Read Online Harlot by Victoria Dahl - Free Book Online Page A

the whole world. He’d loved her last night. He’d loved her as he’d kissed her and touched her and buried himself in her body. And he hated her for that.
    His horse stepped and danced, fighting against Caleb’s tension, so Caleb forced himself to relax and let her run. The road was wide here and his horse sure-footed. He closed his eyes and let the scents of the Colorado plains wash over him. This countryside felt more like home than his stepfather’s house ever had.
    Strange that Caleb had always felt so out of place in his mother’s fancy new house with her polished new friends, and yet he’d fallen in love with a girl so far above him. He’d never even felt uncomfortable around Jessica, really, though he’d squirmed a little at having tea in her formal sitting room with her father.
    Dr. Willoughby’s position as head physician at the tuberculosis sanatorium had given him a station higher than Caleb’s stepfather. After all, there were two bank presidents in town, and only one head doctor. Yet Dr. Willoughby had never presented himself with bluster or self-importance. If anything, he’d mostly been distracted in social situations, an affliction Caleb could sympathize with.
    Caleb’s stepfather, on the other hand, had always made clear that Caleb and his mother were now living in the Durst household and were expected to maintain the good reputation of the Durst name, despite that Caleb had never taken it. The Durst family had never felt like home. But Jessica…she’d felt like his home.
    He opened his eyes so he wouldn’t see her in his memory. That smart, beautiful girl.
    She’d made him laugh. Blush. Need. Sigh. She’d made him want to be the kind of man his father had been, strong and steady and proud. She’d made him want better.
    His mare slowed, so Caleb pulled her back and let her set the pace. The sun was only just touching the horizon. He didn’t need to hurry, but he wanted to.
    This arrangement had been meant to punish her. To punish both of them, really. Jessica for the betrayal, and himself for ever loving her. But tonight he wasn’t rushing toward any sort of punishment. He was hurrying toward her body. Toward the awful pleasure of it.
    When he finally spied her house, excitement burned his skin as if the sun had reversed course and risen again. Lamplight glowed softly in the window. If he let his eyes lose focus a little, it could be a different house on a different piece of land, and this could be a different life entirely.
    But then the big blond man Caleb had seen the first day walked from the back of the house toward the barn. He turned in Caleb’s direction and stared for a while before he disappeared into the barn and closed the door behind him.
    Did Jessica take that man into her bed? Did she open for him the way she had for Caleb?
    His head ached with tension as he ground his teeth and told himself it didn’t matter. It didn’t. She hadn’t slept with anyone else today. Caleb had told her clearly, and she wouldn’t risk the money.
    Eyes narrowed against his jealousy, he tied his horse beneath the overhang of the porch roof and climbed the steps. His knuckles sounded like gunshots against the door.
    Tension knotted his shoulders as he waited. When he heard no answering footsteps, he leaned to the side to look through the front window but didn’t spot any movement.
    “Jessica?” he called. He tried the door, but it was locked tight. Had she run off? Taken the money and left him behind? The sharp stab of alarm he felt had nothing to do with the gold. He moved quickly down the stairs and rounded the house, passing a sad clump of lilac bushes before he spotted the back door. It was closed. He opened it without knocking.
    He heard her sharp breath at the same moment his eyes found her. Then he noticed the sound of water. Water dripping from her body, swirling around her feet. She clutched a sheet to her chest, but her right flank was exposed from the top of her wet hip down to