Read Online Ice Maiden by Jewel Adams - Free Book Online Page A

lifetimes!
    Falling to her knees beside the bed, Amy
sought the comforting reality of his touch. Clasping his huge hand
within her own she held its sleeping strength against her cheek.
The heat of the fever that she feared would strike him burned
against her coolness. “You will heal my rouge Lord, I don't believe
I could face my life in your time without your strength to guide
me.” The admission was one she would never speak should he be in
control of his faculties, but Amy lost the battles against the
truth.
    She absently brushed back a fallen curl from
his proud brow. “Do you think God brought me to you through the
shifting sands of time? I reached out to hold to what you promised
in your kiss and in that moment I awakened from my death to life in
your arms.” Lowering her head against his own, she whispered
against his ear. “Ack, I did die, he killed me for greed! If only
you could kill Peter, the beast that haunts my dreams.”
    Bern forced his mind and body to remain
dispassionate to her painful confession. The words she spoke were
so full of riddles. The confusion they delivered did not happen
because of the fever she believed he slept under. Nay, he neither
imagined what he listened to; he felt every burning contact of her
against his fired flesh as he strained in silence not to miss a
word she uttered. Ack! If only she would stop caressing him. Even
weak, he feared his eager body wanted to betray him and respond to
her nearness, allowing her to discover he was conscious.
    Amy wished she could forget everything that
brought her to be beside this man. Tracing the powerful line of his
jaw, her fingertip moved to memorize his full haunting lips.
    “Will I stay to fall prey to their ravaging
power? I believe I fear leaving you more than I do the possibility
of facing my own death.” Closing her eyes, Amy felt the cool trail
of her tears for the harsh honesty she secretly spoke. Looking upon
his still features she marveled over the hold he convened and
unknowingly won over her. “What a glorious state of conceit you
would fall into should you discover your vowed battles against me
are not necessary. And how shameful I am to admit so swift a
defeat?” Laughing softly to herself. “You are everything I avoided
in my past life. Domineering, proud more than conceited, but ack,
you do want to rule me and I am actually contemplating letting you.
Of course, finding yourself thrown back in time is in itself a very
valid excuse for my unusual behavior.” Studying him, she almost
wished he could hear her, “I wonder what you would do if you knew
that the woman you courted and held in your arms that morning,
became another in the breath of a kiss? That’s right, I am Amy
Bonner, not Lady Amelia. Our souls are not so different. I believe
Amelia truly played her part and a marvelous actress she must have
been not to expose herself before your siege, my handsome rogue. I,
of course, ruined all her good works under that mastering kiss of
yours. I suspect she would likely kill me for my weakness, but then
I have little doubt she hates me for trading her life for my
death!”
    It took a tremendous amount of control for
Bern not to capture her to him when she pushed away and began
pacing about the room. Through his concealing lashes he watched her
frantic steps, feeling the need mounting in her to seek escape.
    Cursing his present condition, knowing any
attempt he might try to stop her would fail and only expose his
knowledge, one he believed she would truly run from. Bern prayed
Craig and his men would stop the flight she might attempt. What he
just learned sounded unbelievable. But then she wasn't anything
like the woman he had been in constant company with these last
weeks! His own pride in thinking he breached her defenses almost
blinded him to the truth of it!
    When she stopped and turned back to face him,
Bern's breath stilled in his chest. “Would you run from the truth
of whom I am and where I come from, my lord? Or