Read Online The Bourbon Kings #1 by J.R. Ward - Free Book Online Page A

vials with white tops and white labels were arranged in neat rows, like a platoon of soldiers. He had no clue what was in them and, likely, neither did she.
    She was the Southern Sunny von Bülow—except his father had never tried to kill her. At least not physically.
    The bastard had done other kinds of damage, though.
    “Mother, dear,” he said, striding over to her. When he got in range, he took her cool, dry hand with its paper-thin skin and blue veins into his palm. “Mother?”
    “She’s resting,” came a voice.
    A woman of about fifty, with red hair and a white and gray nurse’s uniform, came in from the walk-in closet. She was a perfect fit for the decor, and he wouldn’t have put it past his mother to have hired her on that basis alone.
    “I’m Patty Sweringin,” she said, offering her hand. “You must be young Mr. Baldwine.”
    “Lane.” He shook what she put out. “How is Mother doing?”
    “She’s resting.” The smile was as pressed and professional as heruniform. “She’s had a busy morning. The hair colorist and stylist were here.”
    Ah, yes, HIPAA, he thought. Which meant she wasn’t allowed to tell him about his own mother’s condition. But that wasn’t the nurse’s fault. And if his mother was exhausted by getting a couple of foils crimped on her head and a blow-dry? How the hell did he think she was doing.
    “When she wakes up, tell her I …” He glanced back over at his mother.
    “Tell her what, Mr. Baldwine?”
    He thought of Chantal.
    “I’m going to be here for a few days,” he said grimly. “I’ll tell her myself.”
    “Very good, sir.”
    Back out in the hall, he closed the door and leaned against it. Staring across at an oil painting of some Bradford or another, he found that the past came back again like a bee sting.
    Fast and painful.
    “W hat are you doing here?”
    Lizzie had spoken the words to him out in the garden, out in the darkness, out in a hot, humid summer night. Overhead, thunderclouds had shut out the moonlight, leaving the blooming flowers and specimen trees in the shadows.
    He could remember everything about the way she had stood in front of him on the brick walkway, her hands on her hips, her stare meeting his with a directness he wasn’t used to, her Easterly uniform as sexually alluring as any set of lingerie he had ever seen.
    Lizzie King had caught his eye the first time he’d seen her on his family’s estate. And with each return during semester breaks from his masters programs, he’d found himself looking for her on the grounds, seeking her out, trying to get in her path.
    God, he loved the chase.
    And the capture wasn’t half bad, either.
    Of course, he didn’t have much experience past that—nor did he want it.
    “Well?” she demanded. Like if he didn’t get on topic quick, she was going to start tapping her foot—and her next move was going to be knocking his block off for wasting her time.
    “I’ve come for you.”
    Wait, that came out wrong. He’d meant to say that he’d come to
see
her. Talk to her. Look at her up close.
    But those four words were also the truth. He wanted to know what she tasted like, what she felt like underneath him, what—
    She crossed her arms over her chest. “Look, I’m going to be honest with you.”
    Lane smiled a little. “I like honesty.”
    “I don’t think you’re going to feel that way when I’m done with you.”
    Okaaaaay, now he was getting hard—and funny, that wouldn’t have bothered him with the kinds of women he usually toyed with. Standing in front of this particular female with an urge to rearrange himself in his pants, however, seemed kind of … tacky.
    “I’m going to spare you a lot of wasted time here.” She kept her voice low, like she didn’t want to be overheard, but that didn’t detract from the power of her message. “I am not, and never will be, interested in someone like you. You are nothing but an entitled bad boy who gets off causing chaos with the