A Loving Scoundrel Read Online Free Page B

stinging.
    But before he dealt with that as it deserved, Percy said in an excessively dry tone, “If you’re going to beat him to a pulp, dear boy, do it quietly, please. I’m going to nap until we get there.”
    And that had their thief turning toward the door. Jeremy reached out and caught the back of her collar and yanked her onto his lap instead. “Try that again and you can spend the next several hours right here,” he said, wrapping his arms around her so tightly she couldn’t move.
    She couldn’t get loose, but that didn’t mean she was going to stop trying. Wiggling about in his lap, however, was probably the worst thing she could have done. The position was much too sensual, producing lascivious thoughts of what he’d like to do—no, would do if they were alone. Stripping her clothes off slowly, finding out how she was concealing her breasts, nibbling on her shoulder as he drove into her. Bloody hell. If she continued to bounce on him like that, he might just kick Percy out of the coach for a while.
    She must have realized her efforts were useless about the same time he realized he couldn’t stand the wiggling and bouncing of her bottom on his thighs and loins anymore without becoming quite obvious in what she was stirring up. She groaned, yet to him it sounded more passionate than frustrated and had him dropping her as if he’d just been burned. Good God, she shouldn’t be affecting him this strongly. He had to get it under control.
    She’d fallen to the floor again, but immediately scrambled up on the seat opposite them, jerking down her coat lapels, dustingoff her grubby pants, and avoiding eye contact as best she could, all the while watching for the counterattack that Percy’s remark had suggested might be coming.
    Jeremy waited a full five minutes, about the time it took for him to get his desire in check and hope his voice wouldn’t reflect it. Finally he stretched out his legs, crossed them, leaned back and crossed his arms as well, and said, “Relax, youngun. We’d as soon not hurt you. You’re going to do us a favor, and in the process make yourself rich. What could be more agreeable than that, eh?”
    “For ye to take me back.”
    “That isn’t an option. We went to a lot of trouble to obtain you.”
    “Ye should’ve obtained me bleedin’ consent first— m’ lord. ”
    The title was added as an afterthought, and with a large heaping of contempt.
    She was glowering at him again, now that she was relatively sure he wasn’t going to throttle her. He’d tried not to examine her eyes too closely, hoping the dim light of the candle in the tavern room had misled him. But the brighter coach lamp and close proximity were his undoing. Her eyes were simply incredible and added tenfold to her beauty. Violet they were, dark, rich violet, and such a startling contrast to her white-gold mop of curls. Her eyelashes were long, but not overly dark. The brows, too, weren’t very dark, merely a few shades more golden.
    He tried, he really did, to find some masculinity in the face across from him, but it just wasn’t there. How anyone could mistake her for a boy boggled his mind. And yet Percy had no trouble seeing a lad, albeit a “pretty” one. Her height, he supposed, was the deciding factor. It was rare, after all, to find a female who was bloody well as tall as his father was. Anyone that tall would naturally be assumed to be male.
    He’d also tried, truly, not to react to her as he would any other beautiful woman he came across. But those eyes…He gave up the fight. He would have her in his bed, and before the night was done. It would happen. He had no doubt whatsoever.
    Having given in to his prurient nature, the change in Jeremy was immediate. Some might call it charm, but it was in fact pure sensuality, and to look at him when his thoughts were carnal was to know he promised pleasures untold.
    The wench reacted immediately to the way he was now looking at her, casting her eyes away