Desire (Notorious 3) - Page 5
Pretending regret, she lowered her gaze to conceal the lie in her eyes. She would do better to encourage him to believe her a servant. Indeed, she suspected he already thought her one, for no true lady would go swimming in her shift. “My master would not like it if a strange man were to accompany me home.”
“You have a protector?”
By that he was asking if she were some man’s mistress, she realized.
“Yes, my lord.” She didn’t tell him that her “protector” was her older brother, Sir Grayson Caldwell.
“I should have known.” His voice was low and sensual. “A woman as lovely as you would of course be taken.”
“Let me go… please.” She would have climbed down from the boulder where she was perched, but he stood directly in front of her, too near for comfort.
“You haven’t even told me your name.”
“It’s-” Elizabeth, she started to say, which truthfully was her middle name. But few servants owned such an elegant appellation. “My name is Beth.”
His heavy eyebrows drew together as he studied her. “Somehow that doesn’t fit. It doesn’t do justice to a sea nymph. I shall call you Aphrodite instead. That’s what I first thought when I saw you rising from the foam.”
“I would rather you call me nothing at all and say farewell.”
His half-lidded gaze was amused as he measured her. “My, what a little firebrand you are. Your protector must have his hands full dealing with you.”
“That is hardly your concern, my lord.”
“No, regrettably it isn’t.” His murmur was husky and vibrant. Seductive. It stroked her nerve endings like velvet.
“Will you release me?” she responded much too breathlessly.
“Yes. On one condition.”
“Condition?” Brynn eyed him warily, trying to summon her defenses. After the frustrations of her day, she was in no mood to be trifled with or eager to become the plaything of a rake.
“You must pay a forfeit.” His hand lifted to her face, and with one finger he brushed her mouth lightly. “A simple kiss. Nothing more.”
He wouldn’t be satisfied with one kiss, Brynn feared. Even a rake as experienced and jaded as the Earl of Wycliff would not be able to resist the damnable Gypsy’s curse. To her everlasting dismay, she possessed unique feminine powers. An irresistible allure she had inherited from her legendary ancestor.
Yet she knew she wouldn’t be rid of him unless she agreed.
“If I kiss you, then you promise to go?”
“If you insist.”
“You give me your word of honor? ”
“Absolutely.”
His eyes touched her intimately, and she couldn’t look away. She only hoped she could believe him.
“Very well,” she said with grave reluctance. “One kiss.”
Her throat dry, Brynn braced herself as he put his hands at her waist to lift her down from her rock. But instead of simply setting her on the ground, he held her against him. Her breath caught in her throat as he deliberately let her slide down the full length of his body.
His seductive smile was unapologetic. “If I am allowed only one kiss, I must make it good.” Still keeping her pressed to him, he bent his head.
His lips were warm, surprisingly soft-and more tempting than she could have imagined. She tried to hold herself stiffly, but found it impossible with the caress of his alluring mouth.
His teeth began tugging at her lower lip, nipping softly, while his hand stroked the curve of her spine.
Brynn felt the first stirrings of a sexual response that she was unprepared for.
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