The Hostage Bride by Kate Walker Read Free Book Online Page A

lady of the manor act was right back in place, those soft smoky eyes hardening to the grey of the sea on a winter’s day. Immediately he felt his own feelings change in response as anger put a sharperedge on the volatile cocktail of responses he was already prey to.
    â€˜Gratitude would be the last thing I’d expect from you. After all, the woman who was going to marry Edward Venables…’
    Something about her sudden stillness, the shocked, blank look in those misty eyes, brought him up short.
    â€˜Oh, come now, querida ,’ he derided sardonically. ‘Don’t tell me that you had actually forgotten. That it had somehow slipped your mind that today was to have been the happiest day of your life.’
    She had forgotten, Felicity realised, her mind hazing over in shock. She could excuse herself by saying that the way Rico had exploded into her life with all the force of a whirling tornado had numbed her thoughts, making it impossible to think. But the truth was both deeper and less complicated than that.
    Since the moment that she had first set eyes on this darkly devastating man, her mind hadn’t been her own. It was as if he had taken possession of it, filled her every thought with the stunning force of his presence, wiping away any memories of who she had been, how her life had been.
    â€˜You didn’t remember.’ Rico’s voice was thick with contempt. ‘You…’
    â€˜Put me down!’ Felicity inserted sharply, hating the scorn in his voice, hating the way he looked at her, dark eyes bleak and cold. ‘Put me down at once! I can walk—’
    â€˜Oh, no, querida .’ The hateful mockery grew sharper, lacing his tongue with cynical acid. ‘How could I deny you the moment that every woman dreams of? The moment when all the fantasies of her childhood, the hopes of her adolescence come to fruition.’
    The beautiful mouth had curled into a brutal sneer, the sexy accent heightening on each word. But the sound ofhis voice no longer made her toes curl, her skin tingle in delight. Instead it was like the lash of a cruel whip, flaying away a protective layer of skin so that she shivered at the feel of even the air against her flesh.
    â€˜Don’t be cruel!’ It was a cry of protest.
    â€˜Cruel, gatita ? Cruel?’ he taunted. ‘I am not being cruel. I am simply ensuring that your day ends as you had hoped it would—with you in the arms of a very rich man indeed, being carried over the threshold of his house…’
    As he spoke, he suited action to the words, mounting the steps to the front door, shouldering it open, carrying her over the threshold into the cool shadows of the hall.
    After the light of the sun, Felicity fond that she was temporarily blinded, unable to see anything clearly. And what made matters worse were the weak tears that filmed her eyes; tears she was determined not to let fall. Rico’s words had stabbed straight to her heart and twisted in it, but the truth was that they had hurt so much because they were so very far from reality.
    She doubted that Edward would ever have thought to follow any of the traditions of a real wedding, at least as far as she was concerned. Once the formal, public ceremony and the lavish reception was over, he would probably have dropped all pretence at being the loving bridegroom, the part he had acted so unexpectedly well over the past month or so. Instead he would have reverted to the role of cold, calculating schemer, the man who had manipulated both her life and that of her father in order to get just what he wanted.
    Right now she didn’t know who was worse—Edward or Rico.
    â€˜For such a beautiful bride as you are, it is the least I can do.’
    Once inside, with the door kicked closed behind them,he paused, ebony eyes going towards a room on his left and just once, very briefly, glancing towards the stairs.
    â€˜So now that I have carried you over the