Surrender The Night by Colleen Shannon Read Free Book Online Page B

curtsy and fled.
    Devon turned from the secretary, two quarter-full brandy snifters in his hands. He sat down next to Katrina, who remained where he’d put her. He stuck one glass under her nose. “Drink, my dear,” he said gently.
    When she didn’t respond, he set his own glass down carefully on the table next to the settee. His concerned eyes grew moody. He tilted her head toward him and lifted her snifter to her lips. “Drink, else I’ll pour the whole glass down your stubborn throat.” When her teeth chattered against the rim, he set the glass down with an oath and hauled her into his arms.
    He buried his face in her hair. “Kat, Kat, what am I to do with you? Here you are at last, where I’ve dreamed you’d be, and you treat me like I carry the plague.” He blew a half sigh, half groan, then he held her at arm’s length to look at her. “Come now, don’t make me such a monster. I promise not to eat you, or rape you.”
    Finally her dilated eyes looked at him. “Why do you do this to me?” she whispered.
    “I don’t offer you a fate worse than death.” He flung an impatient arm at the room. “Everything in this house was placed here for your pleasure. I’m ready to sign each candle stick and brick over to you. You’re only to say the word.”
    She looked vaguely about. “Pretty.”
    “Don’t you know that I’m offering you security at last? You’ll never need to fetch and carry again for women not fit to lick your shoes.”
    How eager he was, she thought sadly. And how wrong. In this pretty chamber the horrors of the night reshaped them selves into dreams of what could be—if she dared to reach for them. Was she too cowardly to take the chance? Or too realistic?
    Her voice was stronger when she said, “A kept woman can be certain of only one thing: that nothing is certain. I can’t subject myself to that, Devon. I’ll not be one of many, in this house or any other.”
    “And what of Sutterfield? Did you grant him your favors in the back of a carriage? At least I offer you a house!” When she looked at him coolly, he snapped his teeth closed. He picked up his snifter and sipped, then rolled the glass between his palms. “You will be its last occupant, that I swear.” He set his glass down and clasped her shoulders pleadingly. “Please, Kat, let me be kind—”
    The last of her apathy dissolved under the surge of anger. She lifted both her wrists and flung them outward to slap his hands away. “If your charity is dependent upon making me a whore, then be as cruel as you please.”
    With a slight narrowing of his eyes he exuded the danger that had won him his niokname. Good. This man was easy to resist. She preferred him this way. Didn’t she?
    “Ah, but I shan’t make you a whore. You managed that all on your own, as you yourself admitted this night. Your outraged virtue sits ill upon you. I thought you better than a hypocrite, Kat.” When she stared grimly through him, his tone went even more silky. “But hypocrite or no, I want you.”
    He forced the brandy snifter into her rigid hand and pulled it to her lips. “Now drink. Since you’ve no use for tenderness from me, then let’s have honesty, at leas t. I warned you what would happen if you accepted another. I’ve wanted you for three years, and here you’ll stay. I’ll have you as often as I like, how I like, when I like. And you’ll enjoy every moment of it.” He lifted his glass and clinked it against hers. “To the wanton and the wastrel. I’d say we make a fine pair, wouldn’t you?” He took a leisurely sip, his eyes sharp enough to draw blood from her pale face. When she stayed frozen, the glass to her lips, he tilted the crystal and poured a hefty draft down her throat. “Drink!”
    After she’d taken a large mouthful, he put both glasses down with a satisfied air. His triumph was dashed by a spray of aromatic liquor as she spat the brandy full in his face.
    She fled his feral growl. He wiped his eyes off on