The Wildest Heart by Rosemary Rogers Read Free Book Online Page A

fumbling with his clothing.
    â€œDear God, Rowena! I didn’t know. Girl, just seeing you the way you were, half-naked—so lovely—I don’t know what got into me!”
    â€œIt’s too late to feel guilty now, isn’t it?”
    Was that my own voice I heard, sounding so calm, so dead? Suddenly I felt a sickening feeling of distaste for the soiled, stained sheets I was lying on. Without looking at Sir Edgar, who still stood there watching me, I used the corner of the sheet to wipe the blood from my thighs fastidiously, and then I stood up, and brushed past him, to walk to the mirror.
    I think I wanted to see if I had changed in any way—if my face would carry the marks of my experience, but it looked unchanged. Pale, still a stranger’s face, with black hair lying in tangles around it. “It shows in the eyes, when a maiden becomes a woman.” Where had I heard that? But my eyes showed nothing, except a kind of blankness.
    Without knowing why I did it, I seized my silver-backed brush off the dressing table and began to brush my hair, with long, viciously tugging strokes. Perhaps I was suffering from shock, perhaps my strange action was due to my instinct of self-preservation that fought to keep me sane by forcing me to concentrate on some small, ordinary task.
    Strange as it seems, I had almost forgotten Sir Edgar’s presence as I stood there at my mirror, with not a stitch of clothing to cover my nakedness. And then he came up behind me. I saw him in the glass, his eyes gleaming with a strange light, his mouth twisted in a smile.
    â€œDamnation, but you’re a lovely creature! First virgin I ever took without paying for it. Only one who didn’t cry afterwards. You’re a strange girl, aren’t you?”
    He put a hand on my bare shoulder, and although I stiffened, I didn’t flinch away from him. He gave a small, satisfied chuckle.
    â€œYou’re sensible. I like that. So cold, so lovely—” his voice dropped, and I heard him say softly, “You’re the kind of woman who can carry off diamonds, you know. With that dark hair and your eyes—yes, by God, you’re a diamond girl, all right! And I want to make it up to you. See here, Rowena, I’m not a brute, I’m a fair man, and I can be generous too.”
    He quickly left the room and I remained standing, trancelike, before the mirror.
    I saw something sparkling in his hand as he returned and my arms dropped to my sides, very slowly, as I felt him lift the heavy mass of my hair—felt a coldness like ice around my throat.
    â€œThere!” he said triumphantly. “There, now. Look at yourself in the glass, girl! You should not wear anything else. Diamonds—and maybe sapphires on some occasions, to match your eyes. What do you say, eh? I’d be kind to you—wouldn’t hurt you again for all the world. Dress you in jewels.”
    His hands, with the reddish brown hairs on the back of his fingers, slid slowly down my shoulders, and still I did not move, but my eyes met his levelly in the glass.
    â€œWhat exactly are you suggesting to me, Sir Edgar? Are you attempting to bribe me not to tell anyone what you have done, or are you proposing I become your mistress?”
    I felt his fingers tighten about my arms for an instant, and then he swung me around to face him.
    â€œWill you always be so cold? There’s flame burning under the iciness of a diamond, Rowena. I’d like to uncover the fire in you!”
    I stood passively in his crushing embrace, and watched his eyes search my body greedily. I felt nothing, except for a slight soreness between my thighs. Was that all there was to the act of love between a man and a woman? Love, lust. I suppose the two were inextricable.
    â€œRowena—Rowena! Now that I’ve discovered you for myself, I’ll not let you go.”
    When his mouth had lifted itself from mine I twisted from his grasp and went back