The Devil's Concubine by Jaide Fox Read Free Book Online Page A

not!”

    Talin looked as if she’d slapped him. The moment the look of stunned
    incomprehension left his face, though, he reddened with both anger and embarrassment.
    Hauling her against his chest, he glared at her nose to nose. “If you screech at me one more time, wench, I might well be tempted to throttle you!”

    “Do it,” she babbled, far more fearful of the terrible height than she was of his
    terrible temper. “I won’t go up there! I won’t!”

    Uttering a growl that was one part anger and two parts frustration, he grabbed her
    around the waist and hauled her over his shoulder. Stunned, the breath knocked from her by the hard shoulder she landed on, Talin was halfway up the spiral stairs by the time she recovered enough to begin to struggle.

    “NO! You fiend! You animal! Put me down! Put me down this instant!” she
    screamed, pounding on any part of him she could reach.

    He smacked a hand against her buttocks. The sting wasn’t nearly as potent as her
    stunned surprise and dawning outrage. However, before she could vent her indignation, he reached the top of the long, winding flight of stairs, crossed a short corridor and stepped through an arch, setting her abruptly on her feet.

    She was in the tower room, she knew, and squeezed her eyes shut, afraid even to
    move. The slamming of a wooden door against stone frame work sent a jolt through her and she opened her eyes as she felt herself wavering and in danger of falling. To her stunned surprise, the room was cloaked in gloom save for branches of candles placed
    here and there.

    It was night?

    Feeling slightly better, Aliya pivoted slowly where she stood, her gaze searching
    the walls for window embrasures.

    Shutters, she discovered, had been fastened over each and there was a door
    leading to the balcony where before there had been nothing at all! Relief flooded her that was so profound it brought stinging tears to her eyes and nose. She sniffed them back, glancing around warily for Talin when she remembered she’d fought him all the way up
    the stairs.

    He was leaning against the door, his arms crossed over his broad chest, an
    indecipherable expression on his face.

    Feeling sheepish, she sent him a faintly apologetic look. “I thought … I
    thought....”

    His lips thinned. “I know what you thought.”

    Surprise went through her. “You do?” she asked doubtfully.

    Shoving away from the door, he moved slowly toward her. “Yes.”

    Abruptly, Aliya realized he must think she’d been fighting for her virtue, when
    the truth was that her maidenhead was the furthest thing from her mind. She’d already THE DEVIL’S CONCUBINE
    Jaide Fox
    25
    opened her mouth to inform him of that when it occurred to her that she didn’t especially want to disabuse him of the notion that she preferred death to ravishment by man beast.

    She knew she should.

    She was ruined now, whether he took her maidenhead or not, for no one would
    ever believe he hadn’t and no one would want her. It would have been bad enough if he was merely a man, but he wasn’t and that would make it that much worse.

    She wasn’t completely certain of how it could possibly be any worse, but she
    knew it would be.

    “You are not as repulsed by me as you would have me believe,” he murmured,
    halting mere inches from her and brushing the backs of the fingers of one hand lightly along her cheek.

    He’d noticed that? She thought, feeling embarrassment pulse in her cheeks,
    flushing them with heat--which she very much feared he would notice and misinterpret as desire. “Your arrogance is only surpassed by your ego, Sire,” she murmured tightly.

    “And yet you didn’t deny it.”

    Aliya gave him a look. “You would be deaf to it,” she said, discovering that she
    felt vaguely breathless by his nearness.

    He caught her hands, pushing them behind her back and drawing her closer. She
    twisted her face away, presenting him with her neck. “I suppose you think that you