The Last Hellion Read Online Free PDF Page B

but half a pace, lifted her chin, and straightened her spine.
    He did not back away, and she held her ground, though it wasn't easy. She could Loretta Chase - The Last Hellion
    not quite see past his brawny torso, and at close quarters she was rivetingly aware of the muscular frame his garments hugged so snugly.
    "Excellent reflexes," he said. "If you weren't a female, I'd take up your offer—of the stinkers, I mean. That is to say, the black—"
    "I know what it means," said Lydia.
    "Indeed, it's all very well to have an extensive vocabulary," he said. "In the future, however, I recommend you exercise a dash—the smallest sliver—of reason, my dove, before you exercise your tongue. You can manage that, I hope?
    Because another fellow, you see, might take your adorable little darings and dauntings as an amusing challenge. In which case, you might find yourself in a different sort of tussle than you bargained for. Do you take my meaning, little girl?"
    Lydia opened her eyes very wide. "Oh, goodness, no," she said breathlessly.
    "You are much too deep for me, Your Grace. My tiny brain simply can't take it in."
    His green eyes glinted. "Maybe your bonnet's squeezing it too tight." His hands came up to the ribbons and paused, inches away.
    "I shouldn't, if I were you," she said, her voice even, her heart ricocheting against her rib cage.
    He laughed and tugged at the bonnet strings.
    Her fist shot up. He grabbed it, still laughing, and pulled her up against the hard column of his body.
    She'd half expected that, sensed what was coming. But she wasn't prepared for the heat or the explosion of sensations she couldn't identify, and these threw her off balance.
    In the next instant, her mouth was crushed under his, warm and firm and all too Loretta Chase - The Last Hellion
    skilled, and she was sinking backward, disoriented and helpless under its deceitfully easy pressure. She was pulsingly aware of his big hand splayed against her upper back, its warmth seeping through stiff layers of bombazine and undergarments, and of more heat lower, where his brawny arm braced her waist.
    For one perilous moment, her mind gave way as her muscles did, overpowered by heat and strength and the chaotic brew of masculine scent and taste.
    But her instincts had been honed in a hard school, and in the next moment she reacted.
    She sagged in his arms, making herself a dead weight.
    She felt his mouth leave hers.
    "By gad, the wench's faint—"
    She slammed her fist into his jaw.

    Loretta Chase - The Last Hellion

Chapter Two
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    The next Vere knew, he was flat on his back in a pool of mud. Above the ringing in his ears he heard the crowd cheering, hooting, and whistling.
    He pulled himself up onto his elbows and let his gaze travel from his vanquisher's black half-boots up over the heavy black bombazine skirts to the mannishly severe jacket that buttoned primly up to her chin.
    Above the topmost button was a face so starkly beautiful that it had half blinded him when he'd first beheld it. This was a winter's beauty, of ice-blue eyes and snow-white skin, framed under the black bonnet by silken hair the color of December sunlight.
    At present, those remarkable eyes directed a freezing blue stare down upon him.
    Such a look, he supposed, the mythical Gorgons might have bestowed. He little doubted that, had this been myth and make-believe instead of real life, he would be swiftly petrifying to stone.
    As it was, he'd hardened only in the usual place, but very speedily, even for him.
    Her boldness as well as her face and lavish body had aroused him even before he'd hauled her into his arms and touched his mouth to hers.
    Now, while he stared stupidly at the ripe mouth he'd so insanely hungered for, it curled into a contemptuous half-smile. The mockery he saw there recalled him to his senses.
    The insolent wench thought she'd won—and so everyone must think, he realized.

    Loretta Chase - The Last Hellion
    Within hours everyone in London