Samantha James by My Lord Conqueror Read Free Book Online Page B

but proceeded to tug his tunic over his head—it fell to a careless heap at his feet. She stared numbly as she caught sight of his chest, wide and covered with dense, dark curls. Now his hands were busy unlacing the leather thongs that cross-gartered his chausses. She bit back a gasp. Sweet Jesu, surely he would not strip naked! But it appeared he would not stop…
    Nor did he.
    Her jaw had gone utterly slack. His waist was incredibly narrow, his arms were corded and lean. As he bent and peeled hose and drawers from his legs, his back was one long arc of sleek bronzed flesh. It flitted through her mind that his body was one of both power and grace. He straightened then, affording her a glimpse of brazen male virility.
    Her heart seemed to stop. He turned and crawled into the bed. Her breath tumbled out in a rush.
    He rose up on an elbow. “You’re welcome to take your place beside me in this bed. I’m feeling generous tonight, and so I will leave the choice to you, Saxon.”
    Only then did Alana realize she still stood mutely, the pile of furs clutched in her arms…A tide of heat and color crept into her cheeks; she was thoroughly embarrassed that she’d been caught staring so openly.
    But at his words, she spun around and dropped to the floor, her heart apounding. There before the hearth she curled herself into a ball and dragged a fur over her head. From across the chamber came a burst of low, masculine laughter.
    Then all was quiet.
    Alana trembled and shivered, though the chamber was warm and not at all chill. Desperately she sought to calm the throbbing tempo of her heart. She was still aghast at the obvious—that Merrick had chosen to let her be. Oh, but she had been so convinced he had brought her to his chamber to make quick work of her ravishment!
    Instead he had granted her a reprieve. Why, she did not know. Nor, she decided shakily, did she care to know or even guess, for she was not yet ready to discount his threat to do the very same! What was it Aubrey had said of him? They say he is spawn of the devil—a warrior ’twould as soon sever a man’s head from his body as look at him .
    It was not in Alana’s nature to trust easily—and Merrick her enemy yet! She warnedherself to be cautious. Aye, he had not yet revealed the demon he surely was. But she did not trust him. She dare not trust him.
    So it was that his presence across the room lent her no ease, and such thoughts would not cease. They twisted and turned throughout her mind like an aimless path. And though she thought to sleep not a wink, soon her body relaxed. And sleep she did, quite deeply…and dreamlessly.
     
    A watery sunshine seeped through the shutters when Alana awoke the next morning. She lay there a moment, assailed by an odd sense of the unfamiliar. Then all else fled beneath the keen onslaught of memory. With a gasp she lurched to her knees, still clutching a fur to her breast.
    Her haste was for naught, for she found herself quite alone. Arising rather stiffly, she rubbed the ache in her back, casting a disgruntled glance at the bed as she did so. Of course the lofty wretch had claimed the comforts of a soft mattress for his own, even as he had claimed Brynwald for his own. Yet perhaps she could count herself lucky—a cold stone floor was far preferable to sharing a bed with that Norman beast!
    She smoothed her clothes, then attended her personal needs. After washing from a small basin, she shook her hair free, then combed through it with her fingers. She did not braid it again, but tugged it over her shoulder and left it free. She paused, uncertain what Merrickexpected of her. She was heartily glad he was not present, and in truth had no desire to seek him out. She had no desire to anger him if her presence was demanded elsewhere; nor did she want him to think she cowered here in his chamber. Her mind so inclined, she was about to venture without when the portal opened.
    Merrick stood outlined in the doorway, a tall and powerful