The Witch Hunter Read online

  “When we met on the road, I was shocked that you were the same person that I had dreamt about only moments before as I dozed in the carriage. I am ashamed to tell you that my dream was not proper. It was more suited for lovers than acquaintances.” He cleared his throat again. It was more than I had expected him to say on the top.

  His honesty was enduring. But his omission was concerning. How were we both having dreams about each other? I guessed mine could be explained because he had rescued me, in a way, but his dream? There was no way he could have ever seen or met me before, so how? In my dream, I felt like he was my destiny. Like all my life, I had been moving closer and closer to meeting him, to being with him. Maybe that was why he captivated me so much. When I was in his arms in that dream, I knew I was where I was supposed to be. But should I try to make that dream a reality? Dreams can be fantastic, but they don’t always transition well to real life.

  I had never had any kind of serious boyfriend. I had a smattering of relationships here and there, but none that stuck. No one liked playing second fiddle to my obsession with the past, more specifically, the man in the past that I studied relentlessly, the man who was sitting beside me now, having erotic dreams about me. The man who was looking at me like he wanted to kiss me. Was I reading his body language correctly? He was looking at my mouth like he would devour me, and I wasn’t afraid.

  “Would you tell me about it?” I breathed my words at him, leaning in towards him hoping he would close the distance between us.

  “It's not proper.” His eyes were half-mast and he lowered his mouth nearer to me as he spoke. I could feel his breath on my face. I wanted him to be closer.

  My mouth was an inch away from him. “I don’t care,” I took his face in my hands and pressed my mouth against his. I felt the same shot of electricity shoot through my veins as I had in my dream. Delicious pleasure through my limbs, lighting up my nerve endings like fireworks.

  “We shouldn’t do this,” he spoke against my mouth, tasting my tongue and drawing my bottom lip between his teeth. My body was on fire, liquid lava flowing through me, and all we had done was kiss.

  Matthew pulled back, “I won’t take advantage of you. I want you so badly, but I won’t do something you’ll regret.” He stood and walked over to the window, leaving me to catch my breath. Placing both hands upon the sill, he leaned forward and observed the world outside. “We have known each other only two days. That is hardly significant time for us to be conducting ourselves this way.”

  I followed him to the window and stood behind him. “It might be two days, but I feel like it has been an eternity.” I wrapped my arms around his waist. I felt the hard muscles of his stomach that I had caressed in my dream. I was elated when he didn’t pull away but took my arms and pulled them tighter around himself.

  “I’m afraid she is punishing me,” he said. “That witch who sent you here, who hated me so. What if she sent you here so I would fall in love with you, and then takes you away again?” he looked over his shoulder at me. “Even if that isn’t so, what happens to me when you do find your way back to your own time? How will I survive if I allow myself to be your and then you’re gone?”

  “Matthew. That very well may never happen,” I laid my cheek against his back. “Should we not try to do anything because we might fail?” I asked.

  “I’m afraid.”

  “Of me?” I asked.

  “No. Of falling in love with you and losing you,” he turned around and pulled me into his arms. He was about five inches taller than me and comfortably rested his chin on the top of my head.

  This all seemed so inconceivable to me. Two days ago, I was riding the high of delivering my first successful public lecture after years of hard work. Then I was shot back in time, by a witch of all things, to the very time I had spent most of my life reading about. Now I was in a sixteenth century inn with a man who had been reviled in history as evil, who oversaw the slaughter of hundreds of women who were presumed to be evil themselves, only to find out that not only was he not the evil man he was made out to be, but he also happened to be the man of my dreams. Literally.

  Granted, he was leading the witch hunts. He was testifying at their trials and collecting their confessions, but he was not the person extracting them, as history had recorded. I doubt he had any part in the torture I had read about.

  “I’m afraid of not seeing where this goes,” I said. “I’ve never had this kind of instantaneous connection to anyone ever before.”

  He sighed, “What are we going to tell people if they ask who you are?”

  “What do you mean?”

  “I can’t introduce you to anyone as a family member. I can’t take my eyes off you; someone is bound to notice. Plus, I don’t think I will be able to bite my tongue if another man tries to gain your attention.”

  “I have an idea. Why don’t we say that I am the daughter of a friend of your family? We can say I just moved here and you’re helping me out.”

  He kept his arms around me in a warm embrace. “Women don’t often travel alone,”

  I felt stupid for the suggestion. I researched this time period for years. I should have known a woman traveling by herself was not a social norm. It was pretty much unheard of.

  “It's morbid, but we could say you lost your family and I took you in,” he suggested.

  “In a manner of speaking, I did lose my family,” I said. “I lost everything. Even my own time.”

  “That’s our story then,” he said. “The only problem will be John and Henry. I don’t know Henry that well. He hasn’t been with us all that long. But I believe he would stay silent if I asked him to. John though, I know he has already told people about you,” his eyebrows scrunched together. “It's going to be difficult to get him to change his story. He has been acting very strange the past few days.”

  “Elizabeth said people have been talking about how you found me.”

  “No doubt that’s because of John talking and the few people who saw me carry you in,” he said. “Dammit.”

  I searched my mind for a solution. “Could you pay the barkeep to tell everyone our story? I believe Elizabeth would do it for me.” I didn’t want to tell him that I had already confided in her.

  “That’s a fantastic idea! If the few men that were present try to say something otherwise, we will just laugh and say they must have had too much ale. Taryn, you are a genius.”

  His compliment made me blush.

  “Tomorrow we start the interrogations of the witches we brought in. I’m afraid my body is going to give out soon if I don’t get some sleep.”

  I couldn’t bear the thought of him sleeping on the floor again with the tattered throw blanket and his boots as a pillow. I wanted him in the bed with me.

  I pulled the shirt I had acquired over my head and tossed it to the floor, followed by the pants that took a bit more effort. Matthew took a sharp breath as I stripped before him.

  “Will you sleep in the bed with me?” I asked. “I can keep the undergarments on if you like.”

  He opened his mouth to speak and closed it again without saying a word.

  He removed his jacket and threw it over the chair. I helped him remove his necktie and cast it aside. He stood before me in his trousers and white shirt. I pulled his shirt out of his pants and he slowly unbuttoned it and laid it with the jacket. I saw his hard-lined torso, that I had already touched in my mind, was as good as it had been in my dream. I unbuttoned his trousers and he slipped them over his hips and down his thighs.

  The ‘v' at his waist was tantalizing. His thick, strong thighs made me crave him. He didn’t remove his undergarments and I respected his decision. I backed up towards the bed, maintaining eye contact. He followed with hunger in his eyes.

  I pulled the blankets back and crawled under and looked at him. “Your move. Plenty of room for you beside me.”

  A low growl came from his chest. He blew out the candle on the small desk and stalked over to the empty side of
the bed, crawling in beside me. He pulled my hips into his groin and I felt his large, rigid cock between us. A wetness grew between my thighs. I squeezed them together to try to quench the thirst I felt, but nothing could put out the fire that he had started except him.

  “I don’t know if I can sleep beside you without taking you,” he whispered in the darkness.

  I took his hand and placed it over my breast. He palmed my flesh firmly and my nipple tightened under his hand. He kissed the back of my neck as he ground his hips into my rear. I ached for him. All of him.

  “I wish you didn’t have reservations. I wish I could feel you move inside of me.” I hoped that my words would have an effect and he would reconsider his gentlemanly stance.

  “Nothing would make me happier than to pleasure you properly,” he kissed my shoulder. I turned on my back, allowing him the angle to pull the undergarment down. My breasts were bare to the cold air of the room. He took one nipple in his mouth, the wet heat on my body tore a moan from my throat. I felt his hand travel down my belly and softly probe between my legs.

  “Matthew, if you do that, you can’t stop. You can't leave my body feeling this way.” I warned him.

  He kissed the path between my breasts, moving his body between my thighs. He moved his mouth down my stomach, leaving a trail of fire in his wake. He removed the last bit of fabric from my body. When I felt his hot breath above my slit, I held my breath, anticipating what I knew was coming. He parted my nether lips with his fingers, gently, and covered the most delicate part of me with his mouth, sliding his tongue inside me. He devoured me. When he sucked my clitoris into his mouth, he also inserted a finger deep inside.

  The intense pressure built in levels inside me till I could no longer hold it back. An orgasm tore through my body. I dug my nails into his shoulders and arched my hips up against his face. His mouth remained upon me until my climax waned.

  He slid his heavy body back in beside me and pulled me in tight. His erection was still full and pulsing against my back. He made no move to find his own release.

  “Can I help you with that?” I asked him, pressing back against his body.

  “No. I wanted you to feel good. I wanted to taste you, to feel you release for me. I wanted to hear those sounds come from you while I had my mouth on you. But I can wait. I will not take you tonight.”

  I was naked beside him, tucked in close to his body. I was disappointed not to feel his length slide inside me, but I understood.

  It wasn’t long before I heard his breaths get deeper. His body made little twitching motions, and I knew he was fast asleep. Even in sleep, he kept his arms wrapped around me. I was so warm and comfortable that it did not take long before my own eyelids grew heavy and I dozed off in his arms.

  The last thought I remember having before drifting off was that if every night for the rest of my life could be like this, with this man, I didn’t need to go back. I could make this work. I could be happy here forever with him. Perhaps I could convince him to give up the hunt for imaginary witches, we could acquire a farm together, grow old together. Maybe even have children. I had been here two days but already, my life studying history, trying to please my parents, trying to keep up with Sam, it all seemed so far away. Like that had been the dream all along, and I always belonged here.

  Chapter Twelve

  Matthew

  I felt the sun on my face before I realized I was awake. My body was so relaxed, I refused to acknowledge those penetrating rays and I tried to pretend the day had not come yet. Perhaps, if I just kept my eyes closed, I could will it to be true. Taryn shifted her weight beside me, her arm reaching out to me in her sleep.

  I watched her face, the way her eyes moved under their lids. The rise and fall of her chest with each breath she took. I wondered what she was dreaming about. I brushed her hair out of her face and kissed her forehead lightly. She stirred, squeezing her eyes shut tight then opened them slowly.

  She yawned and stretched her long body then found me with her arms.

  “Good morning,” she said to me, laying her face on my chest. “I don’t remember the last time I slept that well.”

  I breathed in the smell of her, I simply could not get enough, it was so intoxicating to my senses.

  “Nor do I,” I said. “I wish I could stay here all day with you.”

  I tilted her face to mine and claimed her lips. The taste of her was pure ambrosia on my tongue. I felt my body responding to her already, but I had to get moving for the day.

  “Feels like you are happy to see me,” she giggled, motioning to my member who was betraying my wishes by standing erect to greet her.

  I kissed her again, “More than you know. But I have to get to work.” I pulled away from her naked body and rose to prepare myself for the day.

  “Are you sure you have to go?” I turned back to her to apologize for what I must do, but she had pulled the blanket back and I took all of her in, naked and beautiful in the morning light.

  I dropped my trousers on the floor and struggled to regain my composure. She giggled again and pulled the blanket back up.

  “Why must you tease me so?” I asked her in a husky voice.

  “I’m not teasing you. I’m reminding you of who you are coming home to.”

  She smiled at me. The affection in her eyes amazed me. Even as a child I had never felt particularly loved. My father, a puritan preacher, spent his time punishing me for any perceived sin, and my mother stood by and let it happen. She was not affectionate, although I did believe she cared for me. This was something very new.

  I finished dressing and was pulling my boots on when I heard John at the door.

  “Matthew? Pull your ass out of bed. I swear my man, you are out of sorts. You are always out of bed and ready before I am.”

  “I’m ready. Just putting my boots on my feet,” I retorted.

  “Well hurry up. The hags await us. The devil waits for no one, you know.”

  "He can wait. Even the devil was an angel once,” He scoffed at me and his footfalls trailed off down the stairs.

  “I don’t like him,” Taryn said from her nest of blankets. “He makes the hair on my arms stand up.” She visibly shivered and I had an urge to scoop her up in my arms and soothe her.

  “He is very brash, but he means well. He has been my most loyal friend for years.”

  I didn’t know what else to say about him to ease her mind. Until recently, I had felt that he and I were of like mind. We had the same goals, we enjoyed our jobs, and we were certainly good at them. But now, I felt like there was a distance between the two of us now that was growing ever wider. The dynamic had changed.

  “Please be careful around him. I know he is your friend, but people change. Something is not right with him.”

  “I’ll be careful.” I leaned over her and she sat up to kiss me, running her hand down my face. “Would it be wrong if I told you that I care about you a great deal?”

  A smile lit her eyes. “I care about you a great deal too. I feel like finding you was my destiny. I was so scared and, well, mad when I realized what the witch had done to me. But really, she gave me the greatest gift.”

  “That makes my heart happy,” I told her. “Stay safe, my love.”

  I exited the room and pulled the door closed securely behind me.

  I made my way down the wooden stairs with a bounce in my step and a smile on my face. At the bar, I saw John having an ale while he waited on me. He was joking with Harold, and he threw his head back and laughed heartily. I hoped his jokes were not at my expense. “Are we ready to head out?” I asked him.

  He drank the last of his ale in one big gulp and slid the mug across the bar. “We are indeed,” he straightened his jacket as he stood. A proper gentleman from head to toe.

  “What's for supper this evening, Harold?”

  “Roasted lamb and potatoes, Sir,” Harold told him jovially.

  “Sounds delicious. We shall try to be back in time for that,” he stated.<
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  I waved at Harold. “Can you please ask Elizabeth if she will look after my friend again today? I will pay her this evening.”

  “I’m sure she would be happy to, Sir. She was feeling much better yesterday after she visited with your lady friend"

  “Thank you, Harold.”

  John and I met Henry at the stables where he had our mares saddled and ready. I mounted the beautiful brown filly with the jet-black mane and tail that I had taken yesterday. She was a beauty with a lone white streak going down her nose and a bit of black climbing up her legs from her hooves. She was a very gentle horse with a calm demeanor, and she took direction well.

  My associate took the all black mare. She was a bit wilder and tended to fight back a bit when you asked her to do something she didn’t want to do. She had bucked him off several times, as I recall, but John loved a challenge and picked her every time.

  “What a glorious day.”

  “You’re wearing a shit eating grin upon your face, my friend. Dare I think that you finally emptied your sack?” His crude language never ceased to amaze me.

  “I did not. But thank you for asking,” I chuckled at his dismay. It seemed I disappointed him a lot lately.

  The sun was shining rays through the branches and leaves of the trees. The leaves themselves were presenting beautiful shades of gold, red, and even some purples. It was this time of year that I treasured because just around the corner those branches would be bare, and snow would begin to blanket the ground. I didn’t fancy getting my boots wet in snow.

  The castle was up ahead of us. I could see the large grey stones of the walls standing out in stark contrast against the fall colors. The walls were tall and overlooked the forest majestically. The castle itself ceased to be a royal castle around the early 1500’s but served its purpose now as a county prison and our witches were within.