Taking Liberties by Jackie Barbosa Read Free Book Online Page B

could not marry him. He deserved a chaste, faithful wife. In other words, anyone but her.
    “Are you all right, my dear?” the earl asked, his tone laced with concern. “Did I frighten you with my passions?”
    Tish managed a tremulous smile. “No, not at all.” At least, unlike the duke, Randley did not behave as if she had committed some grievous sin against him by bringing him to pleasure. “It is just that—” she glanced up in to the trees again, her cheeks heating “—I need to relieve myself.”
    Randley, who had tucked his shirt back into his breeches and rebuttoned his fall, pulled an indulgent expression. “Of course, my dear. I quite understand.”
    Tish felt absurdly as if he were patting her on the head and sending her off to bed with milk and a biscuit, but she took the opportunity nonetheless. After rising to her feet, she began to climb the hill, her slippers crunching in the heavy layer of leaves beneath her feet. She peered left and right as she ascended. He was well-camouflaged by the underbrush, however, and she nearly walked right by him before seeing him.
    She froze in her tracks.
    Nash leaned back against the gnarled trunk of a very large tree. His eyes were closed andan expression of bleak concentration marred his handsome features.
    The look ripped Tish’s heart apart. She had done this to him. She had forced him into supporting this experiment, and he was paying the price with his anguish. What sort of woman would do this to the man she loved?
    And there was no question in her mind that Nash was the man she loved.
    All the more reason she must let him go. Even if she suppressed and denied her strange desires for the rest of her life, he knew now who she was, what she was. How deep her depravity ran. She couldn’t saddle him with such a burden. Even if he loved her in return.
    Especially if he loved her in return.
    She spared a brief glance down the hill to reassure herself that Randley was paying her no mind. He had politely turned his back and appeared to be digging through the picnic basket in search of something to eat.
    With a sigh that was half relief, half resignation, she took the first step in Nash’s direction. He must have heard the crackle of her footfalls, because he turned to look at her.
    “What are you doing here?” Although he didn’t whisper, his hoarse voice was barely audible.
    She continued to pick her way toward him through the small bushes that pushed up through the carpet of leaves. “I came to tell you—”
    She broke off on an in-drawn breath as she got close enough to see that he was not standing there in deep contemplation. His fall was open. He gripped his cock—gloriously long and thick and hard—in his hand, pumping it with his fist.
    Fierce, biting desire leaped to instant life between her thighs, and her heart thudded wildly with sudden, unexpected hope. Perhaps Nash wasn’t disgusted by what he had seen. Perhaps he was as aroused by it as she was.
    He stopped what he was doing, his eyes meeting hers with piercing intensity. “Came to tell me what?”
    She licked her lips, hesitating. What she’d come to say no longer seemed nearly as important as the longing that pounded in her veins. The need to touch him, to fuck him.
    To love him.
    The words tumbled out at last. “I came to tell you I decided to marry the earl.”
    He released his cock abruptly. The shaft bobbed free, pointing toward her like a divining rod. “The hell you are,” he growled, pushing away from the tree. “You love me.”
    She didn’t think to ask how he could be sure of that. “I know. But…I didn’t think you’d want me once I told you…” Her voice trailed off. Was there any way for a woman to tell the man she loved that she gained the most exquisite pleasure imaginable by having him watch her engage in intimate relations with other men? How did one explain the inexplicable?
    While she tried to summon the words to describe the indescribable, Nash reached out for