Scarlet Lady Read Online Free PDF Page B

we Brandons prefer to protect the honour of our wives, if only to keep the blood line pure. You're right. Our worlds don't mix. Pack your things. You've got an hour to be out of here. Leave nothing behind to remind me of a very bad mistake I made. We're finished, Ginny. I'm divorcing you.'
    A harsh, guttural wail ripped out from deep inside her. But he'd gone, in a storming, door-slamming rush. Ginny slowly lifted her head, tilting it back, and closed her eyes in despair. Her white-blonde hair swept down her naked back and she registered that the tightly secured chignon had been dismantled by Leo's hands, by his wild lovemaking. She blushed, at a loss to understand quite how a strictly brought-up woman could have abandoned herself so completely to the devils within her.
    No wonder he'd been shocked. She was too, merely thinking of what they'd done, red stains working their way up from her slender feet to her mortified face. So she'd ruined her chance to show Leo that they could be lovers again by revealing an untamed and uncontrolled side of herself that he must have hated.
    After all, she thought mournfully, everyone adored her Grace Kelly manner. They loved her serenity, her calmness. Leo had said that he liked the fact that she always behaved like a lady. Some lady. But that was what he'd wanted—a woman who'd project an image of breeding. And now she'd ruined that.
    Her body quivered with the pleasure that had rippled through it in great roller-coaster waves. Over and over again they'd crashed through her and physically she felt totally sated. Emotionally, however...
    Her perfect white teeth snagged her lower lip. It was bruised and swollen and she touched it with her finger, wondering whether Leo had always known what real, uninhibited sex was like and if she'd been a disappointment to him before because she'd never given her whole self. Till it was too late.
    But he'd wanted her. Desperately. Beyond all his rigidly imposed self-control. He'd been crazy to have her and he'd hated her for that because he would have preferred to take her with cool ruthlessness and fling her aside.
    Perhaps she could build on his desire. A ragged breath shuddered through her and she stood, quickly dressing. It was the only hope she had. Hastily she searched for enough of the scattered hairpins to do her chignon again and had to give up, combing the silken hair with her fingers instead. She paused as Leo's words came back to her, jolting her with their intensity.
    Divorce... Life without Leo. Cold horror iced her body. He was all she had! The only man she'd ever loved. She wouldn't, mustn't lose him! Especially now that she'd given her whole self to him, abandoning a lifetime of restraint to show him what he meant to her.
    Frantically she ran out of the library and began to search the rooms downstairs, then hitched up her tight skirt and raced up the wide stairs two at a time.
    Relief flooded through her when she heard the shower running in their en suite bathroom. Thinking of nothing else but convincing him, she went straight to the cabinet, opened the door and walked inside.
    'Leo! Listen to me!' she begged, water plastering her hair to her scalp.
    'What the-? You're fully clothed, Ginny! Get out!' he said with an irritable frown.
    But she held him, her arms wrapped around his waist. And instantly he became aroused. Relief burst into her mind. She had a chance. 'Don't turn me away, Leo,' she said softly, lifting her face to his. 'I can't imagine life without you—'
    'You're already living it without me,' he muttered, wrenching her arms away and flinging open the shower door.
    She stood there, saturated, dazed. Don't give up hope. Try again, she told herself. Try again. Stripping off her jacket as she spoke, she said, 'Everything is good except for the problem of my work and Castlestowe. We can discuss our differences and compromise. Change things—'
    'One thing's changed. You've become a spectacular lay,' he said crudely. 'But I don't