WANTON Read Online Free PDF Page B

the desire was there, as potent and tangible as an animate object.
    She was so impertinent and priggish that he expected her to slap him, but she was made of sterner stuff. She glared, shooting him a look that probably scared her students to death.
    “Unhand me, you fiend,” she seethed.
    “No.”
    “You’ve barged in where you’re not welcome. You’ve denigrated me, my clothing, and my profession. I don’t like you, and I won’t have you within a hundred yards of my person. How dare you take liberties?”
    “Liberties?”
    “You’re touching me. In my book, that counts as a liberty.”
    “Not in mine.”
    “Of course not. This little escapade means naught to you.”
    “No, it doesn’t.”
    “So why are you in here? I’ve inquired previously, but I don’t have an answer.”
    “I’m so curious about you.”
    “About me? You couldn’t possibly be.”
    “I am. Women usually despise me, but it’s never an immediate dislike. It normally takes awhile for detestation to set in. Yet you loathed me on sight.”
    “Who wouldn’t?”
    “A fair question, but as you’ve hurled as many insults as I, I believe I’m entitled to know why I’m so abhorred.”
    She still hadn’t moved away, hadn’t slapped him in umbrage. She was gazing up at him with those shrewd green eyes of hers. She seemed very astute, as if she could see details she shouldn’t, as if she’d delved to his core and hadn’t found any redeeming qualities.
    He didn’t have any redeeming qualities, so the realization shouldn’t have bothered him, but he was exceedingly vexed and didn’t like to ever feel that a woman was getting the best of him.
    “Why are you abhorred?” she caustically spat. “You truly wish I’d tell you?”
    “Yes.”
    “Have you even washed?”
    “Washed...since when?”
    “Since your carnal tryst ended. When was that? A half-hour ago?”
    “My carnal tryst?”
    “Yes. You tumble the maids—”
    “How the bloody hell do you know that?”
    She ignored him and kept on with her chastisement. “Which I find to be completely predictable for a cur of your low character. But nevertheless, the behavior is reprehensible and not the sort I would tolerate in any man, particularly not one who has been betrothed to me.”
    She shoved him away, and they stood, scowling, as if they’d gone toe-to-toe in the boxing ring and she’d won every round.
    “You were watching,” he accused.
    “Yes. I was passing by in the hall, and I heard a woman cry out. I entered the room to see if she was in distress.”
    “How long were you there?”
    “Long enough to learn everything about you I ever need to know.”
    A montage of erotic images flashed through his mind. The two housemaids were slatterns who’d taught him fornication as an adolescent. When he visited Sidwell, he always cavorted with them. They were always enthusiastically ready, and he was always a tad stressed to be home. Why shouldn’t he avail himself?
    Still, his cheeks heated with what might have been shame—if he’d ever been capable of shame.
    “You certainly got an eyeful,” he mused.
    “I certainly did.”
    She was sanctimonious and smug, and if she’d been a man, he’d have knocked her to the ground just to wipe that haughty expression off her face.
    She raised a snooty brow. “Now then, if you’ll excuse me, I’d like to be alone so I can pack my bag.”
    “You actually assume you’re leaving? You suppose you can thwart Lord Sidwell?”
    “There’ll be no thwarting. I simply mean to go. I traveled here with good intentions, but I’ve spoken with my betrothed, and it’s clear I was horridly deceived.”
    With that rude remark, she stomped to the sitting room, yanked the door open, and gestured to the hall. He was stunned that she had the audacity to toss him out. It made him eager to stay merely to prove how boneheaded he could be.
    But he truly didn’t like her and still couldn’t fathom why he’d stopped to chat. She was very