Bargain with the devil Read Online Free PDF Page B

full control of the situation, she realized dimly. She must maintain her dignity, at least!
    With a strange little twist of his lips, a twist that meant victory, Stacy was certain, Hunter released his grip on’her hair, his hands circling her wrists and lifting her arms to go around his neck.
    „My little Rylan wife,“ he murmured, stroking the length of her slender back with a motion that pressed her tightly against him. „I’m going to make a Manning out of you,“ he vowed. „With every fiber of your being, you will behave first as a Manning. When there are any choices to be made, you will make them with the good of the Manning family in mind. And above all you will be loyal to your Manning husband.“ The dark head nodded in satisfaction. „Paul Rylan will know he has lost you to me, and he will understand that there is at long last a penalty to be paid for what he did fourteen years ago!“
    With a coolly possessive air that defied her to protest, Hunter let his hands settle at Stacy’s small waist and then slide upward until they came to rest just under the weight of her breasts. She sucked in her breath, not daring to move and refusing to give him the satisfaction of closing her eyes against the goading expression in his face.
    „Kiss me, Stacy,“ he invited deliberately. „And find out what it’s going to be like being a Manning woman. My woman.“
    For an instant longer Stacy hesitated, knowing that in the end there wasn’t going to be any choice but fighting the knowledge regardless. Better to give him his kiss rather than have him force it from her, she told herself bleakly, finally standing on tiptoe to brush his hard mouth with her own soft one. As she did so, she felt his hands just under her breasts shift to cup the gently rounded globes completely. The probing, circling motion of his thumbs on the tips sent shock waves through her. The thin material of her flowered shirt and the lacy bra she wore offered little protection.
    At once she sought to back away, but his fingers splayed tightly against her rib cage and held her still.
    „No,“ he told her, resuming control of the kiss she had started,
    „you’re committed now. There’s no turning back.“ This time his mouth lazed over hers as if testing the waters before diving into the depths, and under the compulsion of his will, his hands, and his searching mouth, Stacy stood quiescently and wondered at the turn of fate. Sensing the fight had gone out of her for the present, Hunter at last lifted his head once more and watched her with a shuttered look.
    „I think,“ he stated finally^ „it’s time we told your brother of our sudden, irresistible attraction, don’t you?“
    „If that’s what you want,“ Stacy heard herself say evenly, wondering what would happen when he eventually realized that the revenge he sought was going to be vastly less painful for her father now that Eric and Leana were no longer the instruments of that revenge. Would she be able to keep him from discovering how drasti-cally she had muted his actions? Stacy asked herself. Would Hunter question the stoic, perhaps total lack of concern with which Paul Rylan was sure to greet the news of his daughter’s wedding? Or would he simply assume her father was hiding his feelings, confident in the knowledge that his reasoning was correct and that Paul would be infuriated by the announcement? Since until tonight Hunter hadn’t even been aware of her existence, there was no way he could know that Paul Rylan had given up on his stubborn, willful, independent daughter long ago: that both father and mother had focused the majority of their affection and approval on the son who was to inherit the family business – the son who had made the proper social marriage and who had striven hard to be worthy of his parents’ respect.
    Stacy was certain that Leana had become the close, confiding daughter Miriam Rylan wanted. The daughter who excelled at all the social niceties and who