She jerked her face wildly to the left, hearing movement on the other side of the dense hedge. The cicadas roared in waves, while the wind, as it rose and fell, brought fragments of a tinkling minuet spilling out over the vast gardens and the royal park from the ball in progress-her engagement party. No one else was outside on such a night, when the breeze spattered rain from a sky deepest indigo smeared with gold clouds. She dared not call out for help because only the three men would hear. But at least she had managed to throw herself out of his iron grasp and had torn into the maze, where she thought she could evade them. Her whole body was shaking, her hand bleeding, maybe broken from punching Philippe in his smug, sneering face with the sharp edge of her huge diamond ring. She inched down the narrow lane, her bare toes creeping silently over the cool, lush grass, her chest heaving. The hedges towered over her, closing in on her, and the pounding of her pulse was so loud in her head she knew they would hear. The sound of her rapid, shallow panting filled the narrow space between the box-hedge walls of the garden maze.
She meant to ease him back to reason with a tactful reminder that she was soon to marry another man-a man who would probably kill her if she came to her wedding night not a virgin-but when she opened her mouth, only one word slipped out. Was he asking for permission to deflower her? she thought in alarm. “You know you are mine,” he whispered again. His hard chest against her, she could feel his rushing pulse.
She did not know what he intended, she only knew he was far stronger than she. He was panting, his onyx eyes flashing like heat lightning. She stared up at him in silence, barely daring to breathe. SHAKESPEARE He after honor hunts I after love. She is a pearl whose price hath launched above a thousand ships, And turned crowned kings to merchants. Special thanks to my mom, whose insight, based on her years of work with victims of family violence, contributed greatly to my understanding of the scars such tragedy leaves, and the hope for healing that its brave survivors inspire in us all. This book is dedicated to my lifelong and most loyal friends, my sisters, Shana, Elizabeth, and Janeen.
0 kommentar(er)
