Surrender to a Wicked Spy by Celeste Bradley Read Free Book Online Page B

of worthless younger sons and devious servants, could bring him nothing but more of the same. Sneak thieves and perverts would not ultimately serve his cause. He needed Lord Greenleigh, a man of impeccable reputation—aside from the secret of his father's treason. Yet he was rather lazy and non-political for one who could wield such power in the government.
    Well, if England could not win his devotion, then France would.
    And to ensnare the king, he would use the queen.
    Carefully, for limbs tended to stiffen while crouching on cold stone, the watcher uncurled and dropped back behind the wall. In the wooden stable building, a few horses stirred, nickering softly in hopes of an early breakfast.
    The watcher moved quickly down the alley before a groom could investigate the horses' unrest, fading into the shadows with the ease of long practice.
     
    When Olivia woke, the room was dark and the coals were only a glow in the hearth. She stretched out languorously, preparing to turn over and go back to sleep, when her toes touched a hard, cloth-covered surface.
    A leg. A man's leg. A husband's leg.
    A husband who still wore his trousers while she slept nearly naked. How embarrassing. Except that the thought sent a startling ripple through her body. What would it be like to be naked before him, like a… a slave princess before the barbarian king?
    The ripple increased to a tremor of arousal. If he should wake to find her bare to his touch, would he finish what he had begun earlier this night? There was more to come, she was sure of it. She'd seen stallions breeding mares and hounds breeding bitches—although she suspected that humans didn't do it quite like four-legged creatures.
    She closed her eyes against the dimness and tried to imagine Dane mounting her like a stallion. Him behind her, golden muscles rippling and gleaming in the sun—
    A violent shudder went through her at the thought.
Oh my
.
    Her movement must have wakened Dane, for he rolled toward her. "Are you all right?" he asked, his deep voice husky with sleep. "Did you have a nightmare?"
    Olivia pulled her mind from her depraved imagination with violent speed. "Ah, no. It was not a bad dream."
No, not bad at all
.
    He wrapped a big arm around her midriff and tugged her closer. His large hand was hot on her skin and she shivered at the contact. "Are you cold?" he murmured.
    No, she was quite the opposite. Before she could answer or kiss him or do any other of the twenty-odd things she would have liked to do to her brand-new Viking-god husband, her stomach gave a ferocious growl. Olivia clapped one hand over her mouth in stark mortification. Her mother would be so shocked. Her mother would go completely ashen with horror. Her mother would—
    Dane chuckled, a gentle rumble in the dark intimacy of their draped bed. "That is my fault, is it not? I never rang for your dinner."
    He rolled away from her to reach for the cord at the head of the bed to ring for a servant.
    Olivia put her hand on his bare shoulder. "Must we wake them? They worked so hard today."
    He turned to look at her quizzically. "It is their job to come when I call. That is what I pay them well to do."
    Olivia frowned. "Servants are human beings, my lord. Human beings who need rest in order to 'come when you call.' I feel the urge to foment a rebellion."
    He rolled back toward her, rising up to rest his chin on his raised fist. His broad outline looked like a mountain range in the dimness. "What do you propose I do, my Lady Greenleigh—service you myself?"
    Olivia decided that once she got her breath back, she would like precisely that—
    She shook her head sharply. Her imagination was beginning to interfere with her thinking. "No, of course not. I'm perfectly able to go down to the kitchens and sort out something to eat."
    "Alone?"
    She shrugged. "Why should I not?"
    "In that?" His tone reminded her that the ties were undone on her gown.
    She pursed her lips. "Well, no. I would dress, of course."
    He