“They’ve grown quite a bit since you planted them, haven’t they?” she asked in a low voice.
He jerked around to face her, his eyes wide and startled. “Billie! What are you doing here? Why aren’t you in bed?”
She crossed the few feet that separated them and dropped to her knees beside him. “You don’t sound very welcoming,” she said with a little smile. “I’m not in bed because I don’t want to be. And I’m here because that’s where you are.” Her eyes twinkled. “Karim told me you were so objectionable, he had to banish you.”
“You wouldn’t wake up,” he said simply. “I didn’t know what to do.” He suddenly reached out and pulled her into his arms, burying his face in her hair. “Oh, God, you’re all right! I was so afraid you might die.”
Her arms went around his waist to hold him fiercely to her. She laughed shakily. “From that scratch? No way. I just swooned in a very idiotic and womanly fashion. Yasmin would have been proud of me.”
“But you wouldn’t wake up,” David said stubbornly. “That damn doctor wouldn’t even let me try to wake you.” His arms tightened. “I wanted to know.”
“Well, you know now,” she said soothingly, with maternal tenderness. “Could I have walked all this way if I wasn’t fine?”
“I guess not,” he muttered. “You shouldn’t have done it. I told Karim to send for me.”
“That’s what he said, but I wouldn’t let him. I wanted to come to you.” She leaned back in his arms to smile up at him. “My own little ritual.”
“What ritual?”
One hand left his shoulder to reach down and gently stroke one of the green sprigs with a gentle finger. “Love.” She nestled her cheek closer to him while her finger continued to caress the slender green sprig. “They’re standing so much taller than when you first planted them,” she said dreamily. “I had no idea they’d flourish like that.”
“Just give it a chance and love will flourish wherever you plant it,” David said gravely. “But you’ve got to give it a chance. I wasn’t going to let you go, you know. I was coming after you. Those other people who danced in and out of your life may have let you go, but not me. Not ever. If you won’t stay with me, then I’ll trail along behind you like a faithful troubadour, carrying your guitar on my back. I’ll pick grapes with you in the Napa Valley, go pearl diving in Samoa, or weave baskets for the tourists in Nassau.” His sapphire eyes were glowing with an almost incandescent warmth. “We’ll live together, work together, love together. And do you know what? Someday you’ll find you’ve taken root at last, windflower. I’ll be your roots, just as you’ll be mine, and they’ll intertwine and grow stronger through the years.”
She could feel her throat tighten with tears. “But you love it here in Sedikhan. Your home is here, and all the people you love.”
“Not all the people I love,” he said quietly. “The one I love the most is finding it impossible to stay here.” There was a flicker of pain in his eyes. “And that means I can’t stay here either.” His lips tenderly brushed her temple. “Who knows? I might learn to like the life of a gypsy. We’ll have the laughter and the miracles wherever we are.”
“Yes, we’ll still have them.” Her heart was swelling with such a fountain of love that it was almost painful. “It’s a very pretty picture you’re painting, but I’m afraid it’s just not destined to come to pass.”
He frowned, and his lips tightened sternly. “Look, Billie, we both know what the real problem is. You don’t lightly float on the surface of life; you’re running away from it. At least, you’re running away from affection and commitment. So what if some stupid asses in your childhood didn’t have the sense to realize what a treasure you are? That doesn’t mean we’re all like that. I love you, and I intend to love you for the rest of my life.” He drew a deep, shaky breath. “And if there’s an afterlife, even longer than that. Somewhere beyond the sun I’ll still be loving you, Billie.”
Somewhere beyond the sun. Yes, she’d still be loving him then too. As they passed through the exquisite rhythms and cycles of life to other spheres, it would still be with her, warming her, making her all she could be, making her part of him. If it was so with her, she could almost believe it would be that way with him too. And if it turned out it wasn’t, then she’d still consider herself lucky she’d been blessed with a love so very special.
“David.” Her voice was a broken murmur. “I love you so very much.”
“Then, you’ll let me come with you?”
She shook her head. “I told you that wasn’t possible.” She lowered her eyes to hide the sudden glint of mischief in them. “It just wouldn’t work out.”
David frowned. “Of course it would. Why the hell wouldn’t it?”
“Well, this carefree, gypsy life you’re talking about would be very difficult to manage,” she drawled. “Seeing that Karim’s going to keep me locked up in the Casbah, barefoot and pregnant.” She tilted her head consideringly. “No, that’s not right. I believe he was going to let me keep my shoes.”
“What!”
“Karim decided to step in and keep me from making you any unhappier,” she said with a little smile tugging at her lips. “I think you’ll find my things have been moved into your suite when we get back. I’m under house arrest.” She wrinkled her nose at him teasingly. “With you as jailer. Oh, yes, no birth-control devices until I see the light and accept you as my mate with ‘fitting meekness.’”
“Oh, Lord, he didn’t.” David groaned, closing his eyes. “Tell me he didn’t.”
“He did.” Billie’s eyes were dancing. “For a moment or two, I practically could hear my slave bracelets jangle!”
“It’s a wonder you didn’t try to make a break for it on the spot.” David opened his eyes to gaze at her earnestly. “He means well, sweetheart. He just doesn’t know how to cope with something like this.”
“I think I’ll have to teach him,” Billie said lightly. “I hope he’s a fast learner, because I don’t intend to spend the next few years tutoring him on how to treat independent, liberated womankind. I’ll have too much to do reorganizing the Casbah, making sure that Yusef is married to Daina, and getting to know Alex and Bree and Honey and Lance. Then I think I’ll try to do something on a professional level with those songs of mine. And of course I’ll have to nag you to keep writing those beautiful books. That’s all very time-consuming, and Karim will just have to take his—”
“Billie, what are you talking about?” David interrupted sternly. “I’m not about to let you be coerced into staying here, when you don’t want to. I’ll have a talk with Karim and straighten all this out.”
“I have straightened it all out,” she said, lowering her eyes humbly. “I’ve resigned myself to my fate, just as Karim ordered. I’m going to sit quietly in my seraglio and wait for my lord’s commands. Perhaps if I’m very good, your munificence will be so great that you’ll allow a jaunt to Marasef someday.” She fluttered her lashes demurely. “Of course. I realize that’s a lot to ask.”
“Billie, will you stop joking?” His hands tightened on her arms, and when she flinched, he dropped them as if he’d been scalded. “Damn, I’m sorry. I forgot about your wound.”
“First you think I’m dying, and then you forget I’ve been hurt. You’re not very consistent, David.”
“That’s because you’re driving me crazy.” His hands came up to cup her face, tilting it so he could look into her eyes. “Now, talk to me.”
Her violet eyes were glowing softly with a light as radiant as the aurora borealis. “You don’t know how to play the guitar. I have to teach you, remember? Since I’ve turned Honorable Patches out to pasture, I can’t take him with me on the road, so I guess I’ll just have to stick around here until you learn.” She smiled teasingly. “Considering you’re almost tone deaf, it shouldn’t take more than the next fifty or sixty years.”
Then, as she saw the dawning of joy in those sapphire eyes, she launched herself into his embrace, her
arms hugging him tightly to express all the love that was bubbling up inside her. “I don’t need other places, other people, David. All I need is you. For the rest of my life, all I’m going to need is you.” Her voice was muffled in the curve of his shoulder. “You know those roots you were talking about? They’re already there, and growing stronger every day. I realized that in the cave this afternoon. When I thought you were going to die, I knew that if you did, there wouldn’t be anything left.” She lifted her head to gaze steadily into his eyes. “I can’t promise you I won’t get scared and insecure again. I probably will. It’s been ingrained in me too long to vanish overnight. I will promise that I’ll never run away from you again. I’ll run toward you instead.” Her voice was suddenly husky. “There’s nothing out there in the world for me anymore that I can’t have here. I used to think there was something glimmering on the horizon, just waiting for me. But it was always gone when I got there. It was like a will-o’-the-wisp, a phantom I couldn’t touch.” She leaned forward and kissed him with loving sweetness. “It was you out there waiting for me. At last I’ve reached that final horizon. I can touch it now, and it’s more beautiful than anything that could ever be over the next hill.”
“You’re sure?” David asked, his eyes jewel-bright with a love that took her breath away. “Lord, I want you to be happy, my darling!”
“How could I help it?” She laughed shakily. “I have the horizon, love, and Lisan.” She slowly drew his head down once more to kiss him tenderly. “Oh, yes, I have Lisan.”
Their lips met while the deep, singing rhythms of the earth and a thousand living blossoms throbbed around them. She could hear them. Oh, dear, sweet heaven, she could hear them!
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
IRIS JOHANSEN has more than twenty-seven million copies of her books in print and is the New York Times bestselling author of Stalemate, Killer Dreams, On the Run, Countdown, Blind Alley, Firestorm, Fatal Tide, Dead Aim, and more. She lives near Atlanta, Georgia.
If you liked TOUCH THE HORIZON,
look for these two sizzling romances
from Iris Johansen:
The richly seductive
Lion’s Bride
available now
and its never-before-published sequel
The Treasure
available December 2008
Read on for a sneak peek of
THE TREASURE…
THE TREASURE
Coming from Bantam in December 2008
MAY 3, 1196
FORTRESS OF MAYSEF
NOSAIRI MOUNTAINS
SYRIA
HIS POWER WAS WANING, fading like that blood-red sun setting behind the mountains.
Jabbar Al Nasim’s fists clenched with fury as he gazed out at the sun sinking on the horizon. It should not be. It made no sense that he should be so afflicted. Weakness was for those other fools, not for him.
Yet he had always known it would come. It had even come for Sinan, the Old Man of the Mountain. But he had always been stronger than the old man in both mind and spirit. Sinan had bent before the yoke, but Nasim had prepared for it.
Kadar.
“You sent for me, master?”
He turned to see Ali Balkir striding along the battlements toward him. The man’s voice was soft, hesitant, and he could see the fear in his face. Nasim felt a jolt of fierce pleasure as he realized the captain had not detected any loss of power. Well, why should he? Nasim had always been master here, in spite of what outsiders thought. Sinan might have been the King of Assassins, feared by kings and warriors alike, but Nasim had been the one who had guided his footsteps. Everyone here at the fortress knew and groveled at his feet.
And they’d continue to grovel. He would not let this monstrous thing happen to him.
Balkir took a hurried step back as he saw Nasim’s expression. “Perhaps I was mistaken. I beg your forgiveness for intrud—”
“No, stay. I have a task for you.”
Balkir drew a relieved breath. “Another attack on the Frankish ships? Gladly. I brought you much gold from my last journey. I will bring you even more this—”
“Be silent. I wish you to return to Scotland where you left Kadar Ben Arnaud and the foreigners. You are to tell him nothing of what has transpired here. Do not mention me. Tell him only that Sinan is claiming his price. Bring him to me.”
Balkir’s eyes widened. “Sinan? But Sinan is—”
“Do you question me?”
“No, never.” Balkir moistened his lips. “But what if he refuses?”
Balkir was terrified, Nasim realized, and not of failing him. Nasim had forgotten that Balkir was at the fortress at the time Kadar underwent his training; Balkir knew how adept Kadar was in all the dark arts. More adept than any man Nasim had ever known, and Kadar was only a boy of four and ten when he came to the mountain. How proud Sinan had been of him. What plans he had made for the two of them. He had never realized Nasim had plans of his own for Kadar.
All wasted when Kadar had left the dark path and rejected Sinan to live with the foreigners. What a fool the Old Man had been to let him go.
But it was not too late. What Sinan had lost, Nasim could reclaim.
If Kadar did not die as the others had died.
Well, if he died, he died. Kadar was only a man; it was the power that was important.
“He won’t refuse,” Nasim said. “He gave Sinan his word in exchange for the lives of the foreigners.”
“What if he does?”
“You are questioning me,” Nasim said with dangerous softness.
Balkir turned pale. “No, master. Of course he won’t refuse. Not if you say he won’t. I only—”
“Be gone.” Nasim waved his hand. “Set sail at once.”
Balkir nodded jerkily and backed away from him. “I will bring him. Whether or not he wishes to come I will force—”
The words cut off abruptly as Nasim turned his back on him. The man was only trying to gain respect in his eyes. He would have no more chance against Kadar if he tried to use force than he would against Nasim, and he probably knew it.
But he wouldn’t have to use force. Kadar would come. Not only because of his promise but because he would know what would result if he didn’t. Sinan had spared the lives of Lord Ware, his woman, Thea, and the child Selene and given them all a new life in Scotland. Nasim had permitted the foolishness because he had wanted to keep Kadar safe until it was time to use him.
But no one would be more aware than Kadar that the safety Sinan had given could always be taken away.
Kadar had shown a baffling softness toward his friend Lord Ware and a stranger bond with the child Selene. Such emotions were common on the bright path, but Nasim had taught Kadar better. It seemed fitting that he be caught in his master’s noose because he’d ignored his teachings.
The fortress gate was opening and Balkir rode through it. He kicked his horse into a dead run down the mountain. He would be in Hafir in a few days and set sail as soon as he could stock his ship, the Dark Star.
Nasim turned back to the setting sun. It had descended almost below the horizon now, darkness was closing in. But it would return tomorrow, blasting all before it with its power.
And so would Nasim.
His gaze shifted north toward the sea. Kadar was across that sea in that cold land of Scotland, playing at being one of them, the fools, the bright ones. But it would be just a matter of months before he would be here. Nasim had waited five years. He could wait a little longer. Yet an odd eagerness was beginning to replace his rage and desperation. He wanted him here now.
He felt the power rising within him and he closed his eyes and sent the call forth.
“Kadar.”
AUGUST 4, 1196
MONTDHU, SCOTLAND
“SHE’S BEING VERY FOOLISH.” Thea frowned as she watched Selene across the great hall. “I don’t like this, Ware.”
“Neither does Kadar,” Ware said cheerfully as he took a sip of his wine. “I’m rather e
njoying it. It’s interesting to see our cool Kadar disconcerted.”
“Will it also be interesting if Kadar decides to slaughter that poor man at whom she’s smiling?” Thea asked tartly. “Or Lord Kenneth, whom she partnered in the last country dance?”
“Yes.” He smiled teasingly at her. “It’s been far too peaceful here for the last few years. I could use a little diversion.”
“Blood and war are not diversions except to warriors like you.” Her frown deepened. “And I thought you very happy here at Montdhu. You did not complain.”
He lifted her hand and kissed the palm. “How would I dare with such a termagant of a wife.”
“Don’t tease. Have you been unhappy?”
“Only when you robbed me of craftsmen for my castle so that you could have them build a ship for your silk trade.”
“I needed that ship. What good is it to produce fine silks if you can’t sell them? It wasn’t sensible to—” She shook her head. “You know I was right, and you have your castle now. It’s as fine and strong as you could want. Everyone at the feast tonight has told you they have never seen a more secure fortress.”
His smile faded. “And we might well have need of our fortress soon.”
She frowned. “Have you heard news from the Holy Land?”
He shook his head. “But we walk a fine line, Thea. We’ve been lucky to have these years to prepare.”
Ware was still looking over his shoulder, Thea thought sadly. Well, who could blame him? They had fled the wrath of the Knights Templar to come to this land, and if the Knights found out that Ware was not dead, as they thought, they would be unrelenting in their persecution. Ware and Thea had almost been captured before their journey started. It had been Kadar who had bargained with Sinan, the head of the assassins, to lend them a ship to take them to Scotland. But that was the past, and Thea would not have Ware moody tonight, when he had so much to celebrate.