Read Online A Perfect Mistress by Barbara Mack - Free Book Online Page A

everything he had ordered, and he would have no idea. He could only think of the woman who waited for him.
    She was really here ; sh e lay in the bed next to him now , and Jackson felt his blood burn hot to match the heat coming off her body.  His heart rate trebled, and he turned to face her. He reached out with a trembling hand to touch her; h e had to lay hands on her, had to see if she felt as soft as she looked.  He was dying to warm himself on her skin, and he tried not to think about how long it had been since he’d touched a woman this way.
    When he touched her arm, she flinched just slightly, and his fingers stilled.  There was something about this that wasn’t right, something that made him feel uneasy in the pit of his stomach.  She was shaking, and he peered through the gloom of the darkened room at her, trying to see her face.  He raised himself up on one elbow, and the moon decided just then to come out from behind the clouds that hid it.  An errant moonbeam lighted the room for a second, just long enough for him to see her there with both eyes squeezed shut.  Her expression was tormented , and he suddenly felt sick to his stomach. 
    When he brought his hand up to her face, one lone tear suddenly broke free from its tenuous hold on her thick lashes and rolled down the porcelain perfection of her features.  His mouth twisted, and he felt bitterness rise through his whole body.  He felt like an animal, like some beast forcing his will on another, and he’d sworn he was never going to feel that way again. Damn her for lying to him with her words. Damn her for lying with those sweet, sexually curious eyes of hers. Damn her to hell.  
    He sat up abruptly on the side of the bed and pulled on his pants with swift, jerky  movements , not bothering to fasten them, filled with cold rage. Dimly he was aware of her sitting up in the bed behind him, but he ignored her movements. He had to get out of this room, had to get away right now .
    “What is it, Jackson ?’ she asked quietly, in a voice that hardly shook at all.  She was proud of herself for that.  She pushed back her silky hair with one hand. “What are you doing?”
    “I wish that you had been more forthcoming about your revulsion for my person,” he said coldly, yanking on his boots and standing up. “I asked you specifically, Sophie.” He seemed to loom larger in the darkened room, and Sophie shrank back a little.  The side of his face with the eye patch was shadowed, and it was as if he had no face on that side at all, merely a black hole where features would be .
    “My revulsion?’ she said softly.  “Please, I don’t know what you mean.” 
    She held out one slim hand in supplication, and he took a step away from the bed, turning his back to her.  Sophie let her hand fall back to her side, sitting up more fully against the pillows. He crossed to the round window, staring out, outlined by the dim light. Sophie could not help but admire the sight before her. Really, he was a fine figure of a man.
    “You led me to believe that you desired me in your bed, madam, or at the very least that you could tolerate me there. Really, was it too much to ask for a little honesty?  I would have found someone else if I had known you felt this way. I must leave in the morning, and it is too late to search for anyone else.” 
    His tone was bitter, and Sophie struggled to understand what he meant. She was waiting for him, wasn’t she, in the bed, dressed in her nightgown?  She was willing. She’d told him so, and she’d meant it.
    She shuddered.  S he could do it. She could. She liked his kisses, s urely the rest couldn't be so horrible. He'd been gentle with her; and he wouldn’t be as cruel as Thomas had been. Nightmare images of the library and what had happened to her there snaked into her mind and a tremor shook her body.
    He was speaking again, and Sophie pulled herself back to the present, away from the memories of atrocities that had