Man of My Dreams by Johanna Lindsey Read Free Book Online Page A

back, caging her to the spot so she couldn’t miss his husky whisper. “We’re alone now. Would you like to examine me with your hands as thoroughly as you did with your eyes?”
    She made a sound of screeching outrage that wasn’t all that loud, just damned indicative of her feelings on the subject. Then she ducked beneath his right arm and ran toward the stairs at the end of the hall.
    But she could hear his laughter behind her,and the taunt, “Now there were the manners of a pig, Meg-O-m’dear. Did you notice the difference?”
    She halted, feeling safe now with some distance between them, and turned to hiss, “Between this vulgarity and your earlier crudity? No difference a’tall.”
    “Well, then, speaking of manners, you may as well look as touch, Miss Penworthy. It has the same effect on a man—coming from you.”
    “Bastard!”
    “Spoiled brat,” he shot back, then dipped his head mockingly and sauntered out the front door.
    And the man was whistling, as if he were supremely confident he had won that round, while Megan was so furious she felt like running after him to do physical violence. She barely restrained herself. But if he ever spoke to her again…

Chapter 6
    “I want to ride you, you can’t imagine how much. Will you let me?”
    Devlin’s eyes snapped open at the sound of those softly uttered words coming through the partially open door. The door had no lock, wouldn’t even close properly. But the first order of business yesterday had been a new bed to replace the moldy, lumpy cot in the room he had allocated to himself. Fixing the door hadn’t been a priority, not over his comfort. Now he wished it had been.
    Just what he needed to wake up to, the sound of lovers trysting in his stable, especially when he had gone to sleep fantasizing a tryst of his own, more than a tryst actually, with the hot-tempered Miss Penworthy. Of course, in his fantasy she wasn’t hot-tempered, just—hot.She didn’t speak at all, didn’t even open her mouth, except for his kisses, and to make use of a velvety soft tongue…
    Devlin groaned as heat filled his loins again, just as it had last night when he’d imagined that redhead adoring his body. He was definitely going to have to avoid such thoughts, at least until he found a willing female in the area to see to the raging need they aroused.
    He made a quick review of his current options. There had been that pretty little innkeeper’s daughter the other night who had flirted with Mortimer after Devlin had shown no interest. Mortimer had in fact gone back to spend another night at the inn last night. Devlin wondered if he’d staked a claim there. Common courtesy required that he ask first.
    Then there’d been the housemaid who’d come with the clean bedding yesterday. What was her name? He couldn’t remember, but her overly generous attributes had reminded him of his last mistress, and she’d fairly drooled as she looked Devlin over. An easy tumble, that. Could have had her yesterday without the least effort on his part. Should have. But he’d just as soon avoid any dalliance with the squire’s house staff. Servants tended to gossip outrageously, and he preferred to keep his liaisons discreet.
    He had little doubt he’d find someone suitable to his taste and needs who would be agreeable to a brief affair, only the present condition of his body demanded he do sorather quickly, preferably today. Damn Megan Penworthy. And those lovers on the other side of his door weren’t helping one bloody bit. Servants from the manor, no doubt, who hadn’t yet heard that the stable was now occupied by more than horses. And they were up damn early. A glance at the one small window in the room showed it was barely dawn.
    “Sir Ambrose just might be jealous, but I don’t care. I can ride you both.”
    A husky laugh accompanied those words drifting through his door. Devlin stifled another groan. He tried to remember what was outside the door in this back section of