The High Sheriff of Huntingdon by Anne Stuart Read Free Book Online Page A

accommodations were a slight improvement.”
    “I’ll see to it that you’re better fed,” he said, not movi ng any closer. “You’re far too thin for my taste. I prefer my women with curves.”
    Elspeth thought back to the various women i n their states of undress, clinging to h i s arm. “So I’ve ob served,” she said dryly. “Why don’t you come back in a few weeks and see i f I measure up to your standards then?”
    The silence in the room was ice c o l d , and Elspeth wou l d have given a n yt h i n g to call back h e r mocking words. She’d always been a bit too free with her tongue, speaking her mind when she should have been meekly, dutifully silent, but now was the worst time of all to be flippant. A lone in a tower room with a purported madman who had total power over her body and h e r life, she ought to be quiet, subservient, and totally docile.
    “Your mistake, my lady wife,” he said in a soft, menacing voice. “There’s only one thing I despise above all others in this world, and t h a t is being bored. You’ve just made the fatal e rr o r of piquing my interest.”
    “Fatal.” Her voice shook as she echoed that word.
    His smile was scarcely reassuring, “So you’ve heard the rumors about me? That I’m the son of the devil, that I eat little children, that I murder anyone who displeases me.”
    “Actually I hadn’t heard the one about the children.” She slapped a r es trai n i n g hand across her mouth, hor rified at her own indiscretion.
    His eyes gleamed in the evening light. “I might sug gest that you shouldn’t be l i e v e everything you hear,” he said. “But I think I prefer you quivering in terror at the thought of my unregenerate evil. However, you don’t appear to be quivering yet. I suppose I ought t o do something about that.” He started toward her.
    There was no place to run. The thick stone wall of the castle was hard at her back, and not even to escape a madman would she throw h e r s e l f from t h e battlement. She never had much use for melodramatic gestures, and life was far too interesting to be dispensed with so l ightly. She pressed a ga in s t the wall, feeling like a cornered doe as the ravening wolf advanced on her.
    The touch of his hand a g a i n s t her neck made her flinch. Slowly, he began to unfasten the neck bindings of her habit, his golden eyes impaling hers, and she could f e e l the s u d de n , terrified po u n d i n g of her heart.
    “I’ve n e v e r been interested in t a k i n g virgins,” he said in a dreamy, almost abstracted voice as the overdress came apart beneath his d e ft hand, exposing the white column of her neck, the pale skin of her breasts. “But in your case it might prove entertaining.” And he put his mouth against her neck, tasting the pulse that beat wildly there, t e e t h sharp against the tender skin. The heavy white overdress fell to the floor at the i r feet, leav ing her c l ad only in h e r light linen chemise.
    She shivered, both hot and cold. She didn’t dare move, afraid that if sh e did, it would bring her body closer to his. His other hand slid up the thin material, moving b etween h e r small breasts, pressing against her heart. She c o ul d feel the outline of his h a n d burning against h e r flesh as her heart clamored for something she couldn’ t begin to understand.
    He lifted his head, looking down into her bewildered f a c e with cool satisfaction. “Your heart is pounding, bride. Is it because you’re frightened? Or is there some other reason why y ou r pulse is racing?”
    She t ri e d to shake her head, to deny the evidence of her body, but his mouth caught hers, silencing her ar gument. He kissed h e r , deep and full and hard, allowing no escape. Indeed, s he wasn’t sure she wanted to escape. Her arms came up of their o w n accord, around his waist, and she held on, suddenly afraid she might faint. He was overwhelming, devouring, taking her mouth with a fierce hunger that stirred an