A Terrible Misunderstanding (A New Adventure Begins - Star Elite 6)

Erasmus blinked at her in astonishment, as if he had never heard such a slur. He paused temporarily but not long enough for Clara to take advantage of his momentary distraction.

“I said no!” she bellowed. “Get your hands off me and go away, Erasmus Boyle.”

Again, and again, she slapped at him as he tried to grab her wrists, her elbows until he eventually succeeded in grabbing her by the waist before

trying once again to force her into his arms.

“If you dare think I am going to carted off anywhere with you then you can think again,” she growled when she managed to force him away.

Clara realised her mistake, though, when she turned around to walk away. Before she could take even one step, Erasmus moved to stand directly behind her whereupon her slid both arms around her so he could suggestively press the entirely length of himself against her back and lift her off her feet. Clara’s stomach recoiled in revulsion.

“We need to talk,” Erasmus growled huskily into her ear, clearly finding their struggle arousing.

“We have nothing to say. I have told you to leave me alone, and I meant it,” Clara snarled, tugging on his arms with cruel fingers.

“You have to know that this desire between us cannot be ignored.”

“Desire? Desire? I couldn’t desire you even if I was dead,” Clara spat. “Nobody finds you desirable, Boyle. You are a lecherous toad. Get your damned hands off me at once.” When he didn’t, Clara jammed her elbow into his stomach. When that didn’t force him to release his hold, she stomped down on his booted foot with her heel as hard as she could.

He winced when the edge of her booted heel jammed into his toes.

“There is nothing between us. There will never be anything between us. Now get away from me,” Clara screamed, jamming her booted foot down onto his foot again for good measure. When that still didn’t work, she balled her hand into a tight fist and rammed it as hard as she could under his jaw, snapping his head back with a heavy jerk. The resounding clack of his teeth snapping together was just about as rewarding as being instantly released.

Clara wasted no time putting several feet of distance between them, but before she left, Clara issued him with one last glare. Erasmus was clutching his jaw and glaring maliciously at her, but Clara didn’t let that thwart her. Without thinking about what she was doing, she narrowed the distance between them but only so she could slam a flat palm against his uncovered cheek with as much force as she could muster. The loud slap of her flesh against his skin was enough to make her fingers sting but she didn’t regret it. Clara waited and watched the imprint of her fingers appear on the now ruddy flesh beneath his now spiteful glare.

“I hope that hurt. Maybe next time you try to force yourself on a woman, you consider that they might not be as vulnerable as you hoped they were. Touch me again, and I shall have you arrested, Boyle, no matter who your relations are,” she growled.

“It is about time you had a man in your life force you to behave with more decorum,” Erasmus growled, surging toward her with his hands outstretched.

He took no more than two steps before those hands were grabbed in a ferocious grip that made Erasmus bellow with pain. An ‘oomph’ of surprise was forced through his lips when he was roughly slammed face-first against a nearby wall. He was rendered helpless with such swift force that Erasmus was left with his face pressed tightly against the coarse brickwork rendering him unable to speak or hassle anybody before he could even gasp for breath.

CHAPTER THREE

“Move one more time and you are going to need a surgeon to help you heal,” the stranger growled at Erasmus as he pressed him harder against the wall. “I most definitely won’t allow you to walk properly again. The lady said ‘no’. Got it?”

“Get off me,” Erasmus protested. “Who the hell are you? What does this have to do with you? Get the hell out of here. You can’t do this to me.”

“I can do what I want. I just heard the young lady say to you that she wasn’t interested, yet you continued to force yourself upon her. That is assault, fool. Now why should I want to ignore someone who accosts young women on the street? We all know what has been going on in Leicestershire and Derbyshire. Are you one of the kidnappers, eh? Should I send for the Lord Chief Justice’s men?”

“Eh? What? That has nothing to do with me,” Erasmus cried, this time with none of his previous arrogance. In fact, he sounded petulant and whiny and utterly terrified that he was going to be arrested for a crime he hadn’t committed.

“Well, those young women were accosted on the street as they went about their business. They vanished too, undoubtedly against their will. From what I have witnessed, you have tried to accost this woman and tried to force her to go somewhere with you. That is kidnap. I think we should notify the Lord Chief Justice about your behaviour. It strikes me that it looks like you had something to do with the disappearance of those young women who vanished not all that far away.” Niall’s curious gaze slid to the young woman in question. “In fact, your victim tonight also matches the same description as the other women who were snatched.”

“I am not a kidnapper,” Erasmus cried. “I just wanted to talk to her.”

“But you were going to force her to go somewhere with you that she didn’t want to go. She said ‘no’ several times, yet you ignored her. Forcing women to go somewhere they don’t want to go is kidnap. Forcing someone like her off the streets when you have no authority to do so puts you under suspicion as being responsible for the kidnap of the other women who have disappeared in Leicestershire and Derbyshire,” the stranger reasoned.

“I had nothing to do with that,” Erasmus cried, clearly panic-stricken.

“Prove it,” Niall demanded.

“I-I just wanted to talk to her.”

Niall turned to look at the stunning young woman who was watching everything with wide eyes, but an avid curiosity that warned him she wasn’t distressed. She was angry, and more than happy that Erasmus was getting his comeuppance.

Niall lifted his brows at the young woman. “Do you want to talk to him?”

“No.” Clara shook her head vehemently.