TheCharmer Read Online Free PDF

Rose's accuracy after he'd been too slow to realize he stood directly before the cork target mounted on the wall.
    Come to think on it, it wasn't so alarming. Rose hadn't missed her target in a very long time. Collis knew if he turned now, he would see an outline of himself sketched in small, deadly knife hilts.
    Instead of turning, he merely dropped his staff and took three steps directly backward until his back was pressed to the large target. Unlike the concentric circles on an archery target, this one was painted in the silhouette of a man with different regions labeled:
    KILL, MAIM, and DISARM.
    Rose had ignored those grim designations, as Collis could tell by the knife hilts that rode on both of his shoulders, astride his hips, and—oh,
hell
—snugly between his thighs.
    Only five. He raised one hand to reach over his head. Six. He plucked the sixth knife from the cork to settle the blade between his fingertips.
    Rose had never moved from before the weapons rack. She stood there with that blasted arch look upon her face and spread her arms like the target painted behind him.
I dare you
, that look said to Collis.
    Unfortunately, he didn't dare. He wasn't bad with the knives, but at this distance he didn't have Rose's accuracy. To be honest, he'd never truly applied himself to the knives, concentrating instead on more manly pursuits like the sword and hand-to-hand. He actually wasn't all that accomplished with the staff, either. He'd simply bludgeoned Rose out of that match.
    So, as much as he would love to send the knives whizzing past her to wipe that expression from her smug little features… he couldn't risk it.
    He might want to kill her, but he didn't want to
kill
her. Instead, he turned at the last moment to send the knife into one of the wooden pillars that supported the school above them. They weren't much wider than Rose, so some accuracy was required. The hilt sank deep. "One."
    He sent knives into the next four pillars as quickly as he could pluck them from the wall behind them. Not bad. His pride rising with every thud, he stopped to grin suggestively at Rose before pulling the last knife from between his legs.
    She wasn't even watching. She stood with her arms folded, staring at the floor with a bored expression, twisting the toe of one shoe into the mat.
    With a growl, Collis tossed the last knife, barely glancing at his target first. Then he looked quickly back in horror as his blade flew with perfect accuracy—
    Into the rope that suspended the chandelier.
    The chandelier that must weigh eighty stone in all.
    The chandelier that hung high over the head of Rose, who was now bending to look at the floor.
    No time to cry out. No time to explain.
    Collis flung himself across the room.
Oh, God, he was too far away
—
    He took her to the mat in a ferocious tackle, rolling over and over with her in his arms. Behind them the giant oaken wheel crashed to the floor, sending up a whoosh of wind and hot spattering wax mingled with straw from the shredded matting, plunging them into total darkness.
Chapter Three
    « ^ »
     
    Rose couldn't breathe. Couldn't see, couldn't move. For a single second, her mind went circling in panic. Then she focused with a will.
    She couldn't see because the candles had gone out. Something heavy crashing to the floor—added to darkness permeated with the smell of smoking wick—equaled a narrow escape from Death by Chandelier. She'd been standing directly beneath the giant wheel if she recalled correctly.
    Which meant that something had cut the rope.
    Collis. And the reason she was lying here with the breath knocked from her lungs?
    Collis. And the great warm weight that even now pinned her limbs to the floor?
    Collis.
    She forced her lungs to expand. The first painful breath was followed by another, less so. Above her she felt Collis sucking in a great lungful as well.
    "Are you injured?" His breath brushed her face. His arms tightened around her, pressing her to his hard, bare