The Pirate Prince by Gaelen Foley Read Free Book Online Page B

for the regiment’s insignia emblazoned on its saddle pad. She barely had time to wonder what had happened to its former master.
    Before she had quite gained her balance, the stranger was swinging up into the saddle behind her.
    My God, he is kidnapping me . She couldn’t believe it. Domenic had been right all along.
    The stranger was one of the rebels.
    When she realized this, it took away some of her immediate terror, because she knew he could not harm her, or else Papa would never meet his faction’s demands. Therefore, she was safe, more or less. She forced herself to be rational.
    Normally she would never have approved of such extreme measures, but maybe a rash act like this was the only way to make Papa and the Council listen to the people. Maybe her abduction would ultimately bring about the higher good of Ascencion.
    With that thought, she decided to cooperate, not that he was giving her much choice.
    Yet her heart sank, because she knew for certain the bold rebel would hang. Even if she came back home unscathed, Papa would have him hunted and killed for his part in this. And if her father didn’t, Domenic surely would.
    “Hold on to me,” he ordered as they heard the first shouts of the guards.
    She obeyed, slipping her hands around his hard, lean waist under the black vest, his warm golden skin like velvet-sheathed marble under her hands, slick with a fine sheen of sweat. He shifted her against him, pulling her onto his lap with one hard arm around her stomach, then he wheeled the horse onto the road leading away from the city. He gathered the reins in his other hand and clucked to the horse, giving its sides a light kick.
    The next thing she knew, they were racing off at a gallop.

CHAPTER THREE

    Monteverdi’s daughter sat sidesaddle in his lap. How he had been cast in the role of her rescuer, Lazar had no idea. He only knew he had been cut because she had distracted him, and he was not amused.
    Nor was he amused that her pleas had caused him to spare Clemente, nor presently was he amused at the way her slim body rocked lightly, rhythmically against his. Nor by the flowery scent of her hair beneath his nostrils, nor by her silken hands almost caressing him as she changed her snug hold around his waist.
    He got the distinct impression Miss Monteverdi might be enjoying her own abduction. He scowled over her head. It would not do. She was supposed to be afraid of him.
    There were twenty or thirty mounted soldiers in hot pursuit of them about half a mile behind, but Lazar was glad. For one thing, the more soldiers who followed in the wild-goose chase on which he was about to lead them, the fewer would be left behind to man the gate towers.
    For another, the chase kept his mind off other things, such as the way his prize victim shifted her soft derriere in his lap, or the tear in her dress that gave him an unfettered view of her virginal cleavage.
    When he saw the ancient oak that bowed out over the road, he pulled the black horse to a halt, cocking his head.
    “Why are you stopping? They’re right behind us!” Miss Monteverdi cried.
    “Shh!” He listened.
    No. Farther . He whipped the horse into action again, went only about fifty strides, then stopped again, listening.
    “Damn it, it’s around here somewhere.” He drove the animal back to the tree.
    There, yes .
    “Give me one of your hairpins. Now,” he ordered her as he leaped off the horse and reached up for Allegra.
    He tied the reins over the horse’s neck while she swiftly pulled out an emerald-studded pin, long hair tumbling over her shoulders in the moonlight. In the distance, through the trees, he could see the soldiers on the road, swiftly approaching. He took the pin and wove it through the horse’s saddle pad so the end of it pricked the animal’s hide. The horse protested violently. Lazar slapped the big animal on the rump, and it bolted angrily down the road.
    He grabbed Allegra by the hand and ran with her into the thicket on the