Scarlet Lady Read Online Free PDF

thrall slowly subsided, easing with it every muscle in her body.
    Beneath him, crushed by him as he lay for a moment in exhaustion—yet still somehow tense—she felt limp and drained. But her face shone with a radiant joy that came from every inch of her body, her heart, her soul. 'Oh, Leo!' she mumbled incoherently, blinded by happy tears.
    And then he groaned. Once, twice, as if in despair.
    His welcome weight lifted away when she wanted him to stay and to hold her in his arms. Her naked body chilled with the emptiness that was left by his absence. Dazed and confused, she struggled to lift her lids and clear her vision. Her heart missed a beat. Sounds nearby told her that he was dressing.
    'Leo?' she murmured weakly. Even from there she could hear his harsh breathing, rasping like an angry saw. Panic clutched her heart. No, she thought. They were bonded together for ever now...
    'Yes?'
    She whimpered at the curtly spoken word. 'Didn't you... wasn't it... good?' she asked tentatively.
    'Stunningly good. Highly accomplished and extremely satisfying,' he husked, the words shooting out painfully. His eyes smouldered at her. 'What a lot you've learnt since we last made love!'
    'Don't say that!' Unusually awkward and uncoordinated, she struggled in horror to a sitting position and watched him grimly wrench his trousers up to his waist. 'Not so, Leo! I-'
    'Don't try to explain,' he growled, angrily snapping his shirt around his sweat-licked torso. Every movement tight with anger, he picked up his shoes and began to stalk to the door. Ginny had the impression that he'd turn on her like a wounded animal and savage her if he stayed. 'Quite a sexual artiste, aren't you, now someone's taught you how to be uninhibited?'
    'No one taught me,' she breathed, her throat dry with fear.
    His eyes chilled every inch of her body as his scorn- filled gaze swept over it and dismissed her denial with a snort of disbelief. 'You expect me to believe that, after your performance just now? Yes, it was "good". For a moment there you made me forget everything. We were lovers again—but lovers as we'd never been before. And then I realised that some other man—or men—must have been teaching you the art of love.'
    'No!' she wailed.
    'I wish I could believe you!' he said fervently. ' I wanted to be that man, Ginny! I wanted you to unfold that tight rein you kept on yourself. But no, some jerk I don't even know has shown you how to gain access to your sexual well!' He drew in a deep, shuddering breath, his face bleak with the same dark hell that he was digging for her. 'How could you, Ginny?' he roared. 'How could you do it? That exhibition told me everything I needed to know. Thanks for the information. Now I'm under no illusions about you.'
    Ginny covered her icy, trembling body as well as she could with her hands. 'Leo—' she husked.
    'Save it!' he said curtly over his shoulder. Then he turned, his face as black as thunder. 'I want honesty in my wife,' he bit out. 'Decency. A woman I can respect. Not a painted doll who uses her beauty to get what she wants. You did that with me just now, didn't you?'
    'I—I wanted you to...care for me, to help me,' she jerked out.
    'Sure. You let me have you because you wanted something,' he said, his mouth curling in contempt. 'Now I do believe the stories about you.'
    Dispassionately, he studied her for long, interminable seconds while she fought the tears and her total exhaustion. She had to get up, run to him, love him into realising that everyone had misunderstood her and put her into a mould of their own making, not hers.
    'I am innocent, Leo,' she said, wondering if she could ever crack that icy regard, the look of hauteur which reminded her forcibly that he was The Honourable Leo Brandon, born and bred with pride.
    'Like hell! I should have seen it coming. I can't entirely blame you. That's the kind of world you entered when you were too young to prevent your slow corruption. I know what goes on, Ginny. But