Temptation & Twilight Read Online Free PDF Page B

Try to meet his gaze head-BOUND GALLEY EDITION March 23, 2012
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    on. But she had no knowledge of her eyes, and what they might do, where they might be directed, and she would not give him a glimpse of her weakness, no matter how fleeting it might be.
    So she stood quietly, willing her breathing to slow and become controlled. Her head was lowered, her face averted, turned away from him. His breath kissed her skin as she maintained her stance, knowing she was not meeting his gaze, but showing him indifference. He touched her, the faintest graze of his fingertips along her cheek, and she struggled against him, pushing away from his touch. It only made him press closer to her—
    obscenely closer, for she could feel the way his abdomen moved against her gown with each of his breaths.
    “Say something,” she declared, despising the fact that she couldn’t see his face and expression. Was he looking at her? Smirking? Having a good laugh at her expense?
    “What would you have me say?”
    In a fit of frustration she stamped her foot. “How could you!” she demanded, thinking of how she must have looked to the Sumners’ guests as he dragged her out of the salon. “Oh,” she whispered, “what have you done?”
    “Protected you,” he replied. “Sheltered you from the company of one who could never know you—not like how I know you.”
    Refusing to pay any heed to the last of his statement, or the intimacy that seemed to be created between them, Lizzy forged on, thinking it best to steer him away from any reminders of the past. “Whatever were you thinking to do such a thing? Have you grown so uncouth?”
    “Truth?” he murmured, and she refused to melt at the sound of his silken voice.
    “Are you capable of speaking it?” she taunted.
    “Aye. Are you capable of hearing it?” BOUND GALLEY EDITION March 23, 2012
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    CHARLOTTE FEATHERSTONE
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    Snorting with indignation, she motioned for him to continue. She did not, however, expect him to whisper into her ear, “I thought I might carry you off, back into my den, where I would play with you, paw at you, before devouring you whole.”
    She shivered as she felt his hand brush along her gown.
    “And there is quite a bit to devour, isn’t there?” he went on. “You’ve turned into a right armful, haven’t ye? Plump as a Rubens’ model, ye are,” he said, his deep voice rumbling in his chest. His comment only made her more vulnerable —and incensed. Churl! To speak of her figure in such a way was positively unforgivable. She had gained a few stone over the years, it was true, but it was grossly ungentlemanly for the man to mention it.
    Using some of her anger, she said in a haughty voice,
    “I demand to know what you are about, sir. The truth. ”
    “And I demand the same. What the devil,” he growled back, “are you about?”
    “Not that it is any of your concern,” she sniffed in her best matriarchal tone, “but I am at a musicale, enjoying myself. I didn’t realize it was a crime.”
    “Oh, aye, ’tis a crime, all right, looking the way you do, making every eye in the room turn your way. Making them stare at the picture you present.” She gasped, unable to help it. Such a cruel, cold bastard. She was a mature woman who could think what she wanted, say what she desired, and what she thought of Alynwick was nothing but the truth. She, more than anyone, knew just how cold and cruel, and every inch a bastard, the Marquis of Alynwick truly was.
    His comment was beyond shocking, and she had to struggle to put herself to rights. She was an independent woman, a strong woman, and she would not let a member of the opposite sex demean her in such a way. She might BOUND GALLEY EDITION March 23, 2012
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    be blind, but she always carried herself with dignity and decorum.