Read Online Lilac Temptress by Elizabeth Davis - Free Book Online Page B

eyes were a brilliant shade
of blue and filled with compassionate depth. Tall and leanly
muscled, when he gave his charming smile, he was simply
irresistible to the young ladies. He was outgoing and full of
energy, but also full of himself, cocky, and emotionally immature
sometimes. But usually, he remained indifferent to everything
around him.
    Most of the young ladies in town
chased after him, and though he was flattered by their affections,
he never took advantage of them. He rather enjoyed his most
favorable hobbies of sketching pictures of the Teche, or riding
Shadowcaster all day long, William’s horse that Kyle took for
his.
    What was she going to do
about Kyle? Eventually, Kyle would suffer the consequences of his
actions, but he thought little of it since the most influential man
in town was William. Kyle is under Wil’s
protection, and nobody would trouble Wil, right? Sierra tried to convince herself.
    In his room upstairs, she
had argued privately with Kyle before leaving the tavern. Kyle
laughed at her when she told him that he had gone too far this
time, and had better be more mindful in the future. She responded
to his laughter by giving him a cuff on the back of his head.
Kyle’s mirth had changed to a subdued seriousness, and his eyes had
narrowed in anger. What did you do that
for? he had asked.
    Sierra recalled her
response. You better listen to me when I
talk to you! Don’t treat me the way you treat other girls who wish
they had you all to themselves! Women will come and go, but I am
your sister, and you are my brother! I am only trying to make you
see the error of your ways. I am trying to protect you!
    She remembered how Kyle had
stared at her. You’re obsessed with
me, he had told her . You have no life of your own, so now you want to take over
mine!
    He finally realized that his harsh
words had cut her like a knife. He knew she had dedicated an
enormous amount of time, and effort keeping him out of
trouble—failing to fulfill her own dreams as a result. He had
looked at her apologetically, and tried to put across how much she
meant to him—more than anyone on earth he’d said, and that if she
wished it, he would let Claudine go.
    But somehow, he had not convinced
her.
    * * *
    After she bathed and dressed for
sleep, she stopped thinking about Kyle, and gave into more pleasant
thoughts of Drake McCalister, who by now, had probably arrived in
New Iberia in route to New Orleans. Now, he was a man that she
could daydream of for hours.
    Sierra let her imagination have its
way with her. She envisioned what her encounter might have been
like if she had slept with Drake, but in her dreams she did much
more than be subject to his passion. The girls in the brothel, whom
she thought of as sisters, had told her all about their exploits
with men, giving her some idea of what men wanted from a
woman.
    Sierra giggled to
herself. Funny, she thought. Not even living in the brothel had she ever seen
a man completely naked. In fact the only male she’d seen naked had
been Kyle, and they were children then.
    She and Kyle used to skinny dip in a
calm white river cutting through the valley when they were kids
until suddenly she put an end to it. Her body had started
undergoing strange metamorphic changes, and at age twelve she got
her menstrual cycle, and she had cried to Adrienne. Adrienne told
Sierra that she was becoming a woman, and had arranged with William
for her to move out of the room she and Kyle shared at the tavern,
and into a room at the brothel.
    William thought the idea absurd, but
since Sierra had no mother to explain the changes in her body, he
simply agreed with Adrienne that she should look after
Sierra.
    Adrienne was happy to have Sierra
around because she’d never had children of her own, and had always
wanted a daughter. Sierra remembered feeling ashamed of her body at
first when ten-year-old Kyle innocently asked her why they couldn’t
go skinny-dipping anymore. She had said because they just