Read Online Amethyst by Lauren Royal - Free Book Online Page B

"Where is your mother?"
    She tried to swallow past the lump in her throat. "She died," she answered in a quavery voice. "Of the plague. Last year. She fell ill and we had to leave. We went to France, and I never saw her again."
    "I'm sorry," he said softly. He moved over on the wall and placed an arm around her shoulders. "I'm truly sorry."
    His voice was low and compassionate, but she wasn't ready to accept comfort yet.
    "I…" His fingers tightened on her shoulder. "I don't understand. Your father, why he went back inside. When the shop was aflame."
    Slow tears overflowed, quiet tears, not a storm like earlier in the day when he'd found her. They burned in her eyes and traced hot paths down her cheeks.
    She was so exhausted.
    "He wanted a painting of my mother." She brushed at the tears with the back of her good hand.
    "A painting?" She could feel Lord Greystone beside her, shaking his head in disbelief.
    "He had to have that picture. A miniature. He used to sit for hours, staring at it. Perhaps—perhaps he didn't really want to live without her," she said with a flash of insight that stabbed deep in her heart. "Now I have no one. I'm all alone."
    He jumped down and stood before her, taking her face between his hands. "You're not alone, Amy."
    "Yes—yes, I am. My parents are gone…my home is gone…"
    Well, there was Robert, a little voice in the back of her head reminded her.
    But there was no one to make her marry him now.
    "You must have family, somewhere?"
    "Only my Aunt Elizabeth." The words came out a whisper, forced through her painfully tight throat. "She lives in Paris. Last year when I stayed with her I was miserable."
    "Your mother had just died," he reminded her gently. "You would have been miserable anywhere." With him standing and her seated on the wall, they were of a height. His eyes searched hers, an intense gray, their color neutralized by the darkness. "It's not so bad as all that."
    More tears brimmed over, and she saw his brow crease in response.
    "I wish I weren't alive," she whispered, dropping her head to escape his penetrating gaze.
    He lifted her face and wiped her wet cheeks with his thumbs. "Never say that," he said, his voice gruff with emotion. "It's good to be alive. Never ever say that."
    In a violent motion, Lord Greystone caught her to him and held her tight. Amy felt his cheek against hers, rough with unshaven stubble, but warm and vital.
    She rubbed her face against his, almost imperceptibly, feeling a human connection for the first time since she saw her father disappear into the raging inferno that used to be her home.
    "God in heaven," she whispered.
    In his arms she felt safe, removed from her hostile reality, and she wished she could stay there forever. She breathed deeply of his scent, smoke and healthy male sweat, mixed with a faint underscore of fragrant soap. Slowly her arms came up and stole around his neck, her fingers entwined in his hair.
    Dimly realizing that his attempts at comfort were edging too far toward impropriety, Colin tried to pull back. But Amy came off the wall with him, sliding down his body until her feet came to rest on the grass, her head beneath his chin, her face pressed into his chest, her tears soaking the thin linen.
    Holy Christ. Despite her gut-wrenching misery, he couldn't help but think she felt too damn good in his arms.
    Then he stopped thinking altogether.
    When Amy raised her face to him, he pulled her even closer and brought his lips to hers.
    The travelers rumbling by in the background, the crickets in the hills, the wind blowing past…all faded away like magic. Only the two of them existed.
    The caress deepened and his lips parted hers, sending a thrill through her entire body. Somewhere in the back of her mind, she marveled at the new feelings, for his kiss was nothing like the ones she'd tolerated from Robert.
    She was overwhelmed by the way Lord Greystone's mouth claimed hers. His kiss was like a potion—it made her body melt and her