Read Online Perilous Pleasures by Jenny Brown - Free Book Online

truth.
    Perhaps the powers he claimed were more than a delusion. She gave up the struggle. In a whisper she said, “I came to you a virgin.”
    â€œBut are you one now, or did I ravish you in that accursed dream? Did I defile you?”
    â€œI’m still a virgin.”
    â€œThanks be unto the gods. The work can still go on.”
    He fell back against his pillow, the anger and energy fading from his voice. “Had I taken you, the fruit of years of labor would have been destroyed in an instant. As it is, the gods only know what purification I’ll have to undergo to rid myself of this pollution.”
    Her gorge rose. Disgust. Pollution. That was all he’d felt in those moments when she’d felt such ecstasy. An involuntary shudder wracked her, and her knife fell from her hand. It lay on the ground, glinting in the moonlight, its blade clearly outlined against the darkness of the floor.
    â€œWhat’s that?” His voice cracked like a whip.
    â€œA knife.” She gulped. “Mrs. Endicott gave it to me. To defend myself.”
    She hadn’t thought his face could show more shock than it had when he’d awakened, but she’d been wrong.
    â€œSo that was your plan.” There was horror in his eyes. He drew his knees to his chest and pulled the bedclothes tight. “You looked like such a sweet young girl,” he whispered. “But you are Isabelle’s daughter. I should’ve known what you were capable of.”
    â€œI only meant to give myself to you. Not to kill you.”
    â€œOh, not to kill me, eh? Merely to emasculate me? To rouse me in my sleep and rob me of my manhood?”
    It took her a moment to grasp his meaning. Then she shrank back, though his iron grip on her shoulder made it impossible to flee. If he’d been angry at her before, what must be his emotion now?
    â€œThat never occurred to me,” she protested. “And even if it had, I could never have done such a thing. I meant only to defend myself, if you turned out to be violent—in the sexual act.” She added weakly, “I’d heard of that happening—from my mother’s friends. And you are a hot-tempered Scot. So I wished to be prepared. I didn’t mean to harm you.”
    Ramsay hauled himself up on one elbow and stared at her, unmoving, his eyes sweeping across her face as if he could read in her features the very secrets of her soul. He was prying into her most hidden thoughts and she felt terror knowing what he would learn when her soul was completely bared to him: not just the reason why she’d come to his bed, or how she’d lied to him about it, but of the shameful delight she’d felt, locked within his arms—before he’d discovered who it was he’d been making love to and sprang away from her in horror.
    She sat frozen, waiting, as the seconds ticked by, each one more agonizing than the one before it.
    And then he laughed.
    The sound of it echoed through the room. His shoulders shook, and what looked like tears sprang at the corner of his eyes. “What a strange girl you are,” he sputtered. “You’ve made me believe you, crazy as it sounds. If you’d meant to harm me, you’d be bragging about it now, not lying to me. You’re too honest to do anything else.”
    Her rigid muscles relaxed. He wasn’t going to strike her.
    But then his voice lost its edge of humor and once again took on its customary tone of command. “Still, I’ll keep your knife. Though you’ve been so kind as to leave me with my manhood intact, your blade can still harm me. The Dark Lord’s heir must not touch iron. Not in the weeks before the Final Teaching. It destroys the ability to draw upon the powers of the earth.” He gestured toward where her knife lay on the floor. “I’ll dispose of it later.”
    He sank back onto the bed, exhausted. “Now leave me. And don’t try any more of