The Falcon's Bride Read Online Free PDF Page B

chambers.”
    Nigel shook his head. “You want me to wear out old Beadle the stabler hooking up a rusty old sleigh that hasn’t been used in years, just to drive round to that dreary old place in such weather as this is? I think not. Look at that sky! There’s more snow on the way. You know, you’re becoming quite tiresome, Theodosia. That odd business with the old Gypsy woman yesterday, for one thing, not to mention the ridiculous brouhaha over ghosts. Mother says you’re just courting attention. Is that it? Or is this something of a different nature? I thought I was paying you more than enough attention. We need to settle these matters now, before the wedding, so that we understand one another going into this.”
    “If you wish to cry off, I shan’t stand in your way,” Thea suggested, hoping he’d jump at the opportunity.
    “Of course I do not want to break our engagement,” he said, turning her toward him. “I simply want to start us out on the right foot. I realize you’re young, and I’ve taken that into account. With nearly fifteen years difference in our ages, there are bound to be . . . difficulties. I merely want to keep them to a minimum. But I cannot do this alone. You need to grow up, Theodosia. The world does not dance to your whims, at least not here at Cashel Cosgrove. Others’ feelings must be taken into account. Mine—”
    “And your mother’s,” Thea interrupted. The wind whipped tears into her eyes, and she narrowed them. What an insufferable wretch! Could he really be so full of himself?
    “Yes, and my mother’s. What is wrong with that?”
    “Well, if you are too dimwitted to see, I shan’t waste my pains pointing it out. Suffice it to say that I am not the only one who needs to take stock, Nigel Cosgrove. She pulls your strings like a puppet master in Drury Lane. I thought I was marrying a man , not a marionette!”
    “You doubt my manhood, do you?” he asked through clenched teeth. Seizing her upper arms in a viselike grip, he crushed her against him and took her in a savage kiss, drawing blood as one of his canine teeth bit into her lower lip. He tasted foul, of gin and undigested food. Thrusting one hand beneath her fur wrap, he groped her while tethering her to him with the other. “I’ve had no complaints in that department,” he said, his voice husky with desire. “It is all I can do to keep my hands off you, Theodosia.” All at once his eyes darkened. Traces of her blood glistened on his mouth, fixed in a sneer, and he licked it away with the tip of his tongue. “Why should I?” he said, wrenching her hard against him. “We’re as good as wed, and you, miss, need a lesson to show you who is master here.”
    Terror caught Thea’s breath in her throat. Blood rushed to her head. Cruel, pinching fingers tore at the décolleté of her frock until he’d bared her breast to the icy wind. He bent her arm behind her back with such a savage wrench she feared it would break, meanwhile sliding his ravenous mouth the length of her throat to the trembling flesh he’d exposed beneath, and bit down hard upon her nipple. Pinned against the crenellation, she struggled in his arms, striking what she could reach of him with her free hand balled in a fist. Her legs were useless; the bruising pressureof his sex, his rock-hard thighs and muscular torso crushed against her prevented her from raising them to her defense.
    “Do not struggle,” he spat in her ear. “Struggling only stimulates me.” Thea cried out as he forced her free hand against his arousal. He shook her roughly. “Scream again and I’ll have you here and now. You have no idea how your pain excites me . . .”
    He had hold of her wrist, but not her fingers. And she summoned all the strength she could muster to seize his member like a vise, digging her nails into the soft buckskin breeches drawn taut over its bulk until he cried out and let her go.
    Thea tugged the gaping frock back over her nakedness, drew back