“I insist on being allowed to put the preparations in place to make our arrangement permanent,” the Count began, his voice dropping several octaves. “Whilst I could force you, I would prefer to have your co-operation.”
Once again, Marguerite watched his lecherous gaze slither over her, and shuddered with disgust.
“It will make life so much easier,” his tone lowered. “And enjoyable.”
“No,” she replied flatly.
“I shall enjoy breaking you,” he told her.
Marguerite refused to be thwarted. She tipped her chin up at the same time that she straightened her spine and stared hard at him.
“I shall enjoy telling everyone what you truly are, Count,” she snapped.
Before he could reply, she spun on her heel and raced across the room to the door that was partially open. Slamming through it, she immediately stopped and stared in dismay at the total darkness that engulfed her.
“Now what?” she moaned as she mentally kicked herself for having left in such a hurry. Being in an unlit room, she was now in a worse position than before. She now had no way out unless she returned to the lit room and the Count.
All I need now is for the Count to turn up, she thought with a sigh.
If there was one thing worse than being stuck in a room with a lecherous Count, it was being stuck in a darkened room with a lecherous Count.
After a brief moment of hesitation, Marguerite pushed against the door in case the Russian Englishman decided to come after her, and patted the smooth wood with her free hand in search of a lock to bar his entrance.
“Drat,” she whispered when she found nothing but the smooth brass of the door knob. “Now what?”
Rather than wait around for the foreigner to join her in the darkness, she attempted to cross the room only to slam into an immovable object that was large, warm, and incredibly strong, just a few feet away from the door.
Her instinctive squeal of alarm was swiftly smothered by a large hand clamped ruthlessly over her mouth. Her eyes widened but she could see nothing of the man who now held her suspended off the ground. She could feel every inch of him, though. He was rock hard and heavily muscled and if the empty air beneath her feet was any indication, incredibly tall.
He also smells wonderful. She thought when he moved, and she was assaulted with the delicate scent of honey and something citrusy. The smell reminded her of meadows in springtime and was as confusing as it was alarming.
What are you doing? It doesn’t matter how he smells, he is stopping you from leaving, a small voice screamed at her.
Snapping out of her daze, she began to wriggle and squirm in an attempt to get her feet on the ground. To her consternation, it was considerably harder to do than she had first thought. After several minutes of desperate struggling, she was left panting for breath, frustrated, angry, out of energy, and nowhere near regaining her freedom.
“Put me down,” she gasped through clenched teeth.
In spite of her desperate attempts to break free, she kept her voice low in case the Count overheard her and came to investigate.
Rightly or wrongly, she sensed that the man holding her was considerably less of a threat than the Russian, but had no idea where that impression came from. She wanted to speak, but couldn’t quite manage to when her lungs refused to work properly. While she tried to tell herself it was because of the tight hold he had on her, her deeper feminine instincts knew it was because of something else, something that called to an inner part of her that had, until now, remained dormant. Like a flower blossoming in the springtime, it began to flourish deep within and left an expanding warmth that was really rather pleasant.
She wished she could see his face, that there would be a light within the room or something so she could take a good look at him, but there wasn’t. In spite of their unusual situation, she began to ponder over his features, and in doing so stopped struggling.
“Stand still,” Joe growled as he slowly lowered her onto her feet. “I won’t hurt you.”
He struggled to contain his groan when the sensual slide of her feminine curves against him made his body regrettably harden. He forced himself to ignore it not least because he had to remind himself of who she was connected to. Rather than release her, he held her firmly against him. While he didn’t want to hurt her, he wasn’t going to allow her to get free either. Not yet. Not until he had the answers he was after. Then, as far as he was concerned, she and that vampire of hers in the other room could languish the rest of their days behind bars where they belonged.
“Let me go,” she protested as she pushed at his arms.
“No.”
In this bloody darkness I won’t ever find her again if I was stupid enough to do that, Joe thought wryly.
Whilst not having a light on had helped him to avoid detection, it also left him unable see anything of the room he was in or its occupants.
“I won’t hurt you,” he said to her in the calmest voice he could manage while wrestling with a recalcitrant female. “Just stand still.”
When she didn’t do as she was told, Joe wrapped his arms around her and lifted her off the floor again.