Looking for a Hero by Patti Berg Read Free Book Online Page A

the woman threw a fist toward his face. He turned his head just in time to keep her from connecting with his nose, but felt her knuckles slam into his temple, the same place he’d taken the blow on Satan’s Revenge .
    What godforsaken thing have I done to deserve the wrath of the child, and now the woman? he wondered. Bloody hell, he should have left without them, but he’d let an ounce of long-forgotten compassion work its way out of his stone-cold heart.
    Somehow he found the strength to fight back,but it was difficult, given the fact that the woman had straddled his stomach and was alternately beating his chest and slapping his face. If she wasn’t such a firebrand, he might take pleasure in admiring the view of her breasts swaying with each stroke to his body.
    There was no time for admiration, though—not while she had the upper hand. He had to gain control. In one swift move he wrapped an arm around her slender waist and rolled her to the sand, laughing at the anger in her flaming green eyes.
    â€œTake your hands off of me or I’ll…I’ll….”
    He never saw her move, never felt the jerk of her knee until it hit his groin, not quite on center, but close enough. Pain ripped through him, and another bout of godforsaken nausea, but still he kept his hold on her arms and pressed the length of his body against hers so she couldn’t move again.
    â€œDamnation, woman!” he groaned through gritted teeth. “Do you mean to unman me?”
    â€œI mean to kill you,” she spat out, the force and truth of her words hitting him square in the face.
    â€œWhat did you do to my daughter?”
    â€œI have done nothing to the child.”
    â€œYou were pointing a sword at her. She was crying.”
    The woman struggled, but he was twice her size, making it impossible for her to escape. He refused to let her go until she saw reason—or atleast, realized that the blood from his neck was dripping onto her chest.
    â€œGet off me,” she moaned, but all he did was move closer, looking at her eye to eye.
    â€œGive me one good reason.”
    The child screamed, and that was reason enough.
    Black Heart spun around to see Casey holding the cutlass again, and his only thought was that she’d injured herself on the blade.
    Dear God, let her be unharmed , he silently prayed.
    Shoving away from the hellish woman, he quickly, carefully retrieved the cutlass from Casey’s hands and stuck it into its scabbard.
    The girl screamed again, and giant tears flowed from her big, bright blue eyes.
    Bloody hell!
    â€œStop crying!” he demanded in frustration, then swept the child up into his arms and smoothed a curly strand of hair from her tear-dampened cheek.
    Half a moment later, the she-devil lunged at his back. “Get your filthy hands off my daughter!”
    She clawed his skin, and he could feel her nails through his coat and the linen of his shirt.
    â€œStop it, woman,” he yelled, holding onto the girl with one arm, trying to pull the mother’s fingers from his neck with the other. “’Tis not my intention to harm the child.”
    â€œThen let her go.”
    He could see the child’s lips puckering as shelooked at her mother over his shoulder. “Mommy, I hurt…I hurt….”
    â€œLet her go, damn you!” the woman screamed, striking him once more in the temple.
    â€œBlast it, wench! ’Tis me who is injured, not the child.”
    He whipped around quickly, unbalancing the woman as he moved. Her hands ripped free from his clothes, and he watched with a grin as she stumbled backward and landed on her backside in the sand.
    â€œDamn you!” she sputtered, scrambling up from the ground.
    Without thought, he drew his cutlass and held her off. “Stand back, woman. I mean the child no harm. And if you will keep your infernal hands off me, I’ll not harm you, either.”
    â€œYou’ve already hurt her.