[Barbara Samuel] Night of Fire(Book4You) by Unknown Read Free Book Online Page A

mist, and Basilio insisted she wear a hat to protect her fair skin, and a shawl over her shoulders. Sweat prickled on her brow and under the shawl, but she endured it for the promise of the beach.
    When they rode beneath a stand of trees to come out on an endless, white stretch of sand, when the sound of the waves first struck her ear, Cassandra dismounted in a rush and ran across the soft sand to the water. She just stood there, smelling it, listening to it.
    "It's so empty!" she said. "Why are there no villages along the beach? Are there terrible storms?"
    A lift of a shoulder. "Sometimes. But this land belongs to the princes, for their hunting and such things."
    "Are we being wicked, then?"
    That glitter in his eyes as he looked down at her. "Very."
    "Good." She turned and sat down in the sand, reaching for her shoes. "You won't be tiresome then, and be shocked if I take off my stockings and shoes?" Even as she spoke, she was stripping them away. "If I'm going to be wicked, I'd like to fully enjoy the experience."
    He reached for his neckcloth and untied it, tossing it down beside her pile of shoes and stockings, then took off his coat. "We could be very, very wicked and simply swim naked."
    "I'm afraid I'd rather not burn all those tender parts." She did, however, take off the offending hat and shawl. "Though you certainly may frolic nude if it pleases you."
    He sat down beside her, grinning wickedly. "I certainly will if it would please you, my lady."
    "What an astonishingly generous offer!"
    A purely Mediterranean shrug. "I wish only your pleasure."
    Smiling wryly, Cassandra stood, brushing sand from her skirts.
    "A moment, if you please," he said, lifting his foot. "One would hate to ruin a good pair of boots."
    "Oh, indeed." Expertly, she grasped his heel and toe and slid the boot off, then the other, and tossed them in the unruly pile growing in the sand.
    He took off his stockings and Cassandra was very nearly felled by an inexplicable fist of desire, triggered by his naked feet and shins. While they were quite beautifully shaped, with high arches and silky dark hair on the straight line of shin, she had seen quite a number of ankles and toes. None of them had ever made her want to have sex. Bemused, she shook her head. "I suspect you do your share of shattering, Count."
    Perplexed, he lifted his head, and saw her admiring his feet. "Ah! You like them?" He wiggled his toes and admired them himself, then plucked at his shirt. "I would be happy to take off the rest. Only in the interest of pleasing a guest, of course."
    She laughed, and if it was throatier than ordinary, so what? She stretched out her hand. "Come, my wicked Basilio Let's put our naked feet in the water."
    He took her hand and allowed her to help him up, then dashed toward the water with a cry. Cassandra ran after him, lifting her skirts, gasping with pleasure as the first ripples washed over her ankles. She halted, entranced, and looked down at the foam. Through the water, she saw her feet, tinted a pale greenish-brown. Sand sucked and shifted and rearranged itself in a thousand ways, and memories came tumbling from a thousand hiding places in her mind.
    She was seven and eight and nine, and heard the sharp shouts of her brothers and Adriana in the distance as they shimmied up trees and played pirate. She heard the low murmur of her nanny and Monique, just behind them, and the baby laughter of the little girls.
    "Tell me," Basilio said, wading toward her. "What puts that look on your face?"
    It was so easy to smile with him. She kicked a little water his direction, though it wouldn't make much difference. Unlike Cassandra, he had not cautiously tiptoed into the surf but waded in with gusto, and his breeches were wet to mid-thigh. The damp cloth clung to his body, showing him to be surprisingly strong and muscular. Tiny silver beads caught in the extravagant curls around his face.
    "I was thinking of being seven," she said. "I was very brave at