Trilby Read Online Free PDF Page B

against the wall just inside the house, looking hunted. She was so fragile-looking, he thought. Odd, she’d been less high-strung since her mother’s death, but she was sad and shy, and, odd thing, she was very nervous around Curt and Lou. He did care for his child, but there was little love left in him. What was love, after all, he thought bitterly, but an illusion. A marriage for practical reasons had a better chance of success. As for the bedroom, there was no shortage of willing womento satisfy his hunger. He didn’t need a wife for that. His eyes sought Trilby, dark with masculine appreciation of her slenderness and grace.
    Samantha approached the adults warily, managing a shy smile for Trilby. “Hello,” she said.
    “Hello. It’s Samantha, isn’t it? You look very pretty,” Trilby said gently.
    Samantha looked surprised at the compliment. “Thank you,” she mumbled self-consciously. “May I go to bed, now, Father?” she asked, with painful shyness.
    “Certainly,” he said. He sounded very stiff and uncomfortable. Not like Trilby’s loving, affectionate father. “Maria will go with you.” He motioned to his housekeeper, who nodded and came forward quickly to herd the child upstairs.
    “Don’t you tuck her in at night?” she asked, without thinking.
    “I do not,” he answered, his voice hardly inviting further questions. “Will you have lime or fruit punch?”
    “Lime, please.”
    He filled a cup for her and placed it in a saucer. Her hands shook, though, and he had to hold them to help steady it. His eyes met hers again, narrow this time, and probing.
    “Your hands are like ice. You can’t be cold?”
    “Why can’t I?” she said defensively. “I’m thin. I feel chill more than most people.”
    “Is it that, Trilby?” He lowered his voice, and his head, so that his eyes were very close to hers. His lean hands smoothed over the backs of hers. “Or is it this?” His thumb found the damp palm of one and drew overit in what was a blatantly sensual gesture, while his eyes kindled panic in her bosom.
    The punch overflowed, fortunately missing her dress and his trousers.
    “Oh, I’m—I’m so sorry!” she stammered, flushing.
    “No harm done.” He motioned for one of the waiters and drew her out of the way while the man cleaned it up. Her parents and Ted were already mixing with the huge crowd, and no one seemed to have noticed the accident.
    “I never used to be so clumsy,” she said nervously.
    He drew her back into a small alcove that led to the lighted patio, its paper lanterns making artificial moons in the darkness. His hands framed her face and tilted it up to his dark eyes. “I don’t think it was clumsiness.”
    He bent then, and she felt the warm, slow brush of a man’s mouth for the first time in her life. Even Richard had never once tried to kiss her. She’d had only dreams… She stiffened helplessly at the intimacy and a faint gasp passed her dry lips.
    Thorn lifted his head. The expression on her face, in her eyes, was one she couldn’t have pretended. It was genuine surprise, mingled with awe, fascination. He had more than enough experience to recognize what she was feeling—and to know that it was new to her. Incredible, he thought, a woman of her experience being so stunned. Unless it was a pretense…
    He bent again to make sure, but she jerked away from him, one slender hand going to her mouth. Above it, her gray eyes were like saucers in a delicately etched face blanched with uncertainty.
    Thorn grew irritated with her for that dramatic facade. His face hardened; his eyes went cold. He stoodwatching Trilby, contempt in his very posture as he stared at her slender body.
    “Don’t tell me you usually react that way to a man’s caress?” he asked, with smiling mockery. “There’s no need to pretend for me, Trilby. We both know that you aren’t unfamiliar with the feel of a man’s mouth on yours—even on your body.”
    The sheer effrontery of the remark