A Perfect Hero Read Online Free PDF Page B

intense. He was in tense. But suddenly his eyes were like thick fog, dark and impenetrable. They made her shiver in side.
    She considered him with renewed caution, as well she should. He was, after all, a dangerous highwayman. A demon. For all she knew, a de spoiler of women.
    Even worse, as if he knew precisely the vein of her thoughts, he smiled slowly.
    “What are your plans for me?” she asked stiffly.
    A dark brow quirked high. “An excellent ques tion,” he appeared to muse. “I’m not, you see, in the habit of taking hostages.”
    Julianna couldn’t help it. Though she’d told herself she would not shirk, she would not cower, she felt herself pale.
    “Yes,” he said softly. “I see you’ve grasped the crux of the situation. What am I to do with you? I can hardly let you go, now can I?” He shook his head. “Yet I dislike the word hostage .”
    Julianna held her spine stiff. “Would you pre fer prisoner ? Both are the same, are they not?”
    “I suppose that’s true.” He stroked his jaw, as if to give the subject great thought. “Let us con sider you...my guest. Yes, my guest.”
    “If I were your guest ,” Julianna observed coldly, “I could leave when I wish. And I cannot, can I?”
    Something flickered across his features, some thing she couldn’t decipher. Surely not guilt.
    “No,” he said after a moment. He spoke the word almost regretfully, yet there was the merest hint of a smile on his lips.
    Oh! Was he feeling smug? Exactly what came over her then, Julianna could never say. She was suddenly fighting mad, angrier than she’d ever been in her life that he dared to trifle with her so.
    Without hesitation she stepped around him, taking a direct path toward the door.
    His smile was wiped clean. “Where the devil do you think you’re going?” He reached for her. Julianna eluded him, swooping under his arm and darting for the portal. Quick as she was, he was quicker, grabbing her from behind and whirling her from her feet.
    But Julianna was incensed. She fought for all she was worth, swinging her arms wildly. There was a thunk! as her elbow connected with some thing solid. Sensation zinged down her arm, but she paid no heed. The vile oath resounding above her head only made her all the more determined to land another blow.
    It was impossible. The next thing she knew she was toppled back, the mattress beneath her. She gasped as a long, hard body followed hers down, and he was atop her. Sweet mercy!
    Subdued but hardly beaten, held in place by the weight of his body and strong fingers curled around her wrists, she toyed with the notion of spitting in his face—a tactic never before em ployed in her life!
    Above her the highwayman—Dane—gritted his teeth. “Do not dare!” he warned.
    “You wretched beast!” she hissed, launching into a tirade the likes of which she hadn’t even known she was capable. “You won’t get away with this! You’ll be caught and hung. Drawn and quar tered. The authorities will take your body and—”
    “Are you quite finished?” he demanded.
    She regarded the cut just above his eye with a considerable amount of satisfaction. No doubt he wasn’t feeling so smug, she decided. “I am not—”
    “Oh, but you are. My God, you are a harridan. A shrew.”
    “How dare you!”
    He continued as if she hadn’t spoken. “Lord, but you’re a bloodthirsty little thing, aren’t you? And to think when I first saw you I deemed you a lady of remarkable gentility! But now I begin to see why you have no husband!”
    “Must you insult me?”
    Cool golden eyes stared directly into hers. “It is no insult but fact. And now that I have your undivided attention, I feel it only fair to inform you, my little kitten—”
    “Don’t call me that!”
    He shook his head. “It’s never wise to under estimate one’s enemies, kitten , and I do believe you should heed my warning. I’ve more experi ence than you at this kind of thing.”
    “Meaning?”
    He smiled, not