Read Online At Last by Jacquie D'Alessandro - Free Book Online Page B

ballroom, her staccato breaths
fogging the glass. Dread seized her when she noted Ian no longer
stood under the archway leading into the ballroom, but then she
spied the back of a dark head standing on the far side of the room,
near the punch bowl. The man’s height identified him as Ian and
Sophia sucked in a quick breath of relief. Thank God. Now she just
needed to circle around to the front of the mansion then request
her carriage be sent. She cursed the delay that would entail, but
intending to ask Christine and Henry to escort her home, she’d
dismissed her driver. At least she’d escaped the ballroom
undetected. And once ensconced inside her vehicle, with the velvet
curtains drawn, she’d be safe.
    She turned. And froze at the sight of the
snowy cravat mere inches from her nose.
    “ Going somewhere, Sophia?”
Ian’s husky voice, rich with the flavor of Scotland, filled the
darkness between them.
    And with a sinking heart Sophia knew, that
with those three simple words, everything she’d tried to escape had
found her.
     
     
    Chapter 2
     
    Ian stared at the woman who, for the past
six months he’d moved heaven and earth to find and two words
pounded through his head, in perfect time to his thundering
heart.
    At last .
    She looked at him through those huge, golden
brown eyes that had grabbed him by the throat the first moment he’d
seen her. He’d been taking his customary solitary walk through the
cool forest that marked the border between the outskirts of Melrose
and the secluded, back acreage of Marlington Hall. As he’d neared
the forest’s end, where the shade melted into a gilded blaze of
late summer sunshine, he’d been so engrossed in his thoughts, he
hadn’t noticed her until a mere twenty feet separated them.
    She’d stood in profile to him, framed in
sunlight, amidst an explosion of colorful wildflowers, holding a
bouquet of pink roses obviously picked from the abundance
surrounding her. He’d halted, surprised at the unexpected sight of
her, and irritated at the disruption of his solitude. A visitor to
the area, he decided, as the locals all knew and respected
Marlington Hall’s property boundaries.
    In no mood for company, he was about to
withdraw without making his presence known when she reached up and
slowly pulled the pins from her hair. Suddenly transfixed, he
watched a curtain of glossy sable curls unfurl down her back. After
shaking her head, she closed her eyes and tipped back her head. A
slow smile spread across her sun-kissed features, and with a
delighted laugh, she spread her arms wide and spun around in
circles, her glorious hair and plain brown gown flying around
her.
    The sight had enchanted him. When was the
last time he’d felt such pure joy? He couldn’t recall. Couldn’t
tear his gaze from her. Couldn’t remember why he’d wanted to be
alone. Then, with her cheeks flushed and lips still curved in a
smile framed by a pair of beguiling dimples, she’d stopped and
caught sight of him.
    His first look into those warm, golden brown
eyes had walloped him right in the heart. Heat that had nothing to
do with the bright sunshine raced through him and in the space of a
single heartbeat, he’d found himself...something. Smitten?
Bewitched? Neither word seemed adequate to describe the struck by
lightning sensation that had rendered him incapable of doing
anything more than staring and drinking her in. All he knew was
that catching her in that unguarded, carefree moment had touched a
place deep inside him, one that had felt dead for so damn long. And
that for the first time in a year he’d felt something other than
bleak numbness--his constant companion since the accident that had
irrevocably changed his life.
    She’d raised her hand to shade those
Scottish whiskey eyes then moistened her lips, a gesture that
riveted his gaze on her lush mouth. For several seconds she stared
at him as if she too had been struck, but then her smile faded, and
uncertainty, along with a flash of