Authors: Nichole Matthews
“My dear
girl
, how can I be of assistance?”
he said in a soft, steady voice.
“I do not want to presume, but it sounded as if you were in need of
aid
.”
“I fear this man is accosting me.”
She was proud of her firm, strong voice as she accused the brute of manhandling her.
“He gained entry to my chamber without permission.”
The elegant man
barked a laugh that had her eyes jerking up to
meet
his.
“How vexatious
—for you
.
” His eyes glittered brightly.
“
This—
man
is accosting you without the least bit of provocation?”
She hesitated before answering,
“
O
f c
ourse
I’ve not provoked this m-m-man
,
” s
he stammered
fretfully, a tiny fro
wn appearing
between her reddish brows
.
“T
here was no provocation on my part.
He came
into my room without permission,
”
she repeated.
A feeling of disquiet kept her frozen in place.
“I plead your mercy.”
She blinked and frowned up at him
, unable to understand his boldness
, w
hen suddenly the air in the room changed.
He smiled at her again before grabbing her
unceremoniously
by the arm, his grip painfully tight.
She was so taken by surprise that at first she could only stare at him
, her mouth gaping open
.
She would have found her mouth flapping open and closed without sound rather humorous under other circumstances. She would have laughed if she had witnessed any other with this same look on their face, but she could only stand there frozen in fear.
“I beg your pardon, my lady,” he
said with the slightest curl to
his lip
s
.
He pressed closer
, his finger running across the edge of her bodice, skating over her exposed flesh
and a shudder ran through her,
expressing to
him
she finally understood
how grievous
her circumstance
.
Finally she was able to make a sound. A
little cry
escaped. Laughable
.
A sound so small that even she would have missed it had she not be trying so desperately to force it past her lips.
“Such a sweet sound.” The gentleman’s eyes were black with desire.
Her eyes darted back and forth between the two
men,
gasp
ing, her
eyes going glassy with panic
, her breathing spiked
.
“Y-y-you have
not
come to rescue me, have
you?”
Confusion colored her voice and she knew it.
She wrenched her arm this way and that, but the man held fast. “Let me go, you blackguard,” she cried, trying to mask the tremor in her voice
,
wishing
against all hope that
she could come up with a more powerful curse
. She did not want him to know how scared she was
, but bile rose in her throat along with panic and her breathing grew shallow
. The
look in his eyes told her he knew and was pleased
.
He slapped her sharply across the face, rocking her back on her heels
, her
eye
felt as if it were about the burst from her skull
at the impact
.
“I like a girl with a little spirit.”
His nostrils flared. Lust raged in his eyes. He
thrust his hand into the back of her hair fisting it, jerking her head back to expose her
vulnerable
throat. S
he stared up at him helplessly
before kicking
out, but her
slippered
foot did little to harm his leg beneath the thick le
ather of his boot and her attempt only man
aged to make her captor laugh.
“Fight me, darling.” He leaned in and licked at the pulse that leapt at her throat. “It makes the capture that much sweeter.”
His pupils dilated.
He closed his teeth on the muscle between her shoulder and neck and s
he
blinked
back tears
,
grunt
ing
with the unexpected pain.
“There is a house full of guests; you cannot possibly b
-b-b
elieve t
hat you will get away with
attacking me in
this
manner
.
”
H
er voice was a hoarse whisper.
She wanted to shrink away from the harshness of his gaze
, but his hand gripping her hair left her little choice
.
“He knows.” His jaw was stone; his eyes dark as ice as he tugged on her arm,
controlling her by her hair,
dragging her towards the l
arge bed in the far corner of her
room.
H
er
sanctuary.
Her eyes widened with those
words. S
he was no longer able to
pretend that
fear
did not
flicker
in her eyes. “No matter what he thinks of me, my guardian would never agree to this sort of treatment.”
She quel
led the urge to cry out for help
.
He flicked his gaze over her person in an appreciative manner.
He pushed her forward and she took that opportunity to bolt for the door, but her slight frame was no match for his
tall, muscular,
bulk. He grabbed a fistful of her hair jerking her head back
even further
.
He lowered his head
,
his teeth biting painfully into the vulnerable hollow of her throat
once again
.
She
inhaled roughly
, her lungs expanded with shaky-hot breaths
.
“I can see your pulse beating faster and faster, my dear.” He bit down again and she cried out in
distress
.
“Please,” she sobbed, unable to keep from pleading, her hea
rt thundered painfully behind her ribs
. “Please let me go.” The sound of her gown ripping was thunderous to her own ears. “W
hat are you doing?”
Her voice little more than a croak
. “You can’t…”
“I can.” Cruelty twisted the handsome man’s face into an ugly mask revealing his true nature. He pushed with such power that she fell backwards; hitting the edge of the mattress with enough force that it drove the breath from her lungs.
“I will.”
A low growl came from his throat
. An animalistic sound of appreciation as he yanked
her gown to her waist
, at the same time
shoving his
left
hand between her clenched thighs
.
Why hadn’t she stayed to listen to Mr. Carson prattle on about his newest wolfhound instead of hiding in her
room?
Hadn’t she known her uncle’s parties were not of the same ilk as the London balls she had attended
during her one and only Season
?
He drew back
to look
down at her.
“Scream
,
”
he said in a raw voice.
Fine
tremors
started in her center and
worked through her at the low, rough tenor of his
voice.
True fear.
He jerked her head back and bit down harder
until tears filled her eyes
and
he
said with an impatient growl, “I said scream.”
She tried to swallow, but her head stretched back was making
it difficult, making
breathing difficult, choking off her breath.
She longed to cry out as fear wrapped itself tightly around her body, but she would not give him the satisfaction of hearing her fear. So she clamp
ed down hard on her bottom lip. T
he metalli
c flavor of her blood coated
her tongue as her attacker’s long, elegant fingers grasped the fine white satin and ripped her second favorite ball gown with the gold embroi
d
ered roses from her shoulders.
She could feel the hot color flooding
her cheeks
as he
laid her bare
to his lust filled eyes
. His unchecked ardor exposed her nakedness to his heated gaze and all she could do was squeeze her eyes
shut. She concentrated
on the warm tear
drop
s
that slid from her eye
s
,
down her temple to land in her fashionably coiffured
hair
h
eld back by the sparkling citrine encrusted band
left to her by her mother
. Her heart
nearly
stopped and
she tried to slow her breathing, sink into oblivion,
and pray.
Pray that this was all a horrible nightmare and that she would soon wake
and find this wasn’t the night her world had irrevocably changed
.
She screamed.
Hark
hark
the dogs do bark
The beggars are coming to town
Some in rags and some in jags
And one in a velvet gown
P
arker lowered his book
,
a
shiver coursing
down his spine
as he stopped to listen and heard nary a sound
.
“It’s eerily quiet in this house.”
The halls still
faintly
echoed with his
twin
sister’s delightful chatter and joyous laughter. It was odd how he would have wished them
to the devil
only a few months ago only to long for their
innumerable
sounds now.
This observation, delivered with such seriousness
,
elicited a sharp laugh from his aunt. “Pshaw!”
“I speak the truth, Aunt.” He spoke from his chair
situated opposite the chaise where she chose to recline
. “I can barely concentrate on my reading with all the quiet.”
He sat sprawled in one of the spindly legged chairs
,
one arm flung over the back; o
ne of his least favorite
chairs
in the house
. The
book
he was reading
held open on his lap
,
all but
forgotten
.
He
couldn’t help but glance
around the rose colored parlor
,
stopping when he reached the final portrait
commissioned of
his mother. He remembered her. He could still hear her laughter echo
ing
down the halls and the impact
of her brilliant smile when she
turned it on
you. It was strange the memories
that one kept vivid in the recesses of their mind
s
. There were times when he couldn’t remember what he had done the previous week
,
or what he had eaten to break his fast that very morning,
but he remembered
her
.
Yes, strangely quiet.
As quickly as the thought seared his mind, he curled his lip
s
in disgust. He was obviously losing his mind.
“Don’t worry, Parker
,
dear
.”
Adele
glance
d
up momentarily f
rom her embroidery
, her mild blue eyes tilted at the corners with a hint of a smile
. “You’ll
likely
grow accustomed to the quiet
soon enough and then you will wonder how you ever maintained your sanity through all the endless chatter.
”