Underground Captive by Elisabeth-Cristine Analise Read Free Book Online Page A

dawned on him.  Abruptly, he released her.
                       "You bastard," she spat, her eyes seething with anger.  And aye, desire.
                       She stepped back from him, and a crack, like the sound of a whip, echoed across his face as the palm of her hand connected to his jawbone with the full force of her fury.
                       Jared reached for her, opening his mouth to speak.  King George, his golden palomino, suddenly whinnied and reared.
    Williams dropped the gun.  He looked up in terror at the steed whose nostrils flared and whose wide eyes marked him for death.
    Nicollette screamed.
                       Jared pushed her aside and commanded King George to back away.  The horse dropped his forelegs and moved away from Williams. 
                       "Good boy, Georgie, good boy."  Jared stroked the horse's face.  He’d trained King George to alert him to danger.   He went to where Williams sat cowering on the ground.  Grabbing the big man by his collar, he yanked him up.  " Mademoiselle Duplantier suspects ye're stealing the slaves's rations, Williams.  I frown on that.  I also frown on garbage like ye insulting ladies.  But mostly I frown on being used for target practice.  Only the presence of Mademoiselle Duplantier allows ye to leave this place alive.  Now get moving.  Ye have some explaining to do to Monsieur Duplantier."
    Nicollette observed Jared with admiration and confusion.  The corded
    muscles of his neck strained and stretched in one long, sensuous line from his broad chest all the way to his well-developed legs and thighs, their shape and power defined through his breeches. 
    From the sight of him, the raw and primitive strength he displayed, he could’ve lifted Williams with ease.  Anger yielded this definitive display of unconscious muscles, however, rather than the strain of the man's weight.
                       She shouldn't have slapped him.  But he didn't have a right to take such liberties without getting to know her first.  She wouldn't mention it or apologize for it.  If they ever kissed again, she would initiate it, not him.
    3
                       Blanche Duplantier Sonnier reclined on a swing on the broad veranda, sipping coffee.  "Am I to assume that you have orchestrated this meeting with Jared Fleming?"
                       " Oui ."  Charles smiled, shame-faced.  He sat across from his sister at the outside wicker dining table, close to the steps.  "I'm compelled to find a suitor for Nicki."
                       Blanche raised her eyebrows in question.  "Compelled?  By what or whom?"
                       "By Nicki's waywardness.  Do you know she spent an entire week in New Orleans, unchaperoned and in the midst of yellow fever season, upon her return from New York?"
    "I realize since you lost Marie-Claude to the '53 epidemic you want us to take extra precautions.  I'm sure Nicki--"
     
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    "It's not only that," Charles interrupted, irritated that Blanche defended Nicki's actions so readily.   "The girl's getting out of hand.  She arrived from school two weeks early.  Not only didn't she have the decency to let me know, she thought nothing of the improprieties of returning home with a proper chaperone.."
                       Blanche threw up her hands.  "Bah!  Decency!  Maybe if you would not spend so much time with Antoinette, you would have been at your house on Rue Dauphine."
                       "Antoinette has nothing to do with this."
                       "I know, mon frere .  It's