Read Online Lord of Devil Isle by Connie Mason - Free Book Online

recognize a lady’s revulsion when you see it.”
    His gaze dropped to her breasts, where the hard tips showed like a pair of raised buttons under the man’s shirt she was wearing.
    “Believe me, Miss Upshall. I can read the signals you’re sending, and revulsion is not in evidence.”
    “Why, you—”
    His mouth swallowed the rest of her response. True to his word, he’d asked no permission to kiss her again.
    She knew she should fight, but his lips were firm and demanding and despite her best resolve, her insides melted like a dish of butter left in the sun.
    It made no sense. He was everything she despised in a man—arrogant and cocksure and totally in control. He was holding her against her will, for pity’s sake, and yet, his body spoke in some hot secret language and her body yearned to answer him in kind. When his tongue teased along the seam of her lips, she ached with the urge to open to him.
    She had to be strong. She had to win free before heshattered her will completely. She pressed against his chest, but he was unyielding as English oak.
    Two can play at this sort of game, she decided and abruptly switched tactics. She was no match for him in strength. She stopped struggling and let her arms and legs go suddenly slack. She was dead weight in his embrace.
    “What’s the matter with you, woman? Are you insensible?” He pulled back from their kiss, alarmed. “You’re limp as a jellyfish.”
    She straightened and stomped down on his foot as hard as she could. He released her and stepped back a pace.
    “Jellyfish carry a sting, I’m told,” she said with vinegar in her tone.
    “Eve! Oh, there you are!” Sally appeared at the double doors. “Come and choose before all the best gowns are gone.” She disappeared as quickly as she came amid a shower of giggles.
    “If you’ll excuse me, Captain,” Eve said, with a mocking curtsey. “I believe I need to try on one of your old mistress’s gowns. Do not construe that as an application for the position. Truth to tell, I’d sooner run around naked.”
    “I can arrange that,” he said darkly.
    “Not and play the gentleman you’re pretending to be.” She turned to go but he stopped her with a hand to her forearm.
    “There’s something between us here, Eve.”
    Her name on his lips sent a shiver of pleasure through her. She tamped it down.
    “Miss Upshall to you,” she corrected.
    “Blast and damn, whatever you want to call yourself, so be it. But you can’t deny you feel it, too.” His featuressoftened and he looked at her with hungry intensity. “When you change your mind, my chamber is at the end of the hall.”
    “I won’t change my mind.”
    “Your body will change it for you,” he said with eerie assurance. “Trust me, lass. I know my way around a woman’s body and yours is ripe for the taking. Come to me and you’ll not regret it. I promise.”
    “Careful, Captain.” She shot an evil glare at his groin. “Jellyfish know several effective places to sting a man.”
    She turned on her heel and rejoined her friends with her head held high. But inside, she was quaking, thinking about what might happen the next time she found herself alone with the cursed man.
    Jellyfish had no spines. No spines at all.

Chapter Seven
    Nick rolled over on the bed and looked around. He could’ve sworn he hadn’t sought his mattress alone.
    “Nicholas,” a feminine voice called.
    Ah! There she was, wearing his shirt and slop trousers again. They’d never looked better.
    “Oh, dear.” Eve glanced down at herself and then back at him with a heavy-lidded gaze. “The knot in that rope belt has come undone again, and I greatly fear I’m about to lose my trousers.”
    “You’ll look all the better without them, luv,” he said, rising naked and rampant from his bed to go to her.
    She greeted him by wrapping her arms around his neck while he rucked up the hem of the shirt and made short work of the rope. He thumbed her navel for a moment and then