The Heiress Read Online Free PDF Page B

him this way before, and he found it intriguing. As for the rest of her, she had a full bosom, a tiny waist, and full, curving hips. She made a man’s hands itch—or at least his anyway.
    After she recovered from her shock of the beauty of him, she wondered why her father had hired such a beautiful man to lead her to her fiancé. Always her father hired ugly men, men who would not tempt a rich young woman. But above all, her father got value for his money. As she’d learned from Frances, beautiful people were useless. They seemed to believe that their mere presence was all that was needed from them. So why had her father sent this beautiful, useless man to be the heiress’s escort? What was her father up to now?
    â€œWould you please listen to me?” he said.
    As he spoke, he looked down at the small, curvaceous body under his, and she felt his hand on her waist move upward. She had never seen that look before, but instinctively, she knew what was in his mind.
    â€œTouch me and I’ll scream,” she said, her eyes cold.
    â€œI’m not usually given to rape,” he said as though she’d wounded his pride.
    â€œThen remove your hands and your body from mine.”
    â€œAh yes,” he said, smiling in a way that she was sure had devastated many women. But then handsome young men
always
smiled beatifically at the Maidenhall heiress or, in this case, at a woman he thought was connected with her.
    Yet he did not roll off of her. “You’ll be quiet?”
    â€œOnly if you remove your person from atop me. I cannot breathe.”
    With seeming reluctance, he rolled off of her, but this time when Axia made a try for freedom, he was prepared, catching her skirt and pulling her slightly back under him. “You are not a person of honor, are you?” he asked seriously.
    â€œI have a great sense of honor,” she said, eyes flashing, “when I deal with honorable men. You, sir, are trespassing.”
    â€œI prefer to think that I am a day early, ’tis all.”
    Once again, his hand was creeping upward.
    She narrowed her eyes at him. “If you will unhand me, I will tell you
anything,”
she said, sounding as though his touch was more repulsive than all the sins of the world.
    She could see by his expression that he was shocked by her words. No doubt he’d never heard any word except
yes
from a woman. Having spent most of her life with Frances’s beauty, Axia knew the power it had. Axia could argue for an hour with a gardener over how to prune the apple trees, but Frances would stroll toward them, bat her lashes, and say
she
thought the trees should be cut such a way, and two minutes later three men were falling over themselves to cut just where she’d said. In the herb garden a lovesick boy had trimmed the rosemary into great F’s for Frances. And there were swans—Frances’s favorite bird—everywhere.
    Perhaps it was going too far to say so, but Axia hated beautiful people. Oh, she liked to make sketches and paintings of them, but as for company, she much preferred men who looked like Tode and the head steward.
    â€œYes, of course,” he said, rolling off her once again. “But please do not run or make any noise. Or I will have to—”
    Axia raised herself to a sitting position. “Put your hands on me again? To prevent that I will tell you
anything
you want to know.” His look of puzzlement at the disdain in her voice made her smile.
    Once he was on his feet, he held out his hand to help her up, but she ignored it. Standing, she said, “What do you want to know? Pound per pound the amount of gold owned by Maidenhall? Or will you take an estimate in cartloads?”
    â€œCynical little thing, aren’t you? No, I want to know about
her.”
    â€œAh yes, the beautiful Frances.” Axia was dusting herself off. He was dressed in black velvet, whereas she had on rough linen. But then velvet was