Be Mine Tonight Read Online Free PDF

been his imagination, but another breath proved it wasn’t. She was near, and though he knew he should walk away, he found himself following the smell of her rather than avoiding it.
    The trail led him to a partially closed door. A thin trickle of light seeped from the edges, as did the perfume of Prudence Ryland’s flesh. Of its own accord, his hand rose and pushed the door open. It didn’t even squeak, giving him several seconds to watch her in appreciation.
    Prudence Ryland reclined on a dark blue velvet chaise in the center of the room, clad in a flimsy, virginal nightgown and wrapper, her wine-rich hair falling about her shoulders. Chapel’s mouthwent dry at the sight of her. His heart gave a little thump against his ribs, as though it simply wanted to let him know it was still there.
    Everything about her wept life and hope and a sense of desperation that called to him. She looked so fragile he longed to protect her, so delicate he wanted to shelter her and so damned tempting that he wanted to sink his fangs into her just to know the bittersweet tang of life once more.
    Leave. Every ounce of good sense he possessed demanded that he go. He hadn’t fought temptation for more than four centuries just to surrender to it now. He turned.
    “Don’t let me chase you away, Mr. Chapel.”
    Her low, honeyed voice sent a shiver down his spine; her taunt set his teeth on edge. He faced her. “I have no wish to intrude on your privacy, Miss Ryland.”
    She smiled as though she found him amusing. Kittens and children were amusing. He was a monster—a monster little girls like this one should not toy with.
    Little girl? Compared to him, perhaps, but when she stood, it was all too obvious just how much of a woman she truly was. Ivory silk hugged the curve of one breast, the length of a smooth round thigh.
    “You are not intruding,” she informed him. “Please do not let my presence stop you from searching out something to read.”
    How could her presence not stop him? How could anyone—even a mere mortal—concentrateon titles and contents when such sweet-smelling flesh was so near?
    Still, she would think it odd if he did not acquiesce, so he went to one of the many shelves and started looking. She did not turn her attention away from him as he had expected. In fact, she perched herself on the arm of the chaise and watched him as though he were some kind of fascinating subject. In return, he watched her out of the corner of his eye.
    Her head tilted. “Were you having trouble falling asleep?”
    The question was innocent enough, if not a little nosy. “No. I’ve always been a bit of a night owl.” That was an understatement. “You?”
    She shrugged her elegant shoulders. “I tend to sleep better when it is light outside.” A self-depracating chuckle followed. “That sounds foolish, doesn’t it?”
    A strange tightness pinched at Chapel’s chest as he turned to face her and her bashful gaze. Where was his temptress of earlier?
    “No,” he replied with a shake of his head. “It does not sound strange. I sleep better during the day as well.”
    She smiled then, a tremulous, uncertain curving of her lips. “There is something about the dark that makes me…”
    “Restless?”
    Wide hazel eyes snapped to his, bright with something that looked uncomfortably like vulnerability. “Yes.”
    She didn’t seem eager to converse further on the subject and Chapel wasn’t about to ask, lest she return with her own questions about his predilection for nocturnal wanderings.
    He went back to reading book spines. Nothing appealed to him. He’d much rather talk to his delicious companion.
    “Was there something in particular you were looking for?” she asked. “I know where to find almost any book in this library.”
    No doubt she did. “I thought it might be prudent to reacquaint myself with Arthurian legends. Tintagel is full of them, is it not?”
    She grinned, revealing straight white teeth. “It is. He was