The Pirate Prince Read Online Free PDF Page B

little argument, still privately absorbed in the vision of that beautiful, half-wild savage with the piercing midnight eyes.
    He had frightened her, yes, with his deadly-looking weapons and his bold stare as if he could see through her clothes, but she had never seen anything like him before.
    Magnificent… beast , she thought with a shiver as she recalled that powerful bare chest, that ridged belly the very firelight seemed to caress, and all that golden skin, which must feel like velvet to the touch.
    Staring at her, insolent as you please, from just across the fire, she mused.
    That hostile, hungry stare had left her so flustered and out of sorts that when Domenic found her, she couldn’t think of any good excuse to explain her rattled state, so she just blurted out the truth—a dangerous-looking man had been staring at her and possibly following her.
    She wished now she hadn’t said a word.
    What if the stranger had not been following her as she feared, or if his intentions had not been unfriendly? She knew the especial brutality of her father’s soldiers. There had been such fierce pride in that hard, chiseled face, it pained her to think of the humiliation the stranger would suffer.
    Now, because of her, he was going to be dragged away in front of all the people, that untamed spirit caged, his powerful body beaten into submission. There was something in his dark eyes that haunted her even now, a strange, enigmatic blend of melancholia and hunger and rage. Why had he been staring at her like that?
    She didn’t know. She only knew that as soon as she could get rid of Domenic, she would go to the guards and make sure that they weren’t too rough with him and that they were fair when they questioned him. Once they determined what he was up to, she would find out his name. Then, provided he wasn’t a threat, she would make sure they let him go.
    Domenic’s words jerked her out of her thoughts.
    “You, young lady, I am tempted to turn you over my knee, and, as for your guards, I’m going to have them court-martialed for having failed so completely in their duties—no, better yet, flogged,” he declared as he took out his own set of keys to her father’s house and opened the garden gate. “I’ll have them flogged.”
    “Don’t be absurd. You’ll do no such thing,” she retorted. “How can you even suggest anything so barbaric?”
    He paused and looked down his pointed nose at her masterfully, one fist cocked on his hip. “Allegra, you don’t seem to understand. If the rebels managed to take you hostage, they could make your father do virtually anything they wanted. If I hadn’t come after you, who knows where you’d be right now?” He held the gate open and, with a polished, sweeping gesture, indicated for her to step in ahead of him.
    She could feel the keen gaze of his forest-green eyes on her, scrutinizing her as she brushed by his lean, athletic body. She took a few steps past him into the garden, then turned back to him suddenly.
    “Domenic,” she said, “how did you know I had gone outside?”
    Locking the gate from the inside, he paused, but said nothing.
    “When I left the ballroom, I meant to go to my room….” Her voice trailed off.
    He turned to her, smiling. “You caught me.”
    He dropped the key neatly into his waistcoat pocket, then sauntered toward her, his blond hair a silvery-gold shade that sparkled in the moonlight as he approached.
    She glanced a trifle nervously toward the palazzo, then back up at him. “Papa would not approve,” she said uncertainly, though she knew full well Papa thought Domenic walked on water. Domenic had become the son Papa had never had.
    “Don’t worry,” he said smoothly. “I locked the veranda doors, dismissed the servants from the back rooms. I even told the guards to take their places elsewhere. You see? I took the liberty of ensuring we’d have perfect privacy.”
    “What for?”
    “Tut, tut, so suspicious.” He took her hand and led