Stolen Splendor Read Online Free PDF Page A

stalking its prey. His features were masked
by flickering shadows cast by the sputtering candles, but she could feel his
gaze, glittering, implacable, upon her.
    Unwittingly, her gaze darted over him. She had never
before seen a man completely unclothed. She stared with reluctant fascination
at his bared body, sleek and handsomely proportioned. His rugged shoulders and
chest were banded in rippling muscle, his stomach sculpted and flat, his hips
tapered, his thighs powerfully knotted with muscle, and . . . and . . .
    "Oh!" she gasped, a burning blush scorching
her skin like wildfire as her eyes fell on his erect manhood.
    Stefan chuckled deep in his throat. What a game she was
playing, he thought wryly. Obviously, she feigned such innocence as an
enticement, a seductive trick to earn an extra coin or two, and if he did not
know better, he might have thought she had never seen a naked man before. He
wondered fleetingly if she might even claim she was still a virgin . . .
    "Come, wench," he said softly, his deep,
rough-edged voice almost a whisper. "You play your clever game well, and I
promise you will be rewarded. But enough. It's time to earn your wage." He
reached out, his hands expertly untying the laces of her bodice, his fingers
lightly grazing the lush curve of her breasts beneath the plain fabric.
    Though he barely touched her, Kassandra jerked away
from him as if she had been stung, her back hitting the wall behind her.
Realizing she could go no farther, she drew herself up proudly and met the full
force of his gaze, her eyes large and flashing with defiance.
    "I-I'm a serving maid, sir, a lady's maid, and
certainly not the harlot you imagine me to be," she blurted indignantly,
her hands flying up and bracing against his massive chest as he once again drew
closer, so close that his scent enveloped her senses and made her limbs feel
strangely weak. "I stumbled into this tavern by mistake . . . My mistress
is surely looking for me. If you will only let me go—"
    Stefan captured her mouth with his own, silencing her
vehement protests with the savagery of his kiss. When her hands curled into
tightly clenched fists and pounded desperately against his chest, he caught
them in his own, their fingers entwining, and forced them against the wall.
    Kassandra could scarcely breathe, the rampant pounding of her heart a deafening roar in her ears, like the
crashing waves of the ocean. Warmth coursed through her body as his mouth, warm
and fragrant with wine, encompassed her own; his kiss, plundering and
searching, was a sweet torture unlike anything she had ever known. His tongue
flicked against her teeth, demanding entrance, then filled her mouth, tasting,
savoring, making her forget . . .
    Kassandra's eyes flew open as he released her hands and
drew her closer, his powerful arms crushing her to him, the warmth of his body
like a hot brand searing through her clothing to the tingling flesh beneath.
No! her mind screamed, awful reality flooding back to
her. She had to do something, anything to protect herself!
    Suddenly she remembered his sword and pistol on the
other side of the bed, and a glimmer of hope flared within her. They were her
only chance, if she could just reach them. She had been taught enough of
weaponry that she could fire a pistol with accuracy or strike a glancing blow
with a sword. But his well-muscled arms were like a prisoner's bonds about her,
the only barrier between her and the weapons that
might save her.
    If only she could think of a way to catch him off
guard. Something that might make him loosen his iron
grip . . .
    She almost laughed in giddy relief at the idea that
flashed through her mind. Instinctively, and with an innate sense of all that
was seductively feminine, she wound her slender arms about his neck and
returned his kiss with a fiery passion that took him totally by surprise.
    Startled, Stefan tore his mouth away and looked down at
her, mesmerized by the darkened amethyst pools of her eyes and