Forever in Your Embrace Read Online Free PDF

kicked the piece from her hands, spinning the elder about. Struggling to keep her balance, Ali staggered back several steps, but she was fully alert a moment later and unwilling to relent when the man threw a leg over the horn of the saddle and slid to the ground. She skittered toward him and launched a fresh assault with her cudgel. His arm swept out almost gently to knock the club away, but Ali caught the muscular limb and clung to it with as much pertinacity as an outraged bee who had just been swished by the tail of a horse. Before he could shake her off, she sank her teeth into his bronzed skin. A low growl issued forth from the thick throat as Ladislaus jerked free. In the next instant, his fist shot forward, striking the small, wrinkled chin. It was no contest. Ali’s eyes rolled upward, and she slowly slithered to the ground in a senseless void.
    “ Yooouuu monster! ” Synnovea railed, incensed by his heavy-handed treatment of her maid. Flying at him with fingers curled into claws, she raked her nails across his face, drawing blood, but with a backward swipe of his arm Ladislaus sent her stumbling away. She fared better than Ali and, though shaken, managed to retain her senses. Her fury remained undiminished, and she berated him in scathing tones. “You cowardly oaf, is this the best your brawn can display? Have you no courage to face one of your own size? Or does the dainty form serve your inflated valor better?”
    Ivan Voronsky carefully kept his distance through this fray, justifying his lack of assistance by blandly dismissing the countess’s predicament as something she rightfully deserved. If she had garbed herself appropriately and given credence to his warnings, she might have escaped the rogue’s attention. He wasn’t about to draw notice to himself and court certain disaster because of her foolishness.
    Synnovea tried to scurry past the thieving lordling in an effort to reach her maid, but she promptly found her way blocked. Her head snapped up in rising ire, and with lips curling in sneering distaste, she raked her gaze down his long form. Above hide breeches, a leather jerkin hung open to reveal a broad, muscular chest. His arms were bare and bulging with rippling sinews, evidencing a strength that could easily immobilize her. In all, he was a fine specimen of mighty brawn, but at the moment, she saw the epitome of a cruel beast.
    Ladislaus stared into the most enraged green-brown eyes he had ever chanced to view. The flaring orbs fairly seared him in her hot displeasure. “You needn’t fret, Countess,” he consoled almost pleasantly. “Your servant will live through this with nothing more to boast about than a small bruise and an aching head.”
    “Should I, then, be grateful for your gentle care of us, milord Ladislaus?” Synnovea sneered, offended by the fact that she and all who were with her were completely vulnerable to the frivolous whims of these black-hearted plunderers. “You halted my coach on this lonely road and gave your foul consent to your murderous band of cutthroats to do whatever mischief they might construe. You abused the captain of my guard and, by your twisted reasoning, cast him as the villain! You wounded my footman and now my maid. Would you, beastly tyrant, have me fall to my knees before you in humble apology for daring to travel where your bloodthirsty vipers lurk? Ha! ” With a toss of her head, Synnovea demonstrated her belief that such an idea was preposterous. “Were I armed, knave, you’d be breathing your last this very moment! That’s as much as I sympathize with your claims of ill-treatment from the hands of boyars! Whoever your father is, I’ve no doubt he fervently regrets the creature he spawned during a passing night’s whimsy.”
    Ladislaus braced his massive fists against his hips and grinned in hearty amusement at her insults and logic. “I’m sure the old rascal has had much cause to repent that deed, for I give him no more homage than he