The Lady and the Lion Read Online Free PDF

palm.
    Just a look, he told himself reassuringly. To see her face, her eyes. That was all. She'd walk right past him, a stranger, but knowing what she looked like would substitute for their missed conversation this morning.
    He wondered, almost idly, if he had finally gone over the edge.
    He hadn't expected the instant jolt of familiarity he experienced at the sight of her coming up the path toward him. And he hadn't expected her to stop, no more than a few feet away, her eyes locked with his and holding a shocked expression. He hadn't expected her to be so beautiful.
    Beautiful. A pale word to describe her. Her bright hair was a silky mass of loose red curls falling below her shoulders, framing a face so exquisite it stopped his heart. There was no conventional prettiness in those delicate features, nothing of the girl next door, and none of the glamorous "perfection" of a high-fashion model. She possessed the kind of singular beauty that no one, man or woman, would ever question or debate, a rare combination of bone structure, coloring, and features that marked her as a woman who would be lovely all the days of her life.
    Keith saw that, acknowledged it vaguely to himself . But it wasn't her overall beauty holding him spellbound, it was her eyes. They were a color he'd never seen before, a pale, almost iridescent green, their depth and clarity so great that they were literally hypnotic.
    The sweet voice that had pulled at him combined now with those remarkable eyes. Yes, he understood why her father would consider her an asset. People would talk to her. People would tell her things they wouldn't mention to another soul. The realization went through Keith like a knife.
    Abruptly, he turned away.
    Erin stood perfectly still, her heart racing. When he turned away, she almost darted forward in protest, but his jerky movement stopped her. He stood with his back to her, his broad shoulders tense, as if he wanted badly to go on but couldn't somehow.
    He might have been any age between thirty and forty; his thick, night-black hair was lightly frosted with silver but his lean face was unlined. He was not handsome, but any woman would choose to look at him rather than at beefcake photos in a magazine. Once seen, his face would never be forgotten. His features were strong, from his high cheekbones and aquiline nose to the stubborn jaw and slightly cleft chin. Violet eyes were hooded by heavy lids, enigmatic but curiously brilliant, and set beneath flying brows that lent his hard face a saturnine air at odds with the generous curve of his mouth.
    She knew who he was, even though everything about him was unexpected. Erin was a tall woman, but he towered over her. She guessed he was at least three inches over six feet. And he had the imposing build to match his height. The jeans and casual knit shirt he wore did nothing to disguise commanding shoulders, a massive chest, hard, narrow waist and hips, and powerful thighs. His vitality and force were obvious, as was the fact that heredity and an active life had given him a natural strength few men could command no matter how many hours they worked out in gyms.
    Time had seemed to stop. It could have been hours or seconds only, a minute perhaps before he turned slowly back around to face her.
    If, at that moment, Erin had been asked to define the word dangerous, she would have pointed unhesitatingly at him. Not because he was so obviously powerful physically, but because she could feelthe danger in him, like an aura that was almost visible. She had felt that only once before in her life, while gazing in fascination at an adult male lion through the bars of his cage; a beautiful creature, seemingly so lazy and unthreatening, but holding in his eyes the look of an unpredictable beast that could be caged but never tamed.
    This lion wasn't caged, but despite her awareness of danger Erin felt no fear of him. And she wondered if he felt it, too, this strange bond between them, a thing of instinct