Lord Deverill's Heir by Catherine Coulter (best books to read all time .TXT) 📗

personal belongings nowhere to be seen. The room was stripped of her presence. It was as if she had never spent a moment in this bedchamber, never existed.

With a gulp of panic she raced to the armoire and pulled at the ivory knobs. All her gowns, cloaks, and bonnets were gone; even her slippers, lined in a colorful row, had vanished. She turned slowly and saw the earl standing in the doorway, his arms crossed over his chest.

“What have you done? Where are all my clothes, my pictures, my brushes?

Damn you, answer me!”

The earl straightened and said matter-of-factly, “I decided your room was not big enough for both of us. Thus, during dinner I had your belongings removed to the earl’s bedchamber. If Evesham Abbey’s ghostly visitors return, we will simply have to accustom ourselves to them. Now, come, wife, your husband awaits his pleasure.” Arabella slipped her hand into the pocket of her gown, closing her fingers over the smooth ivory handle of her small pistol. When she had seen it next to her jewel box before dinner, she had wondered at herself for not remembering it earlier. Ironically, her father’s gift would protect her now from the man he had so carefully chosen for her. There had to be irony in that somewhere. She drew up now to her full height.

“Were you intending another rape tonight?” He shrugged indifferently. “It was not rape. I used cream to ease you. It is not my fault you fought me. However, it will be as you wish it. I will use no cream on you tonight. If your lover is to enjoy you by day, I see no reason why I should not be equally indulged at night.

“Besides, I am not yet bored with you. Did you forget that I told you that your breasts were lovely? I didn’t examine you all that closely last night. Tonight, I intend to explore every inch of you. Surely you would enjoy a man’s attention focused entirely on you.” She flinched at his words, seeing him staring down at her last night. He believed he could do anything to her, order her to obey him in all things. He thought she was a slut. He thought she had betrayed him. Well, she wasn’t and she hadn’t. She also had a pistol. Never again would he force her.

She smiled at him and watched the surprise leap into his gray eyes. “I won’t allow you to do anything more to me. Isn’t it amazing that my father did not gain your measure before he gave you the greatest inheritance a man could ever wrangle?” Her smile fell away, but her voice was cold and confident. “To think that I must protest my innocence to one such as you. I will tell you once again, my lord, but I fear you are deaf to all truth: I have no lover.”

“It is true that your father made a mistake, but not, I assure you, in my character. It is fortunate that he is not here to witness the corruptness of his own daughter. Come, Arabella, I grow tried of this nonsense. I have told you what to do. You will obey me. You really have no choice in the matter.” That she continued to lie to him made him want to throttle her. He hadn’t intended to take her tonight, in spite of her taunting remarks at dinner about the lecherous old Hamsworth, but rather to force her to experience pleasure at his hands. He wanted to force her to passion, to make her surrender to him.

Just to him.

Though he would not admit it to himself, he wanted to win her, to make her forget the comte. He wanted her to beg his forgiveness, to plead with him to take her back.

What had he done to make her betray him? A question he had asked himself more times than he could count. There was no answer, not as long as she kept denying her betrayal.

He crooked his finger at her impatiently. Without another word, Arabella preceded him from the room. Though he did not again take her arm, she knew he was ready. If she attempted to break free of him, he would capture her in an instant.

When they reached the earl’s bedchamber, he stepped back and waited until she entered the room. Even before she turned to face him, she heard the key grate in the lock.

“I will play your lady’s maid, Arabella. I want you naked. I want to look my fill at you. I want to hold your breasts in my hands. I want to explore your woman’s attributes. Come here and let me unfasten all those buttons.”

“No,” she said calmly, standing tall and straight. “You will not touch me, Justin.”

His nostrils flared, just as she’d known they would. He was not used to being denied. But an instant later a smile of lazy confidence played about his mouth and his eyes glittered with the challenge she had flung at him. He said with slow emphasis, “As I said before, it will be as you wish it. Do you want your gown shredded, Arabella? For that is what your refusal will mean. But realize, my dear, after a week or two, you will have no more gowns. Not, of course, that I mind having you naked during the day as well.” He strolled confidently toward her.

Arabella flew to the other side of the great bed, knowing that there was nothing she could say to dissuade him. Her eyes measured her distance from him, and her fingers curled about the butt of her pistol.

“Since you like games, it is just as well that we excused ourselves early.” Still confident, he stalked her with maddening slowness, walking slowly around the side of the bed. She could retreat no further, her back finally touching the long velvet curtains.

“You will come no closer to me.” As she spoke, she withdrew the pistol from her pocket, held it