Read Online Everything Forbidden by Jess Michaels - Free Book Online Page A

want to wait for fate. We must take control of our own destinies.” Her mother released her hands and the emotions were wiped clean from her round face. “Now, please go upstairs and tidy up.”
    Miranda nodded slowly and did as she’d been told.
    As she moved up the stairs to her chamber, she thought of what her mother had said.
    “We must take control of our own destinies,” she murmured.
    That was what she’d been trying to do today by asking Ethan for help. And by accepting the terms of his agreement. But she hadn’t been in control at any point of their encounter. Ethan had seduced and pleasured and dominated her from the moment he entered the room to the moment he told her to go.
    She had allowed him to do so, giving in to what he wanted with little argument except for her one stipulation of limiting their encounters to once a week.
    If this were a courtship, she wouldn’t worry about the issue of control all that much. It was expected that a gentleman would rule in a scenario where he would end up married to a woman.
    But this arrangement wouldn’t end in marriage. It wouldn’t end with a trusting, or even loving, bond, despite the surrender of her body to his whims. If she allowed Ethan to control her at every turn, she could end up hurt.
    “He could steal my heart,” she whispered as she entered her chamber and rang the bell for her maid.
    That was true. She felt it. She could almost taste it. After years of fascination with the man, surrendering to him had left her feeling…good. Happy for the first time in months. It wouldn’t take too much more surrender to have those feelings turn to love. And loving Ethan was the most foolish thing she could possibly do.
    “Miss?” her maid said as she pushed the chamber door open.
    With a start, Miranda turned on the girl. “Maddy, I fell on my walk today and I’m a bit dirty. I’d like a warm bath.”
    The maid tilted her head in surprise. Normally the family didn’t bathe in the middle of the afternoon. But finally, she shrugged. “Of course, miss. I’ll make the arrangements immediately.”
    “Thank you.”
    As the girl left, Miranda moved behind the screen in the corner of the room and began to strip out of her gown. As she did, she couldn’t help but notice little marks on her skin, tiny bruises that had been left by Ethan’s hands and mouth. She stifled a curse. Already she was branded as his and they had only just begun together.
    “I cannot let him take everything I am,” she said as she wrapped herself in a worn dressing gown.
    But how to keep that from happening? How could she manage to keep a grip on her “destiny,” as her mother had put it?
    Miranda sat down at her dressing table and began to brush her tangled hair. Her thoughts drifted to her encounter with Ethan. Every moment played through her mind in sensual, slow motion and her body reacted accordingly.
    It had felt so good to be touched. To touch him.
    Touch him.
    Miranda straightened up. The only time she’d felt any kind of control was when she touched Ethan. When she stroked his cock, he’d been at her mercy, not the other way around. By giving him pleasure, she’d kept some of her power in the process.
    That was it. She couldn’t just allow herself to be seduced. She had to seduce him. She’d been watching him for years, hadn’t she? She knew what he liked, what made him moan, in a way he didn’t know about her.
    If she could use what she’d seen, what she’d watched those other women do over the years, she could keep Ethan at bay. Keep her heart firmly in her own hands.
    All it would take was seduction.
    And just because she had never tried to seduce anyone before didn’t mean she couldn’t do it. Women did so every day, didn’t they? Ones with far less intelligence than she possessed. And she had her years of spying on her side.
    The door opened behind her and two maids came in carrying the tub, with two more following with hot water. As they prepared her bath,