Invitation to Ruin Read Online Free PDF Page A

this strong grip.
    “Christ, do not … move … do not … wiggle … oh, my God.”
    Melissa felt him surge inside her. Once, twice, his grip on her arms vice-like. She knew her skin would be bruised in the morning. He all but roared in her ear, his breath coming in ragged pants. He was trying desperately to withdraw from her, but in her frantic panic they seemed to tangle further.
    Finally, he eased his hold and he was gone from between her thighs. He rolled away from her and onto his back, rubbing his hand over his eyes and muttering under his breath. She thought she heard more cursing.
    Stunned, she curled into a ball and lay completely still. She was the one who had just been violated, yet he rolled away from her as if he’d been burned by a flame. He made sure he was no longer touching her, as though she were diseased.
    Her temper flared at his dismissal of her. She rolled onto her side, facing him, trying to ignore the dull ache between her thighs, noticeable, along with the wetness. She wasn’t innocent about the world of men. Cassie had been quite forthcoming with details of the marriage bed.
    “Your reputation as a renowned lover is somewhat overstated.” The sarcasm all but ripped from her mouth. “It would seem only one of us is quite satisfied.”
    “I have not had a woman in over three months. I’m sorry, but your enthusiastic response got the better of me. Give me a few minutes and I will redeem myself.” He added sardonically, “Since the damage has already been done.”
    “Damage?” Melissa spat. “I’m still a person. A person you have abused.”
    He let vent another expletive.
    “Your vocabulary is much lacking. Is cussing all you can do?”
    “It won’t work, you know.” The velvet in his voice replacedwith tones as cold and rough as tombstones. “I will not be captured into matrimony by this obvious trap.”
    “What trap would that be? How to be deflowered by a stranger in the night? How to be ruined for any other man? How to be shamed through no fault of my own?”
    He snorted. “The trap of swapping beds with Lady Cassandra, so I would take your innocence and be made to marry you.”
    The darkness hid her anguish. She would never stoop so low as to try and trap a man into marriage. No matter how she played this, she would be the one to pay for his grievous error. Well, she had her pride, and she would not beg him to believe the mistake was all his own.
    She swallowed her anger. There was no way she’d let him know the devastation enveloping her. “This is—and always has been—my room. Ever since we came to stay. Cassie’s room is one door further along. It would appear, in your haste you miscounted.”
    More silence.
    “Cassie’s door is the fifth door along the corridor. Mine is the fourth.”
    “You should have locked your door.” His tone was scathing, letting her know exactly whose fault he thought this situation was.
    “A mistake I will not make again. However, do you always enter without an invitation?” she threw back.
    “I had an invitation, if you must know.”
    “You certainly did not.”
    He frowned. “Did I say it was from you?”
    “Well, you should have counted the doors more carefully. Your math is appalling.”
    “I can count. My information was incorrect.” He finally uttered in a tone verging on resignation, “I will kill my brother …”
    Melissa gasped in horror, his mistake suddenly obvious. “Once I have your apology, you’ll have to line up to get to your brother. Now get out!”
    He ignored her command, seemingly lost in thought. His voice softened. “Why on earth did you not stop me?” The words were almost a plea.
    “I thought I was dreaming.”
    He finally turned his head to look at her. “But you were a virgin. Virgins do not dream of men …”
    “Of men what?”
    He growled, “Of men ravishing them.”
    “And how would you know what virgins dream about? Have you asked them?”
    “Not bloody likely. I try to keep as far away