Knights and Kink Romance Boxed Set (109 page)

“Oh,” I breathe, touched. “It all must have been
very difficult for you.”

“Oh, it was,” Syr Phillip said. “Lucky for me
though, I was just about to turn sixteen. I wasn’t thrilled with
the idea of having to live with Dad after everything that had
happened, but at sixteen I was old enough to apply to be an
emancipated minor. It was Shen Fu who first suggested I do it. He
even paid for my lawyer. Four months after Mom died, a judge
emancipated me, and I moved out of Dad’s house and into Shen Fu’s
place with his wife at the time and their two kids. They took me in
like I was their own son. I’m still close friends with Shen Fu’s
ex-wife, too. Shen Fu even paid for my college education.”

“Did you ever speak to your dad again?” I know from
Pegeen’s rumors that he probably didn’t, but I want to hear Syr
Phillip’s version of the truth.

“Not much. On and off for the next couple of years
we did, a little. When he was dating Duchess Danyel and then just
after that, I got a little closer to him for a while. That’s when
Danyel and I got to be good friends, in fact. I know Dad feels
guilty about what happened to Mom, even if it probably was more
Steve’s fault.” With every word he utters, Syr Phillip’s brusque
attitude towards his younger brother at Crown Tournament makes more
and more sense. “But there was something that happened between Dad
and me about twelve years after Mom died that pretty much ended all
relations between us.”

“What’s that?” I ask, although I already know.

“I don’t want to talk about it,” Syr Phillip snaps.
“I think I’ve spilled my guts enough for one evening.” He pounds
his fist against the polished granite countertop and stomps back
into the living room. I can tell from his more languid movements
that the beer is going to his head.

“Syr Phillip—“ I begin, but he holds up his hand to
cut me off.

“It’s
Phil.
I’m just plain old Phil Dawson
when I’m at home. I just want to be an ordinary guy in your
presence for once, Lisa. I’m not a knight in real life. I’m just a
traveling pill salesman. Can’t you get that through your thick
head?” Syr Phillip’s voice is hoarse with emotion.

“I’m sorry,” I say, defeated. “It’s just that—“

“Right, I know,” Syr Phillip hisses. “You’re here on
Horde business. So get to it, then. I’ll take the Middle Kingdom
throne back, that’s fine. I’ll agree to that. But you obviously
have something else to tell me. So, what else did Shen Fu hire you
to convince me of?”

Given what I’ve just learned—and what I know Syr
Phillip refuses to tell me about his father defeating him at Crown
all those years ago—I’m almost afraid to say it. But, business is
still business. “Shen Fu wants you to reconcile with your father,”
I near-whisper. “Not only that—he wants you to use your hopefully
renewed relationship with your father to help negotiate a crazy
Pennsic War alliance deal between the Horde and the Tuchux, with
the end result being defeating the East Kingdom and their allies,
Aethelmarc. Once that’s done, you’ll negotiate a treaty with your
dad, the King of Aethelmarc, as well as the King of the East, that
will help get Horde members on those thrones within the next
year.”

Syr Phillip scoffs. “Ha. What a load of bullshit.
What a load of Great Dark Horde bullshit. What are they trying to
do, get so many kingdom alliances under their belts that the entire
Horde nation will each have their own personal lifetime supplies of
Chips Ahoy and Pringles or something? Lisa, pardon me, but please
go back and tell Shen Fu that my response to that is he can go fuck
himself.”

“But—but, from what you’ve told me here tonight,
Shen Fu practically
is
your own father! And now, he wants
you to make up with your
real
father, and help the Horde out
besides. And what about all your talk in the beginning, where you
knew exactly what the Horde was paying me to do this? Huh?” This is
making less and less sense by the second. I fold my arms across my
chest and stare Syr Phillip down, suspicious.

“That was only to get
you
back, Lisa. That’s
what Shen Fu said he would do for me. If I thought that Shen Fu
would then try to work something political into it—although I’m not
surprised, because that’s pretty much his job as KaKhan to do—I
never would have given the Horde the necessary gifts to hire you.
All I wanted out of the transaction was to get you, the love of my
life, back. That’s all. Sue me.”

“Oh, I see. So you just thought you could
buy
me back as your girlfriend, huh?” I retort as my final hard-to-get
act. “That really shows what kind of person you think I am.”

Syr Phillip rolls his eyes. “Oh, come on, Lisa.
Don’t play the innocent pauper with me. You didn’t exactly complain
when I bought you thousands of dollars’ worth of garb. In fact, as
I recall, you jumped right into bed with me.”

That does it. Now I have an excuse for the
playing-hard-to-get standoff to end all standoffs. I snatch my
purse and jacket off the Italian leather sofa and turn to leave.
“Oh, fuck you, Plain Old Phil Dawson. You can just go straight to
hell for all I care.”

“Right back at ya, babe. Give my regards to Shen Fu,
even if I do think his latest request is bullshit. And you can tell
him I said that.” He runs a hand through his tangled locks.

I spin around on my heel. His final comments have me
practically breathing fire. My eyes give Syr Phillip a stare so
full of passion and fire it could strip paint right off a tow
truck. “Are you as aroused as I am right now?” I purr.

Syr Phillip seizes me, crushes me in his strong
arms, and pushes me against the wall. “More,” he breathes, and
covers my open mouth with a kiss that could stop time.

“My bedroom’s upstairs,” he sighs when we both come
up for air. “I suppose this means we’re back together?”

“Maybe,” I reply. “There are still a few loose ends
we need to tie up first.”

“I’ll tie
you
up first,” is Syr Phillip’s
heat-soaked answer as he scoops me up and carries me up his spiral
staircase.

****

Two hours later, when Syr Phillip collapses against
my shoulder after probably the most intense lovemaking session of
my entire life, I decide that my knight and lord is finally
tenderized enough for me to plead that he reconcile with his father
and brother.

“Oh Phil,” I coo, running my fingers through his
sweat-soaked hair. “Even if you have rendered me into nothing but a
pile of oversexed goo, there’s still something we haven’t
settled.”

“Mmmmppph,” Syr Phillip replies, nibbling my neck.
“Mmmmrrghh?”

“Your father. And your brother. You need to patch
things up with them. And not just for the Horde’s sake—for your
own.”

Syr Phillip jerks bolt upright, all his post-coital
fatigue suddenly gone. “No,” he hisses. “No fucking way.”

“Phil—“ I plead, gently caressing his chest, but
he’s having none of it. He tosses aside the expensive
Egyptian-cotton bedclothes and gets up to angrily pace the room
naked.

“We’ve already been through this, Lisa. In case I
didn’t make it abundantly clear the first time, I hate the both of
them and I will be perfectly happy never speaking to nor seeing
either of them ever again.”

I get out of bed and pad softly over to where Syr
Phillip stands on the far corner of the room. I stand behind him
and slowly sweep my hands across his chest and groin; he instantly
relaxes back into my arms. I kiss his neck and upper back over and
over, until he leans his head back onto my left shoulder and
exhales deeply. “I know the real reason why you’re so angry with
your father,” I whisper. “I know it doesn’t have anything to do
with your mother. I know that’s it’s something a lot more
superficial than that, something that definitely isn’t worth
ruining your relationship with him over.”

Syr Phillip stiffens a little, but he doesn’t move
from my embrace. “What exactly do you know?” he finally says, his
voice low.

“I know that your father beat you in the bear pit at
your first Crown Tournament. Not only that, I know that he became
King that year, too.”

A low growl rises in Syr Phillip’s throat, but he
still doesn’t budge from my tender grasp. “How did you know?” he
whispers.

“Pegeen told me,” I reply, nibbling on his left ear.
“Pegeen always gets the good gossip.”

Syr Phillip unlocks himself from my arms and flops
back down on the bed, pressing both hands to his temples. After a
long moment, he sits up to look at me, an expression of deep
sadness and regret paining his beautiful features. “Why are you so
insistent I reconcile with him, Lisa? You’ve never even met the
man. You don’t know what kind of man my father is. And I’m even
more mystified by why you think I should have anything to do with
my little shit of a brother at all. Didn’t you listen to anything
I’ve told you all evening?”

I go to sit beside him and place my hands on his
shoulders. “Phil, there’s something I haven’t discussed too much
with you—the fact that both my parents are dead. They died over ten
years ago.”

Syr Phillip leans in to kiss my cheek. “You had
mentioned they were dead, but that was all. And I’m very sorry,
Lisa. But what does that have to do with me?”

“A lot,” I say. “You see, my parents also died in a
car wreck, on their way to go on vacation in the Great Smoky
Mountains. It was a trip I was supposed to take with them. Except I
changed my mind at the last minute and refused to go.”

Syr Phillip’s eyes widen. “Why?”

“Because I was just a stupid, selfish teenage brat,
that’s why,” I reply, my voice small and riddled with guilt. “I was
a senior in high school, and I thought I was too good for a silly
little weekend vacation to tacky old Pigeon Forge, Tennessee. My
parents loved Dolly Parton and they wanted to go visit Dollywood,
and also see the national park down there. But they never made it.
They got caught in a bad thunderstorm somewhere around Berea,
Kentucky and lost control of the car. They drove off a bridge, and
died. I should have been with them. But stupid, bratty, selfish me
wanted to stay behind in Dayton so I could go to an Eagles reunion
concert with Pegeen. Can you believe that? I honestly think that
maybe if I had been in the car with them, they might not have
wrecked. I might have been able to help drive, or I could have told
them to pull over until the storm was over, or—”

Inevitably, the tears start to come. Syr Phillip
tenderly kisses them away. “I’m so, so sorry, Lisa,” he whispers in
my ear. “But you shouldn’t blame yourself for what happened. It
wasn’t your fault. Really.”

I manage to pull myself together enough to finish
what I want to say. “Phil, I guess what I’m trying to tell you is,
you need to be grateful for the family you do have left. I was an
only child, with no living grandparents and only a few distant
cousins and an aunt that lived seven hundred miles away. When my
mom and dad died, that was pretty much the end of my family. Pegeen
is really the only family I have. Even if you did lose your mom and
your sister, and even if Steve or your dad was partially the cause
of that—they’re
still
your family. You should be thankful
that you have family at all. I don’t, and I’d give anything to have
what you do. There’s not a day that goes by that I don’t wish I
could have my parents back, even if it was only for a few minutes.
You have a parent
and
a sibling living. And I’m willing to
bet that your father and brother both care about you a great deal,
whether or not you’re willing to admit it.”

Syr Phillip hugs me for what seems like a very long
time. Then he holds me out at arms’ length and gazes deep into my
eyes. “Will it make you happy if I at least speak to them?” he
asks. “I can’t guarantee that any reconciliation will actually
happen, but if it will make you happy, I’ll at least give it a
try.”

I go to kiss him, and as I do, I realize I’m kissing
away his tears, too. “Thank you, Phil,” I say and smile. “That
would make me very, very happy.”

Chapter
28

About five weeks later, Syr Phillip and I are
driving ourselves and Pegeen up to the Pennsic War (Pegeen’s
boyfriend Arundel has already been there for three weeks, since he
was part of the Middle Kingdom Royal Encampment Land Grab team) in
Syr Phillip’s Lincoln Navigator. Pegeen and I are both taking two
full weeks’ vacation from AC Delco for Pennsic. Although
technically speaking, we both have enough paid vacation days coming
to us, we didn’t exactly get Brad’s advanced permission to take it
together. We’re both hoping that he doesn’t fire the both of us
when he finds our vacation request memos on his desk Monday
morning.

Syr Phillip’s red Navigator is towing a U-Haul
trailer full of armor, camping gear, royal household favors, and
about eight tons of Crown Prince and Princess garb that we’ve
received as gifts from Peers all over the kingdom—as well as the
Middle Kingdom’s entire chocolate-chip cookie mercenary payment to
the Great Dark Horde. There are also some large wooden boxes full
of something we’re supposed to give the Tuchux, but Syr Phillip
hasn’t been very forthcoming about what’s inside them. (It’s part
of our responsibilities as the new Crown Prince and Princess to
bear mercenary gifts on behalf of the kingdom).

It’s normally a five-hour drive from Dayton to
Slippery Rock, but with the heavy U-Haul slowing us down, it’ll be
more like six. We’re somewhere past Akron and about to pull onto
the Ohio Turnpike when Pegeen drops a bombshell.

“Lisa, as your royal lady-in-waiting I need to tell
you that I haven’t been entirely honest with you about something.”
I glance over at her in the backseat, and then over at Syr Phillip
in the driver’s seat. They’re both sporting very odd smiles.