The Accidental Mistress by Kate Harper Read Free Book Online

As inexperienced as she was, her body craved him with a desperation that turned despair into ecstasy.
    For just a moment, Sophie melded against him, delighting in the hard length of his arousal, pressed against her; insistent, compelling. I could do this , she thought as heat raged through her, I could lose myself forever in this man and never ask for anything more but what he has to give…
    Later, she could not say what small spark of sanity remained that made her drop a hand, looking for something to save herself. Her fingers encountered cold glass and she seized the mostly empty bottle of claret from the table beside her and, without thinking, hit Roxburghe over the head with all the force she could muster. The hungry mouth and hands stilled and he took an unsteady, half step backwards, a look of bewilderment on his face. Then the dark eyes rolled slowly back in his head and she watched in horror as her host toppled slowly to the floor.
     
    Sophie sat down heavily on the chair behind her, legs weak, heart thumping from that bewildering mix of fear and need that had held her fast. She stared at the still figure on the floor for a long moment, waiting for the panic to pass, for the shaking to subside.
    Then she rose abruptly to her feet again.
    Oh dear God. What if I’ve killed him?
    Hurrying forward, she knelt beside him, hands hovering without touching as she stared down at his face. He appeared to be asleep and for a brief, ignoble moment Sophie thought of, not just retreating to her room, but from the house itself, trusting her luck to the night. But her luck had not been serving her well of late and she could not leave her wretched host to simply lie here, no matter how badly he had behaved. Although, looking at him now with all the hauteur and all consuming lust gone from his face, he looked almost vulnerable, dark lashes black crescents against his lean cheeks. He was a fine looking man, all the more so when his expression wasn’t marred by a sneer. His mouth… it was, she reflected almost mournfully, a very nice mouth, well shaped and strong. That mouth reminded her just how much she had enjoyed his kisses, even in the midst of her very real fear.
    Sophie pushed the memory away firmly. She would not think about that now!
    Tentatively, she lay a hand on his chest and was reassured by its slow, rhythmic rise and fall.
    Not dead then.
    But she was certainly in a fix; alone, or as good as, with a drunk, unconscious nobleman. It wasn’t yet the middle of the night and no snow was falling outside, but more and more, Sophie felt as if she were trapped in the pages of one of the more lurid romances that her aunt liked to read and that her uncle so disliked. When someone spoke, she jumped. She hadn’t been aware that anybody had entered the room, lost as she was in miserable conjecture.
    ‘Why, whatever’s happened?’
    Sophie looked up quickly and saw Mrs. Chambers staring at the fallen Roxburghe with astonishment. ‘He… fell down.’
    The housekeeper frowned. ‘Drunk, is he? But drunk or not, I’ve never known his lordship bad enough to fall over with it.’
    ‘No, well, that might actually be my fault.’ Sophie gestured towards the bottle that lay on the rug close by, a scattering of red wine trailing from it. ‘I hit him, you see.’ At the woman’s incredulous look, she hurried on, ‘I know it was wrong of me but… but he would not stop and I didn’t know what to do! I suppose he is very drunk, but that made it all the worse because he would not listen to me -’
    ‘You hit him?’
    ‘I did.’
    ‘With that bottle?’
    Sophie nodded unhappily. Heaven only knew what the woman would think of her now but it couldn’t be helped. Roxburghe might be injured and in need of help. They would have to call a doctor to ensure that she hadn’t cracked his lordship’s head open. And what if she had? What if he died from his injuries? Sophie flinched away from the thought… Surely men did not die from a crack