Don't Hurt Me Read Online Free PDF

dreams. There had
been something disturbingly erotic about them. Even now, she felt her body
respond as she remembered that dark face leaning over hers.
       She showered, carefully choosing to
dress in jeans and a casual white sweater, and hurried downstairs to find the
kitchen deserted. A loaf of bread had been left on the breakfast table,
however, alongside the butter dish and an assortment of jams. Ignoring the
silence which lay over the downstairs rooms of Moor’s Peak, Julia made up a
fresh pot of tea and cheerfully helped herself to some toast and jam.
       She assumed that Marshall must be
closeted with his daughter elsewhere in the house. It was nearly eleven
o’clock, after all. They had probably risen and breakfasted much earlier in the
morning. Julia was not usually such a heavy sleeper but the events of last
night must have exhausted her. Not to mention those wild dreams, which still
had the power to bring a hot flush into her cheeks.
       ‘You look as if you slept rather
better than me,’ a drawling voice came from behind her. Julia turned to see
Marshall leaning in the doorway, watching her profile with sardonic eyes. She
looked away in confusion, suspicious that this man could read her thoughts. His
soft laughter seemed to confirm that. ‘I trust the bed was comfortable?’
       ‘Extremely, thank you.’
       Marshall straightened up and
sauntered into the kitchen, his gaze sweeping rapidly over the crumbs on her
plate.
       ‘I see you managed to grab
something to eat. I thought Victoria might have devoured it all before you got
down.’ He hesitated. ‘Do you mind if I join you for a quick cup of tea? I had
my breakfast hours ago and I’m dying of thirst.’
       She almost laughed at the plaintive
tone. ‘Of course,’ she murmured, fetching him a clean cup and pouring some tea
from the pot she had made. ‘Milk? Sugar?’
       ‘Just milk,’ he said promptly. ‘I
stopped taking sugar in my tea when I was eleven.’
       ‘You drank tea when you were only
eleven years old?’ Julia exclaimed, her voice incredulous.
       ‘I was a precocious eleven.’
       She could not help smiling at the
thought of Marshall as a mischievous eleven year old. ‘That I can believe.’
       He sat there for a while in
silence, watching her over the rim of his tea, those strange tawny eyes
lingering on her face and then sliding down over the deep ‘V’ of her sweater
neckline with unashamed insolence. When she shifted uncomfortably, his smile
made it clear that he had sensed her unease and was enjoying it. Raising her
chin in a gesture of defiance, Julia forced herself to stare back at him. Two
can play at that game, she thought fiercely. His scar was half hidden this
morning behind the collar of a crisp blue shirt. Whenever he moved though, she
caught a glimpse of its curving line along the sinewy brown throat and felt a
stab of curiosity to know how such a bad car accident could had happened.
       Marshall was an unpredictable
mixture, Julia thought, feeling her nerve endings jump at his scrutiny and
wishing she could drop her gaze without appearing gauche. He had seemed like a
little boy just then, asking her so wistfully for a cup of tea that she had
lowered her guard. Yet already he was back to his usual predatory self, that
intensely sexual gaze reminding her of just how dangerous he could be.
       Now his eyes had moved on again,
abruptly releasing her as if he had grown tired of the game. His mouth hardened
into a thin line and he stared down at his watch.
       ‘Have you seen Victoria at all this
morning?’ he asked, putting down his cup and gazing restlessly about the room.
‘I wanted her to ring the school with me but she doesn’t seem to be up yet.
I’ve alerted the police, of course, but it’s important that we try to mend
bridges with the Headmaster as soon as possible. That way, I might be able to
persuade them to keep her on at the school.’
       ‘Sorry, I haven’t