Julie Garwood - [3 Book Box Set] by Gentle Warrior:Honor's Splendour:Lion's Lady

need. He took a deep breath, gaining control. He was Baron Geoffrey, overlord of all William had bequeathed! He would not take her now, though he thought he would go mad if he didn’t taste her soon. Yes, he would have her. Of that there wasn’t any question. She would belong to him. It was a simple fact of life. The law. What the lord wanted, he took.
    The dogs Geoffrey remembered suddenly appeared at their mistress’s side, hovering while she completed her dress. The animals were huge creatures, but from the way they both nudged her as she turned and disappeared into the forest, Geoffrey knew they would protect her well.
    He was about to replace his sword and follow Elizabeth to the hut when an abrupt scream penetrated the stillness. It was a woman’s scream. Geoffrey raced toward the sound, his sword at the ready. He could hear the dogs’ ferocious growls, screams and shouts from men . . . at least three, judging from the different guttural sounds. Geoffrey crashed into the clearing in front of the hut and took in the tableau in one second’s breath of time. There were three of them. Two were struggling with the dogs while the third half-carried, half-dragged the resisting girl toward the hut. The sight of such filth holding such beauty, his beauty, completed the transformation. The fair and noble ruler of the manor was gone, replaced by the Herculean warrior intent on a single action: to kill. There would be no hearing, no fairness, no understanding. The enemy had dared to touch what was his, and whether they realizedthat fact or not bore no significance. The price for their lust, for their stupidity, would be death.
    The warrior’s bellow of outrage stilled Elizabeth’s attacker. Terror washed the lust from his eyes as he flung Elizabeth from his arms and turned to face the challenge. The look of fury on the warrior’s face changed the attacker’s mind. He turned to look for a means of escape from the intent he read in those cold black eyes. His hesitation was his death sentence. Geoffrey’s blade whistled as it sliced through the air, guided by the warrior’s strong arm, until it plunged down through the man’s shoulder, cutting bone and muscle as easily as if they were sheep’s fur, in its quest to find and pierce the heart. With one additional jerk of his wrist, Geoffrey completed the kill, removed the sword, and turned to deal with the two men behind him. “Call your animals,” he ordered over his shoulder, and Elizabeth, stumbling to her feet, obeyed without question.
    Geoffrey allowed both men time to stagger to their feet and reclaim their weapons before he moved forward. Then he stood, his legs braced apart, his sword at his side, waiting. The two men crouched and began to circle the warrior, and their puny attempts to kill him brought a smile to the warrior’s face. A smile that didn’t quite reach his eyes. Before either man could issue a scream, Geoffrey killed them with two swift slaps from his blade.
    Stunned, unable to comprehend how the lord came to be there, defending her, Elizabeth could only watch in a daze. When Geoffrey finished the deed and turned his attention to her, Elizabeth felt her knees buckle from the power, the raw force that radiated from him.
    “Come to me.” The harshness of his voice startled her. There was a different kind of terror pulling at her now, and Elizabeth couldn’t understand what washappening. Shouldn’t she feel relief? This man had saved her life, killed for her. Perhaps it was because he was so much larger than she remembered, or perhaps it was because he had killed so easily, so effortlessly . . . so unemotionally. She was too confused, only knew that the danger was still there, clinging to the air, mingling with the scent of death and sweat. Tension enveloped both of them as they stared at each other. Elizabeth stood rigid and straight, facing the force that poured from him. Power. It was there in his stance, in his muscled legs braced apart in