Read Online Assassin's Kiss by Kate Monroe - Free Book Online Page B

against his wrist unwittingly revealing the height of his agitation. She swallowed hard, unwelcome tears stinging her eyes as she slowly circled around him to look up into his reddened face once more.
    “Seth,” she said again. “Are you thinking of Fleetwood?”
    His top lip curled back and he jerked away from her, running his hands through his hair as he ground out his words. “Of course I am! How can I not think of the man whom you set out to give yourself to last night, Esther? The sheaths in your cloak that you are offering up to me are all the proof I need of that, and to my deep frustration it seems that the merest thought of you in another man’s arms is enough to drive me crazy!”
    His words were the very last thing she expected to hear from the enigmatic assassin, and the terse jealousy they were laden with filled her with a desperate need to soothe it away. Consumed by the urge to do all she could to drive away the outside world once more, she followed him across the room and rested one trembling hand against his chest. He tensed, but this time he did not pull away.
    “Say your piece, then,” Seth said slowly. “I sense you want to speak.”
    He knew everything about her, this dangerous man; everything except her most important secret. Yet even that she now wanted to share with him, but when she had kept it so close to her chest for so long, she barely knew where to begin. It stood between them, though, so she had no choice but to haltingly offer up what little of the truth she could. “I gave him nothing more than I had to, Seth,” she began. “To me it was no more than business.”
    To her consternation, though, that only seemed to agitate him further. “Were you his paid whore?” he demanded roughly.
    “No!”
    “Then tell me, pray, why did you surrender yourself to someone like him?! Esther, surely a man like Fleetwood could give you nothing of what we both know you need.”
    “No.”
    “Then why did he have the honour of calling you his?”
    “Because he had something I needed, as did every other man I went to before him in the course of my work – and unfortunately for me, all I had to offer up in trade to win their trust was myself.” Esther hesitated as Seth’s eyes narrowed, but she had said too much to stop now. Drawing a deep breath, she met his intent stare without blinking. “But you...you are the first man I have ever wanted to give myself to for purely selfish reasons. I want you, Seth, like I have wanted no man before you, and I fear I will never again find any man who can make me feel this way!”
    He fell to his knees on the rug and pulled her down with him, his eyes feverish with lust as she instantly straddled his broad thighs and nodded urgently. “Then how can I deny you even a moment longer, Esther?” he said, his voice barely more than a low, rasping groan. “I fear I should press you further and refuse to let this progress until you have surrendered all of your mysterious truths to me, sweetheart, but my need for you is too great. All else can wait, but I cannot, not now you have finally confessed to all there is between us!”
    Their bare bodies entwined as her breath hitched, her legs locked around his waist and her arms around his neck. His hands were tight around her waist, gripping her so firmly two treacherous circlets of bruises would surely follow, but the sharp pain only made her want him all the more. Aware of how near they were to finally achieving all they sought, a violent shiver chased down the full length of her spine as he twisted and stretched out one hand for her cloak where it had fallen, extracting the tiny brown envelope and the sheaths it contained.
    Esther could not tear her eyes away from Seth for even a moment. Even as his hand forced its way in between their bodies to deftly slide an oiled sheath over his cock, she stared at him with a feverish intensity, all too aware now that this was far more than mere lust between them. This man had