Read Online Linna : Historical Romance (The Brocade Collection, Book 5) by Jackie Ivie - Free Book Online

guessed the reason and didn’t think she was far wrong.
    Linna began taking the myriad of pins from her hair, pulling out each coil into a long ringlet. Raoul’s reaction was palpable. It was reflected in the low sound accompanying his every breath.
    “Are you ready to bargain?”  She asked it sweetly, when she had the last of her hair undone . Then she turned from him, bending backwards to run her hands through the tangled locks. Garbled choking noises were coming from the man at the table. She didn’t look to verify it.
    “Bargain?”
    Linna stopped her movements at the word. It didn’t sound at all like the man she’d just addressed. She wondered at her sanity, then she shrugged it off. Shyness wasn’t going to get her what she wanted. Boldness was.
    “Bargain . I’ve a marriage proposal on the table. You’ve yet to accept it.”
    “Sweet Lord.”  He whistled it through his teeth . “Yes. God, yes. Yes.”
    “We’ve got that much settled ? Already? Good. Now...as to what you’re bargaining with?”
    A lower growl met her question , and Linna glanced his way again. She’d guessed at his feral passion. It was beginning to sound it. She watched in fascination as her own shivers reached the backs of her hands. She hadn’t known that could happen. She had to discount it. Linna was used to getting what she wanted. Him, she wanted. But at her price.
    She lifted one arm and with the opposite hand slid the lace ringlet of her sleeve off of her middle finger, smoothing down the material as she did so . Then she did the same to the other one, making it a caress.
    “Anything . Name it. Dearest God! Name it and have done.”
    Linna look at him then and couldn’t believe what she saw, much less what she heard . Raoul looked like he was in torment, his eyes dominating his face, his jaw locked, and his hands gripping to the chair arms so tightly she was afraid he might split the wood.
    “Raoul?” she asked.
    “What do you want? Name it and it’s yours. I swear it.”
    “I want my freedom.”
    “What?”
    The chair fell as he left it, and then he was there, backing her into the table and bending at his knees to slide his loins against hers . She felt him lifting her onto the table surface, all the while ignoring her shocked gasps for breath. His eyes were glazed strangely, and Linna tried to stop the rising panic.
    “No,” she gasped it . “Please no. Not like this. No. Please?”
    “No?”  He repeated the word, making it senseless-sounding . “No? What kind of woman promises what you do and then says no?”  Raoul pulled away then, holding his arms wide to encompass the entire room, rather than touch her. He was shaking with the effort, too.
    Linna gulped and blinked hastily . “I don’t tease, Raoul. I promise. I’ll give all I’ve shown. Once we’re wed. Only when we’re wed. I vow it.”
    “I refuse your terms then.”
    “What?”  Now it was Linna’s turn to sound stunned.
    “And give you my own . I’ll accept your proposal to be my wife. I’ll get a special license in the morn. We’ll wed. We’ll sail the moment it’s done. But I get one thing in return, Miss Linna. One.”
    “One?” she asked, around the dryness in her throat.
    “One. I get you. I get you...now. Right now. I’m not waiting much longer. I want you. This moment. I want you passionately, completely, and totally. There’s to be no doubt about it. None. That is my price.”
    “Now?” she choked out the word.
    “Right now.”
    “You want me to—to bed with you...right now?”  No matter how much she tried to control it, she stammered through the words.
    “On the table, in yonder bed, on the floor ! Have you no notion of what you do? Name the place, name the chamber, name the equipment, but know the terms. You get your wedding, but I get tonight. All of tonight. All of you. Now. I’m not fond of waiting, either.”
    “If I say no...will you take it?”
    He probably wanted to yell the response, but little