One Night of Sin Read Online Free PDF Page A

again to cup her cheek.
    She knocked his hand away with a savage motion and shot to her feet. “Don’t touch me!”
    The third man laughed at her fierce show of spirit. Becky glared at him.
    “You know, I think she fancies me,” Lord Rushford rumbled, staring at her.
    When he stood up slowly from his crouched position, rising to his full height, Becky had to tilt her head back to meet his fiery gaze. She felt the blood drain from her face.
    Lord Rushford pressed closer; she shrank back against the wall. He planted his hands aggressively on the bricks and lowered his head. “Tell me your name, you impertinent vixen.”
    “Easy, Rush. You’ve had a bit too much to drink,” said the cool-eyed angel in the corner, but the black-haired man was fixed on her.
    “Get the door,” Rushford ordered the other one as he took her arm.
    She felt cornered. Her heart thumped like that of a trapped rabbit. “Please.” She swallowed hard. “Let me go.”
    “No, no, my dear. You must come inside and have a drink with us,” Lord Rushford said in a tone that brooked no argument. “I insist.” His grip was not rough, but it was unyielding.
    Country girl or not, common sense told her she was doomed if she let these men take her inside. Staring at her towering captor, all of the strain and terror of the past week swirled in her mind, pounded in her blood, funneled down into a fierce point of rage.
    No,
she thought as her fury surged. She would not tolerate this. They were
not
going to do this to her. With senses blurred by fear, instinct pounded in her veins—fight or flee. As Lord Rushford leaned nearer with a vain grin, boldly bent on kissing her, Becky attacked without warning.
    She stepped forward suddenly and kneed him hard in the groin. He yelped in startled pain and let her go as he lurched to the side. In the blink of an eye she shoved the brown-haired man violently out of her way, and when Lord Draxinger reached for her elbow with a condescending, “Now, now, my dear,” she hauled back her fist and punched him in the jaw as hard as she could.
    She dashed out of the portico and ran at top speed into the night, instantly drenched in the pouring rain.
     
    For a full second Alec could not even react for sheer astonishment. He was rarely surprised anymore in life, especially by females, but the girl’s attack left him flabbergasted. Fort was laughing his head off, applauding her attack and yelling, “Bravo, my girl!” but Alec could only stare in shocked amazement at the sight of the other two members of his exalted set laid low. Rushford bent, wheezing, over his offending organ, while Drax rubbed his jaw with a groan and spit out a bit of blood.
    “Chit knocked my damned tooth loose!”
    All of a sudden, Alec laughed aloud. Good Lord, the chit had thrashed them, neat as a ninepence! How many women of England, their past conquests, would have paid in gold to see the great seducers thus unmanned? Alec was not among the casualties of the little hellion’s rampage, so he could appreciate the humor in it; but although she hadn’t touched him, she had certainly jolted him out of his “mood.” He was already in motion, dashing out of the portico’s shelter with a hell-raising grin.
    “Where are you going?” Fort called as he ran out into the rain.
    “To make sure she’s all right!”
    “Her?” Rush croaked. “What about us?”
    “You deserved it.” Squinting against the rain, Alec spotted the mysterious waif sprinting away down the street. “Miss!” he yelled, starting in her direction. “Come back!”
    She cast a frightened glance over her shoulder, but just kept running. Plainly, she had no intention of trusting them now. Alec sent his friends a scowl. “I told you not to scare her.”
    Then he set out after her at an easy jog, his longer paces allowing him to gain on her at once.
    “Careful, old boy!” Fort yelled after him merrily. “Girl’s dangerous.”
    “I like dangerous,” he replied under his