about five minutes, I’ll be trampled
into Steak Tartar too.

I close my eyes and rub my temples, trying in vain
to get the carved mahogany time-portal door to appear in my mind’s
eye again.

Nothing happens.

I grit my teeth, try harder. Still, nothing
happens.

“Damn it all to hell,” I whisper under my breath.
Then I realize that something’s missing. I can’t just make the time
portal reappear of my own volition. It takes sensual sorcery.
Red-hot magic. Sexy power.

And I know just how to drum up a little bit of
that.

I trudge over to the ditch and stretch myself out on
top of Trenton and Pembroke’s backsides. I work my hands inside the
tight waistbands of their trousers, wending and working my way
around to where the front of their crotches are pressed into the
grassy, muddy prairie floor. I find what I’m looking for almost
immediately—and almost immediately, the two male organs I seek perk
right up underneath my fingers.

Trenton and Pembroke both try to get up, to turn
over, but I push them back down flat with my upper body. If we’re
going to survive the next few minutes, we’re all going to have to
do two things—stay flat as pancakes against the floor of the ditch,
and get our collective rocks off hard and fast enough for me to
open the time portal back up.

I begin stroking Trenton and Pembroke’s cocks in
long, hard, steady strokes executed in perfect unison. And while
both my hands work at giving them pleasure, my mind works at
finding and opening that damn time portal before the buffalo
arrive.

And to my surprise, that buffalo herd that’s minutes
away from trampling us to death is adding its own sexy flavor to
the situation. The approaching herd, thousands upon thousands
strong, is shaking and vibrating the ground beneath us with its
thousands upon thousands of trampling hoofed feet, turning the very
ground beneath me into the world’s most powerful vibrator. As I
work to stroke Pembroke and Trenton into simultaneous orgasmic
bliss, the prairie underneath us is getting my own crotch into a
red-hot frenzy, too.

At this rate, I just might get my rocks off,
too.

Which is
exactly
what needs to happen right
now. The sexual energy that’s starting to build in our little
grassy ditch is the very thing I need to get that damn time portal
opened back up. I squeeze my eyes shut again, and divide my brain
into three parts. One part keeps my hands stroking and rubbing
pulling those two big, hard, throbbing cocks into submission; one
part concentrates on the heat the vibrating ground is bringing to
my now soaking-wet crotch; and one part works like hell to send
every atom of all the sexual energy I’m creating out into the
temporal netherworld.

It works. In a few short seconds the heavy mahogany
door of the time portal has reappeared in my mind’s eye. Just a few
more seconds of bliss, and I’ll be able to open it.

I rub those two cocks harder, harder, faster,
faster, until Pembroke and Trenton are both writhing and groaning
at my touch. The buffalo herd stampedes closer, closer, until the
ground beneath me is vibrating at light speed. I wedge myself
between the two men’s bodies, spread my legs just enough to get my
crotch pressed hard against the shaking ground—

My orgasm hits my body like an exploding supernova.
Pembroke and Trenton explode a nanosecond later, spewing their hot,
sticky seed all over my hands, then into the rich prairie soil
beneath. The air is thick with the scent of sex, sweat, wet earth,
and the musky odor of the approaching buffalo, which are now just a
few yards away, mere seconds away from trampling all three of us to
death.

Not a moment too soon, the time portal opens,
beckoning among the frosty mists of my mind’s eye. Pembroke and
Trenton appear in the mist beside me, their clothes clean and
unrumpled, not showing a trace of our wild and muddy tryst on the
primeval prairie. I take them both by the hands and guide them
through the portal. We’re floating through the mists, swirling and
twirling around, and then—

All three of us land back on the tufted sheepskin
rug back in the Hall of Harlots’ side chapel with a
thump.

We sit dazed for a moment, dizzy from a combination
of time-travel and post-orgasmic afterglow. When my vision clears
and I settle back to earth, I sit up, stretch my aching limbs.
“Well, looks like we made it back safe and sound.”

Pembroke, stands, rubbing his bruised rump. “Indeed,
madam. But back from where? And precisely when? It appears, madam,
that we still have much to learn about controlling temporal shifts
when we pass through the portal.”

Trenton stands, then reaches a hand down to help me
up. “But the fact that the lady has the power to open the portal at
all should not be overlooked,” he says, gazing at me with newfound
esteem and admiration. “Methinks that my quest for The Rose
Knight’s vengeance will now only be possible with Lady Louisa’s
assistance.”

I give Trenton a little curtsey. “Well, I’m
flattered, Trenton. But we’ve still got a long way to go on this
whole time-travel thing. I have yet to figure out how to actually
control where and when we end up when we go through the
portal.”

“True,” Pembroke offers. “But you have succeeded in
opening the time portal, Louisa, something that I have never been
able to accomplish in years and years of trying. You are truly
gifted in the ways of sensual sorcery and magic. Who knows, you
might even join the ranks of the immortal one day, as Lord
Verdigris has.”

Now my head is spinning. Me, a sorceress? Me, a
time-traveling immortal? Is that even possible?

Apparently so.

I’ve come a long way from being just a tollbooth
worker from Trenton, New Jersey, that’s for sure. “Well, I don’t
know just how much of a magic-user I am, Pembroke, but it does seem
that I have the ability to time-travel. Which means that
eventually, once I figure out the rest of the details, each and
every one of us can escape from under Lord Verdigris’ thumb and get
what we really want—to get back home to our own times.”

Trenton’s expression goes dark, and he stares at the
floor. “All except me, milady. For all that I want, besides
vengeance of course, is to see my Beloved alive once again. Alas,
she is dead, gone forever, and never shall I see her again until I
die myself and join her in Hades.”

My heart goes out to him. I don’t know how to offer
any comfort to Trenton, The Rose Knight, who has born the grief of
his terrible loss and lack of vengeance for who knows how many
years. I pat him on his steel-armored back, feeling helpless as his
eyes brim with tears of loss and remembrance, feeling helpless to
relieve his pain.

Then I get an idea. “You know, Trenton, if I get
pretty good at this whole time-travel thing, to the point that I
can control the exact time and place I travel to, who’s to say we
couldn’t travel back to the exact moment in time where Lord
Verdigris had your Beloved burned at the stake, and rescue her?
Then it’ll be like she never died at all.”

Trenton’s face lights up right away. But Pembroke
doesn’t share his enthusiasm. “I would advise strongly against
that, madam,” he says. “For I have learned from my travels with
Lord Verdigris across the ages that it is very, very dangerous to
try to alter the natural course of human events. Very dangerous,
indeed.”

“How dangerous, exactly?”

Pembroke frowns. “I’m told that if one interferes
too much with history, then one can destroy the future,” he says.
“Perhaps even erase ourselves from existence. We must always be
cautious, always. I’m afraid rescuing the Rose Knight’s Beloved
from death is far too reckless to attempt. My sincerest apologies
to the Rose Knight—Trenton—himself, accordingly.”

I have trouble accepting this. “But what about the
fact that Lord Verdigris kidnapped you and me and the rest of the
Harlots from all over history and trapped us here? That has to be
pretty bad for the time continuum all by itself.”

Pembroke doesn’t seem to have an answer to that.

Trenton breaks his silence. “Rescuing my Beloved
from death is not necessary, milady. I would not wish to put you or
anyone else in danger by altering the course of human events. ‘Tho
‘twould give me great joy merely to see her alive once more, if
only for a moment.”

I smile and squeeze The Rose Knight’s arm. Even in
the face of hopelessness and death, the man is the epitome of
romance and love. “You’re really a very sweet and tender man,
Trenton, despite your fearsome reputation.”

Pembroke nods in agreement, then glances back over
his shoulder. “I beg your pardon, dear friends and lovers, but I
daresay that we must end this bit of incognito for the present.
Lord Verdigris approaches. Along with a few sinister others.” He
jerks his head in the direction of the main ballroom.

I glance over Trenton’s massive steel-encased
shoulder and see that Lord Verdigris has just entered the ball, all
pomp and circumstance with trumpet fanfares and dancing
servant-girls and a pack of two dozen hangers-on.

And who should be leading the pack of hangers-on but
Madam Jasphet herself, along with her ever-present lackeys Prudence
and Mabel. All three of them look intent on doing physical harm to
anyone within spitting distance.

And they’re heading straight for us.

Chapter
13

Lord Verdigris and his retinue saunter up, giving
the three of us the once-over. “Greetings to you, Rose Knight,”
Lord Verdigris oozes at Trenton. “Seldom do I see you here in the
Hall of Harlots. Has one of my Harlots caught your eye, perhaps?”
He cuts his eyes in my direction; as he does, Madam Jasphet shoots
me a look that could melt iron.

Trenton gives Verd an abbreviated bow. I can see the
tension working in his jaw, can even hear his teeth grinding; it’s
all he can do to contain his rage in Lord Verdigris’ presence.
“Indeed, my lord,” he says, all business. “Yonder Lady Louisa of
the Crossroads is most bewitching.”

Lord Verdigris blinks twice, and his own face
twitches. With jealousy, perhaps? “Yea, the Lady Louisa is quite
bewitching, indeed,” he agrees. “Which is why her liaison price is
now over forty thousand gold pieces. I just raised it this morning.
I trust that the next time you wish to enjoy her company, Sir
Knight, you will pay the new price.”

“Indeed I shall, my lord, for my conquests this
season are most lucrative,” Trenton says, shooting me a sly look.
“Most lucrative, indeed.”

Lord Verdigris turns his attention to Pembroke and
me. “Pembroke, I trust that you are keeping the Lady Louisa safe
from any and all marauders upon her person,” he says, giving
Pembroke’s blue satin coat—rumpled as it is from our multiple
trysts this evening—a close inspection. “By the looks of your
attire, perhaps you have defended upon her honor even this
evening?”

Pembroke coughs. “Y-yes, my lord. Why, just a moment
ago, one of the scullery boys from the downstairs kitchen attempted
to place a hand upon Lady Louisa’s milky white bosom. I stopped
him, of course, but only after a long and protracted struggle.”

Lord Verdigris claps Pembroke on the shoulder. “Good
man, Pembroke. See to it that you never let Lady Louisa out of your
sight this evening. I have it on good authority from my own
personal guard detachment that there are hundreds upon hundreds of
men from the surrounding shires who have heard the tales of Lady
Louisa’s magnificent charms and who wish to prevail upon her
without providing me the proper duty payment.”

Pembroke grins. “I swear, it will be done, my lord.
Never this evening shall I let the Lady Louisa escape my gaze.”

“Nor I, my lord,” a deep, menacing female voice
purrs. Four heads—mine, Pembroke’s, Trenton’s, and Lord
Verdigris’—all jerk left at once, and see that that voice belongs
to Madam Jasphet.

“The Lady Louisa’s safety and welfare is of utmost
importance,” Madam Jasphet goes on. “For she is now the favorite
Harlot in the Hall. The success of all the Harlots now depends on
her safety. Isn’t that right, girls?”

Mabel and Prudence both nod like sunflowers.

“Then I give Lady Louisa to you for safekeeping,
Jasphet,” Lord Verdigris says. “Providence knows that Master
Pembroke here is likely tired of his duties and needs a rest.”

“Good my lord, nothing could be further from the
truth—“ Pembroke stammers in protest, but Lord Verdigris cuts him
off.

“Nonsense! You’ve been guarding the Lady Louisa all
day with nary a break. I insist you come away with me, Pembroke,
and allow me to show you some of the technological improvements
I’ve been making to the castle. You too, Sir Rose Knight. For as I
recall, ye have been asking my security office how one might go
about improving the impervious nature of the portcullis. Thanks to
my travels to the Arabian Kingdoms just this week, I have made the
improvements you seek. Come and see, both of you lads!”

With that, Lord Verdigris forcibly drags Pembroke
and Trenton out of the ballroom, leaving me at Madam Jasphet’s
mercy.