Wild and Wicked Read Online Free PDF

to him.
    “And you’ve not yet met my boy.” He couldn’t keep the pride from his voice and then spied Bronwyn as she dashed behind the table. With one long arm, he grabbed his niece and she squealed in delight. “This is the castle imp,” he explained as, giggling, the little girl squirmed and tossed her curls from her mischievous eyes.
    “I be not an imp.”
    “Nay? Then a sorceress, mayhap? A witch?” With a wink at Apryll, he let Bronwyn slide to the floor.
    “Aye. And I’ll cast a spell upon you, Uncle,” she cried, flitting off.
    Apryll watched the girl dance between the benches and land with a plop in her mother’s arms.
    “A spirited one, Bronwyn is,” he said, chuckling.
    “Aye,” she said softly, then bit her lower lip before forcing a smile. He offered her wine and she accepted, sipping slowly, eyeing the festivities, making conversation with those around her. She was as enchanting as any woman Devlynn had ever met, as engaging and well-spoken as any lord as she matched wits with him. She laughed at his jokes, the sound touching an icy, banished place in his heart that somehow began to thaw. She spoke of tournaments and hunts and travels far within Wales as she sipped wine and nibbled at the jellied eggs.
    He found it impossible to resist her charms. Her face glowed in the mellow warmth of the yule candle and when they took the dance floor again, she was light and airy in his arms.
    As the candles burned low, the wine took hold and she pressed against him, Devlynn gave in to the magic of the night. Though sanity and reason told him he was being foolish, he ignored their warnings. Somehow, because of this woman, the lost luster of Christmas began to shine in Devlynn’s battered soul again and the guilt he’d been bearing eased.
    “Why have I not known of you before?” he asked as the hours slipped past ever more quickly. Holding her close, he dropped his gaze to the curve of her mouth.
    “Mayhap I was hiding.”
    “At Serennog?”
    “Or in the very forests surrounding your keep. It could be that I am not who I seem.”
    “No doubt you are a sorceress and you have bewitched me.”
    “Oh, that I could bewitch you, Lord Devlynn,” she said with a naughty smile and the lift of one contrary eyebrow. “Oh, but that I could.”
    “I fear you have, vixen.”
    She laughed throatily. “I doubt I have that power.”
    “You would be surprised.”
    “Pleasantly so?” Again that saucy twist of her lips. Aye, she was a tease. An enchantress.
    “What else?” She laughed lightly then and he could no longer resist her. His blood was streaming through his veins, his heart pumping with newfound life that pounded in his head and caused a swelling between his legs. He thought of kissing her and oh, so much more, of joining his body to hers in lusty pleasure and wicked seduction. She was innocence and sin wrapped together.
    Tossing back his wine, erotic images playing through his mind, he knew he had to have her. No matter what the cost. Regardless of any consequence. And why not? Was he not the baron—Lord of Black Thorn?
    He caught a knowing glance from his brother and felt only but a moment’s shame that Collin could so easily read the desire sizzling through his mind. Swiftly, disregarding any raised eyebrow cast in their direction, he grabbed her wrist and pulled her away from the crowd and into a dark alcove beneath the stairs. She laughed nervously, but he didn’t stop. Wrapping his arms firmly around her slim waist, he leaned forward and pressed his eager lips to hers.
    She gasped but didn’t push away.
    His fingers splayed over her back and the heat in his loins burned hot and hard.
    She sighed as if in longing. She trembled beneath his touch, her eyelids fluttering closed as his mouth moved gently over hers and her breath mingled with his. Blood thundered through his veins, desire ran dark through his soul, and he knew in an instant that he would have this woman, one way or another.
    His