The Aviator by Morgan Karpiel Read Free Book Online Page B

company, but wealth and a sprawling estate.”
    “You are still very rich, with an estate of your own. In my time here, I have made you richer. I did what he wanted me to do. I took what he wanted me to have.”
    “Including me.”
    His grip on her wrists tightened, his teeth clenched. “That was different. You offered yourself, you made me think—”
    “That I wanted you for a husband? That I would allow you to take all, instead of just half?”
    “No.”
    “Well, you weren’t man enough for that, were you? I returned a few letters and you went cowering away. You never fought for what you wanted, just like you’re not fighting now.”
    “You wanted me to fight? Was that the game?”
    “That is life’s game. You fight or you lose. But you wouldn’t know that. You were never taught that. Your mother knew only the easy way to succeed, flat on her back, and she delivered you a fortune without effort. All you had to do was smile and look the part.”
    “Damn you,” he growled. “You never knew her and you’ve never known me. You merely assume that you can taunt me without restriction, that I will stand here and endure every insult, every childish tantrum, every teasing, flirtatious attack, without any thought of retaliation.”
    Gilda laughed under her breath, unable to quite believe it, even now. “What are you going to do? Put your hands around my pretty little neck and wring the life out of me? You think you have the courage for that?”
    His jaw tightened, the pale green of his eyes turning cold. “More than enough, if I wanted you silent.”
    With a quick push, he spun her around, forcing her to lose balance. She fell to her knees on the carpet. Turning back in shock, she caught the sharp movement in his shoulders, the rustling of fabric as he stripped off his jacket and tossed it to the floor.
    The dark silk bow at his collar came undone with a few quick slashes of his hand, the buttons of his starched shirt parting to thin cotton. Diamond cufflinks tumbled along the carpet like discarded stars. Another garment fell, then another. Firelight played over bared skin, his arms and chest shaped by hard work, a thin shadow of crisp, dark hair glistening along lean muscle, trailing down a tight, narrowed waist.
    The island’s relentless sun had turned his skin a rich brown, making him as swarthy as one of the sultans, his expression just as merciless as an enemy’s would be.
    “Nathan.” She wet her lips, the corset suddenly far too tight, constricting her breath to a shallow slip of nothing. There was no gentle cushion of brandy this time, no warm blur of senses to disguise his hatred, no darkness to hide the beauty of his body. He had always been beautiful, even as her father’s pale and thin apprentice.
    So be it. Bring me your anger, let me feel it after all these years of pretending that it isn’t always between us, just as much from your side as from mine. Let me feel your rage inside me, your pain so close to mine, your shadows just as dark, your memories just as vivid…
    Nathan approached, his hair loose to his shoulders, its sable color tinged red with firelight. “Did the Duke please you so well? Is that why you brought him to the island?”
    She pressed her lips together, confused.
    “Did he take you against the wall? Did you stroke him the way you did me, encourage him, drive him mad?”
    “Sutton?”
    “Don’t play the fool. Don’t you dare.”
    Bed the Duke? Impossible. And yet, Nathan didn’t think so.
    “You went to him,” he accused. “After you came to me—”
    “Oh, is that what you need to hear? To do your worst? Then, by all means, yes. I went to him right after you slammed your door and left me out in the cold. I stroked him, yes, and I kissed him too, then I took him into my mouth and sucked on him until he was delirious and begging for paradise.”
    An anguished noise escaped under his breath, his eyes hot and glittering, emotion raw in his voice. “You destroy