Beautiful Warrior Read Free Page B

however, know a bit about gardening, and the root vegetables he’d used were comfortably familiar. He also gave me a canteen-style container of water. I had no idea what type of water source he was using. A stream, perhaps? My frazzled little mind hadn’t worked out the details, but it was refreshing, just the same.
    We ate quietl y, the fire crackling behind us. I considered telling him the rest of my story, more about who I was and how’d I cursed him to die, but I couldn’t bring myself to say it. Not now, not while he was looking at me with soul-clawing hunger in his eyes.
    He spooned up another mouthful, and I watched him eat, thinking about the first time Duncan had kissed me. It had taken place at an Italian restaurant. We’d been side-by-side in a small corner booth, nibbling on appetizers, when he’d leaned forward and put his luscious lips against mine.
    Would the warrior kiss me before he took me to bed ? Or would he wait until I was sprawled naked beneath him, damp tendrils of my hair tangled around his fingers?
    Feeling shy and sensual and everything in between, my skin tingled from the thought. He’d yet to take his eyes off me.
    To keep the silence at bay, I said, “The food is good. Thank you for offering it to me.”
    “I don’t get many visitors. ”
    “People are probably afraid of you.”  
    “The way you are?”
    I didn’t dispute it, not this time. My heart was pounding too hard to pretend otherwise. But I considered, once again, if I should tell him who I really was.
    “I shouldn’t let you affect me this way,” I said . “Especially since I…”
    “You what?”
    “Am the person who created you.”
    He paused mid-bite, staring at me as if I’d gone mad . Little did he know it was too late for that.
    I forged ahead . “Everyone in Room 105 was created by someone on earth.”
    “Yes, I know ,” he replied impatiently. But in spite of what he knew, he obviously didn’t think that a waifish girl like me was capable of creating a big tough guy like himself.
    I straightened my spine, tr ying to look taller and more confident than I was. “I was thirteen when my sister asked me to create a warrior to protect Seven and the rest of her people.”
    He didn’t seem convinced . “How can you be sure that warrior is me?”
    “Because years later, I met Duncan, who is the exact image of you.”  I went on to explain that my lover looked just like him.
    “So the man who beds you each night is an earthbound copy of me?”
    I nodded. “But he doesn’t bed me every night. We don’t live together. Our relationship is still fairly new. We’ve only been intimate a few times.”
    “And now you’re going to be with me.”
    My cheeks went hot. “There’s more to this than that.”
    He furrowed his brow . “I already agreed to protect Seven from the border monsters, and I’m willing to help the rest of your sister’s people, too, if that’s what is concerning you.”
    “My concerns aren’t about them.”  A lump formed in my throat. “I cursed the warrior to die when he turns twenty-one. Duncan is twenty now, and that’s how old you must be, too. So by next year you’ll both be dead, unless the curse is broken.”
    “I’m not afraid of dying . That means nothing to me.”
    I blinked at him, my lashes fluttering in rapid succession . “But Abby says that there’s magic in Room 105 that should be able to keep you and Duncan alive. I just need to find it, and once Seven and the others are safe, I want you to help me search for it.”
    “ I’ll do no such thing. If my destiny is death, then I accept that as my fate.”
    “But I don’ t accept it.”  I couldn’t. I wouldn’t. “I made a horrible mistake when I willed the warrior to die.”
    “If you’re my creator and you willed me to die, then death is part of my power. I won’t weaken my spirit by combing 105 for a magical cure.”
    Heaven help me . Duncan didn’t believe in the curse, and the warrior didn’t give