If You Dare by Kresley Cole Read Free Book Online Page A

more than her hair from the world.
    She was exquisite, sensuous, and when he left this place behind he knew he would never forget this image of her. Then from nowhere, a single word whispered in the back of his mind. More.
    He froze, every muscle in his body rigid. No.
    He’d been attracted to her—mightily so—but before when he’d imagined taking her, he’d envisioned pinning her arms over her head and driving into her hard until she cried out in pleasure and surrendered to him, until he could make her look up at him with something other than disdain.
    Yet now he imagined seducing her into letting him lick every inch of her golden skin and the hours he could take tasting her sex. He wanted to seduce her into letting him spend deep within her, knowing he could never get her pregnant.
    He roughly ran his hand over the front of his trousers. Apparently he wanted her furiously. But a woman that fine wouldn’t desire him, and he would never force a woman.
    Court was a bastard in anyone’s book. He did things that made other men unable to live with themselves, and he did them without a heartbeat’s hesitation. But even he wasn’t so far gone that he would remain alone in a house with an exquisite virgin, when right now waking her with his tongue against her sex seemed a brilliant idea.
    If he stayed, he would try to bed her at every opportunity even as he knew he shouldn’t. He was sick of waiting anyway. The best course would be to leave this place and go find his men.
    Though it took will to do so, he turned from her. He was a disciplined man, and damn it, he could do it. He tossed her letters back in her drawer, then kicked it closed, daring her to wake, but she slept on. The entire way out of her room, he opened and clenched the shaking hands that had been so ready to fondle her.
    With long strides he made it outside to the stable. The horses recoiled in their stalls as if they sensed the violent turmoil within him.
    He didn’t want to take her horse, not the one that he’d seen her touch foreheads with while she murmured to it. Hecouldn’t see very well, so he went for a larger horse. After much coaxing, he led out a stallion, vaguely noting it felt superior, and found a saddle for him, using his good hand and the inside of his other arm to carry it. The black dots blurring his vision when he hefted the saddle and tightened it should have warned him that he was pushing too fast, but he continued as though chased.
    He glanced back at the house, saw the curtains flickering in and out of her window as though beckoning. Remember how you felt when you saw her crying, he told himself. Gritting his teeth, Court put a boot in the stirrup and stepped up.
    The black dots returned and exploded.
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    Chiron, the ranch’s primary stud, was missing. After several hours and to Annalía’s horror, they’d found the horse, still saddled, merrily impregnating a mare that had not been in the ranch’s schedule.
    Now, armed with the knowledge of an attempted horse theft—of a stallion worth his weight in gold—she followed a thick trail of hardened mud directly up to the Highlander’s room. Her outrage escalated with each step.
    Of course, the door was unlocked. She marched in, fury making a door slamming seem a worthy gesture.
    At the sound, he cracked open bloodshot eyes. “What?” he grumbled as he turned on his back.
    Mud everywhere. The lace coverlet ruined. “Rolling in the mud, MacCarrick? What a fitting recreation.”
    He put his good hand behind his head, insolently leaning up on the pillow and peering at her with a too-sly expression, a far too . . . familiar expression. As if he knew a secret she didn’t. Was he staring at her breasts? “You were just going to steal away in the night? And I do mean ‘steal,’ since we can add horse thievery to your extensive list of