Read Online Jade Lee by Winning a Bride - Free Book Online Page A

gone rock hard at the sight.
    And now he was sitting here on a tree root, his mind and his body entranced with the idea of her and her sweet, pink tongue.
    Fortunately, he didn’t have to wait through the night. A quarter hour after midnight, he heard her footfalls through the brush. She was coming and his body nearly hummed with anticipation. After all, it was time for him to begin his seduction of the woman with that pert tongue.
    She arrived as she always did: with a huff and a sigh. He didn’t move, but she found him nonetheless. And she didn’t waste time on their typical banter but went straight for the heart as if they’d already been in conversation for an hour.
    “People can change,” she said firmly. “But… but maybe they don’t change easily.”
    “Nothing changes easily,” he said grimly. “Not the canal that fights being built nor the villagers who don’t like all those new workmen tromping through the town.”
    “And boys don’t like becoming civilized and even dresses like to get dirty.” She paused. “Wait. That is a change. From clean to dirty. That’s a natural change, I guess, which does happen.”
    “That’s nature,” he agreed, not really understanding what they were discussing but liking the sound of her voice nonetheless. “Land runs wild if it can, horses will jump their pens if they’re not watched.”
    “So maybe it’s not that people don’t change, it’s that fighting their nature is hard work—”
    “Constant vigilance is needed.”
    “And all that vigilance is exhausting.”
    He nodded, thinking of the work yet to be done on the canal. An eon’s worth of digging and clearing. Extra men were arriving daily, but it was still damned difficult.
    “I spent last night here waiting for you,” he said. Then he silently cursed himself. That wasn’t at all what he had intended to say.
    “What? Why?”
    “Because I wanted to talk with you.”
    He saw her turn to face him. She was in a dark gown as usual for her nightly wandering. But this one was thin since it was a warm night, and her pale skin showed white in the moonlight. Ethereal white, as if the soft glow came from her rather than the moon.
    “You wanted to talk to me? About what?”
    “Are you going to marry the Scot?”
    She stiffened. “I hardly think that’s your business.”
    He didn’t argue. “I want to know anyway. Will you? Do you like him?”
    “He’s a gentleman,” she said primly. Obviously, her tone implied, that made him the exact opposite of Will.
    “He’s a dandy,” Will countered.
    She sniffed. “Nothing wrong with keeping one’s clothes clean. I find it admirable.”
    He nodded, and for the first time ever in their nightly discussions, he pushed off his tree root and crossed the space between them. He went to stand directly in front of her, and he watched her eyes widen in surprise. She hadn’t settled on her rock yet, but was still standing, her back to the tree but not touching it.
    “Nothing wrong with getting dirty either, depending on how it’s done.”
    She straightened and glared at him, not one to back down. At least not with him. “No one cares how you get dirty,” she said. “All they see is the dirt.”
    “Not true,” he said as he reached behind her to where the tree branched out. At the base of the branch was a collection of soft, wet mud, and he scooped it up with a quick flick of his fingers. Then he showed it to her. “This is mud.”
    “I know—”
    He brushed it across her cheek.
    “What are you doing?” she cried, rearing back. But that was exactly what he wanted her to do. Because she had nowhere to go but back against the tree trunk. Especially as he followed her motion, trapping her neatly against the bark.
    “And now your dress is dirty too,” he said.
    “What are you doing?” she cried, but there was a breathless note to her voice. “Have you gone mad?”
    “Yes,” he said with absolute certainty. “Bedlam mad. I should be locked