First off I just wanted to say thank you for all the reviews! I was going to abandon this story for awhile, however now I will do my best to continue it. This next part is a lot shorter than the first part. The reason for that is the first part took me six months to write and I didn't want to wait another six months to post more of the story. So from now on the chapters will be shorter but they should be coming pretty frequently. Well enough with me, back to the story
Chapter 2
That night at work Elizabeth found it extremely difficult to concentrate on her tasks. The day's activities were still fresh in her head. When she thought back to that morning she could remember the musky smell of the horse, or was it of Gawain? She could still feel the warmth of his hand on hers, helping to take baby steps towards the giant creature that stood before them. A small smile appear on her face when she remembered how his rough hands, hands that had probably killed hundreds of enemies, were so delicate and gentle when it came to her. His eyes, which had seen to many rotting corpses, still held their sparkle of innocence when they looked at her. Even though he had been to battle for many summers and slaughtered enough people to fill multiple winters, Gawain still had his soul and it showed through his baby blue eyes. Tristan on the other hand, his eyes were dark. Not that he didn't have a soul; it was just much harder to see behind the walls he put up and the braids.
The sound of voices being raised snapped Elizabeth back into reality. Why had she been thinking about what kind of eyes Tristan had anyway? Back to her task of washing mugs. It was almost time to sweep up for the night, most of the patrons were already gone, there were only a few people left, including a few of the knights, making Elizabeth wonder just what was taking place out front. Assuming it was just a few drunks getting out of hand, Elizabeth went back to her work, knowing that Dagonet and Bors were out there and they would be able to handle any type of situation.
Once again, at the end of the night, Elizabeth took her time walking home, watching the stars. Being off in her own world, which was something that seemed to happen a lot, she did not notice the silent night following her home until he spoke up, right outside her house.
"It's a nice night out. You can see the stars nice and clear." Even in the darkness Tristan could see the young lass jump at his words and it brought a small smirk to his face.
"You have a habit of sneaking up on people." Not even looking up at him, Elizabeth made her way to her front door. That man unnerved her, that was certain. Whether she minded or not, that was still up for debate.
"And you have a habit of avoiding people." Knowing that she had made it home safe, Tristan turned around and headed for his own bed, disturbed at the thought that this young woman intrigued him so much.
A few days later...
"It's been three days. I think she's avoiding me." Gawain was currently sitting on a bench in the tavern, staring at the door that stood in the way of him and the back room. Bors happened to be the unlucky bastard sitting beside Gawain and had spent the last twenty minutes with his head in his hands, listening to his fellow night drone on and on about how this girl wouldn't give Gawain the light of day.
"Perhaps you should take that as a sign, leave the young lass alone and find some other wench to woo." Gawain snorted at this idea like it was preposterous.
"Fine then. You want the lady so much, tell her that."
"How many times do I have to tell you this Bors, she won't give me a chance to do that. She won't listen."
"She will if you make her." With that Bors went to find Vanora, anything to get away from the lust-filled knight. Gawain thought about it for a moment and decided that was exactly what he was going to do. Only he couldn't wait until the morning, he had to do it tonight.
Elizabeth made her way through the empty tavern to the front door when she noticed there was still a presence in the room. Turning around she saw Gawain, not four feet from her, with an eerily determined look upon his face.
"Take a ride with me," It was so out of the blue that it took Elizabeth a moment to process what he had just said. It took her another moment to come up with a suitable answer.
"Um, no thank you. I haven't quite made that much progress with Sparrow." Elizabeths attempt to back away was thwarted by the wooden door that was currently pressing into her back.
"Well then we should have another training session" Gawain was making his way towards her, like a lion approaching his prey. At least, that's how Elizabeth viewed it.
"Oh, alright. Perhaps tomorrow we can do that." Her hands were becoming sweaty and she could feel her mouth drying up.
"No, tonight. Right now." Stopping less than a foot in front of her, Gawain knew if this relationship was to become anything more than random meetings he was going to have to put everything on the table.
"Now? But it is really late and I'm sure Jols wouldn't appreciate it if we messed about in the stables." Hoping that he would believe her concern for breaking the rules was the only thing keeping her from accepting his invitation didn't seem to be going very well for her.
"He won't even know we were there, I'll make sure everything is put back properly." Elizabeth knew her eyes were probably giving away her fear. She was terrified. Scared of getting on a horse; scared of letting go; scared of the feelings in her stomach; scared of falling and never being able to stop. Of course, he couldn't know that.
"But it's been… well it's…cold outside." Cold outside? That was the best thing you could come up with? While silently scolding herself Elizabeth gave Gawain time to brush some of her hair behind her ear.
"No more excuses." He carefully lifted her chin so he could look her in the eyes. What he saw there didn't shock him; she wasn't a hard person to read once she was unable to run away.
"I'm scared." Her voice almost got caught in her throat and her skin felt like it was on fire.
"I know, we'll go slow" Not knowing if they were still talking about the horse or more than that and not caring, Gawain was ready to go for it, and beneath the fear that was coming off of her in waves he could see, deep in her eyes, she wanted this, wanted him.
"What if I fall?" The emotions that Elizabeth could see in his eyes shocked her. It wasn't just lust; there was want and genuine concern behind those eyes of his.
"I'll be there to catch you." His body was so close to her that she could feel the breathe coming out of his sweet mouth upon her face.
"Promise?" Elizabeth could feel her defenses crumbling. What was it about this man that was able to completely disarm her? Gawain started nuzzling her neck, allowing her to become use to his skin touching hers.
"You have my word."
