Hopeless Heart

Her eyes were full of hate as she glared at him and kicked him hard in the shin. Pain made him instinctively loosen his grip on her, and she took the opportunity to lower her arms. She rubbed the bruised flesh of her wrists, and glared at him.

“I am going to send for the magistrate. I will have you arrested for this,” she hissed.

“Oh, come now. It is too late to go all coy on me,” Simeon challenged dismissively. “You and I both know you have been asking for this. You have been flirting with me and encouraging my attentions since the day we met. You can’t fight shy now. You want me, Georgiana.”

“I haven’t asked you for anything. I don’t want you,” Georgiana snapped. “Now leave me alone. I won’t have you foisting yourself upon me. You are a blackguard. A scoundrel. I don’t ever want anything to do with the likes of you.”

Simeon shook his head. “I cannot leave now I am afraid.”

“I will go back to the main desk and get you thrown out of this hotel for harassing me,” Georgiana cried when Simeon caught her arm to stop her escaping. “Let me go, you pig.”

“The hotel wouldn’t dare throw me out. They are aware of who my father is.”

“I don’t care who your father is, you are a louse, and have no right to touch me in this way,” she protested loudly.

Rather than answer, Simeon yanked her toward him and began to kiss her again.

“Get away from her, you bastard,” Will snarled.

Suddenly Simeon’s hold was removed. Georgiana slumped against the wall, gasping and quivering in horror. The dull thud of f

lesh hitting flesh was cringe-worthy but registered little on Georgiana. She was struggling to comprehend what had just happened. It took her several minutes to realise what was going right beside her. It was only when Simeon began to speak that she snapped out of her daze and followed the brawling men out into the corridor.

“She asked for it,” Simeon snarled throwing her a disparaging glare.

“No, I did not,” Georgiana cried. She wiped her mouth with the back of her hand and shuddered in distaste as she threw him a contemptuous glare. “You foisted yourself on me.”

Will grabbed the man’s shirt and hauled him to his feet. Once upright, Simeon landed a punch in his solar plexus that stole his breath, but Will would not be defeated. The jealousy that surged through him, a result of what he had just witnessed, was enough to build the fury that rode him to shocking levels. The need to destroy and eradicate was so strong that Will eyed Simeon’s throat and contemplated grabbing it.

“Don’t lie to him, you asked me here,” Simeon growled.

“I did not,” Georgiana protested as her tears flowed. “I did no such thing. I wouldn’t. I don’t even like you.”

“She is mine,” Will snarled. “How dare you place your hands on her?”

While his words registered on Georgiana, and she was thrilled by the force of his sentiment, she was horrified at the open hostility between the two men, and the threat Simeon posed to him. There was something almost feral in Simeon’s eyes now that warned her that he was bordering on being unhinged.

“Someone needs to teach you better manners,” Will growled. “Did nobody tell you it is highly inappropriate of you to be in a bed chamber alone with a single woman who quite obviously doesn’t want you to be there much less touch her? When a woman says no, she means no.”

Simeon snarled and threw Georgiana a gloating smirk. “Oh, because accepting a ride from a stranger is perfectly normal, is it? Or behaving like a wanton harlot by staying all alone in a hotel is perfectly acceptable as long as it is her? Or wearing a red dress like a whore is fine.”

“You saw me?” she gasped in horror. “How?”

Simeon didn’t answer. He merely sneered at her and glared at Will.

“He has been watching you like the strange, perverted creature he is,” Will growled. “It is quite fortuitous that you were not alone in the house that night.”

“We all see what you were doing,” Simeon snarled.

“You sir, are a liar,” Will snapped.

“You are nothing more than a common whore,” Simeon spat at Georgiana. He leaned toward her threateningly only to be hauled away by Will.

“Keep away from her,” Will ordered.

“It was you spreading gossip about me,” Georgiana whispered.

“Everyone needs to be told about you and him,” Simeon replied, making no attempt to deny the accusation. “You are a whore. That’s why everyone is watching you. They suspect I am your next conquest.”