Read Online Badcock by Debra Glass - Free Book Online Page B

join him. She glanced over her shoulder to make certain no one was watching before she rushed down the steps and into the garden.
    She shouldn’t be meeting him. She shouldn’t ever speak to him again. Not after what he’d done to her. He darted into a copse of trees and she followed. No one would see them here.
    She was breathless by the time she caught up with him. He stopped and turned, standing an arm’s breadth away. The urge to rush into his embrace came over her in a deluge. She struggled to resist.
    Panic quickly replaced her desire.
    Gone was the look of lust from his eyes. Instead, he seemed stricken. Sad. Apologetic.
    Sophia didn’t know what she had hoped for. A stolen kiss? A vow of love? Even a promise to see her again…
    She sensed she would get none of that.
    “Sophia, is it?” he asked.
    She nodded thinking it strange that after everything that had happened between them, this was the first time she’d ever heard him utter her name.
    “Do you mind if I call you Sophia?” he asked.
    Love. Darling. Sweetheart. That’s what you called me before. She shook her head and lowered her lashes. How could she still be so shy after everything that had happened between them? “You may call me Sophia.”
    “First, I must apologize for what happened,” he said. “I…I thought you were someone else.”
    “Lady Huntingdon?” Sophia asked, finding her voice. Why was her heart aching so badly? It wasn’t as if their relationship had been anything more than physical.
    In reality, it had been a mistake .
    He nodded. “Yes. I made a grievous error.”
    Sophia didn’t know what to say. She wanted to tell him that it didn’t matter, that those two days had been the most wonderful moments of her life but she couldn’t bring herself to say the words.
    His forehead furrowed. “But…it appears as if…as if your marriage contract still stands.”
    “Yes.”
    He sighed. “Are you…have you got your…”
    “I’m not with child,” she said, casting her eyes down. She stared at the polished toes of his buckled shoes.
    “Good,” he said. “Then…I suppose there’s no harm done.”
    Her gaze collided with his once again. No harm done? Outrage infused her. No harm, indeed! Her reputation was all but destroyed. Her father had been forced to up her dowry so much he faced financial ruin. Sophia pursed her lips. She would now be married off to a man whom she did not love while the ghost of a highwayman who never really existed at all loomed in her fantasies.
    She shook. Her fists balled and before she could stop herself, she flew at him, flailing away. One hard punch landed against the stone wall of his chest before he caught her wrists. He twisted her in his arms, holding her effortlessly with one arm and clamping his hand over her mouth. She struggled, clawing at his sleeve. Every inch of his body countered hers.
    “Hush,” he whispered urgently in her ear. “Be still.”
    Gasping for breath, she stopped fighting him. “Release me or I’ll scream.”
    “And further sully your reputation?” he asked, his mouth hot at her ear. “Being seen alone with me won’t endear you to your precious duke, Sophia.”
    “You’re a rake. Everyone says so.”
    At that, he laughed. His thumb brushed maddeningly over her nipple. Sophia tensed. Unwelcome desire unfurled. “Please let me go,” she said, her voice barely rising above a whisper.
    His breaths grew harsh. “No.”
    Sophia’s eyes closed and she relaxed into his embrace. For a brief moment, the world ceased to exist. The music coming from inside the house faded. Night insects and the toads in the nearby pond stopped their chirping. There was only Jack and his embrace and this frenetic need fueling her desire.
    “Nothing can come of this,” he said and Sophia understood that he was trying to convince himself more than her.
    He turned her to face him but he did not let her step an inch away from him. His gaze seared her. Sophia knew his intentions and the