Read Online Scoundrel's Kiss by Carrie Lofty - Free Book Online Page A

The idea of spending time in her company without taking advantage of
those rare female attributes was too severe to contemplate—even for
Fernan, who had one beautiful, compelling reason to confine his desire to bawdy
jests.
    "She's quite a woman,
Master," he said. "Even you must see that. I cannot think any of our
lot could gird himself against one such as her."
    Pacheco leveled cold black eyes, eyes
that made for an eerie contrast with his curtailed silver hair. "Nor do I
expect Gavriel to."
    "You—?" Fernan lost
track of his customary glibness, at a loss for words. Uncomfortably so.
Ignoring the trickle of sweat along his spine, he tried not to cower. "You
want him to fail? It would be a waste of my breath to ask why, I suppose?"
    "Quite."
    He grinned. "But Master, why not
give her to me? If failure is imminent, I would enjoy the fall far more than
Gavriel."
    "We both know that's a lie,"
Pacheco said, rising from his pallet. "I want you to keep your mouth shut
No, let me correct that: Prattle on as you always do. No one listens to your
nonsense."
    "Surely, and of course."
    "But I expect discretion." He
took Fernan’s chin in one hand, twisting slightly, pulling his gaze up.
"All you have to do is consider the alternative."
    Fernan tried to smile again, anything
to crawl from under Pacheco's condemning stare, but the smile he managed felt
warped and melted.
    Pacheco finally let him loose. He
turned to a squat table and poured a mug of wine. While the novice master drank
deeply, Fernan rubbed the bruised skin along his jaw.
    "Gavriel is a grim sod, but I pity
him."
    "Do not," Pacheco said.
"He's bound for greater purposes."
    "You speak in puzzles, for
certain. What would the Grand Master think if he heard you say such
things?"
    Pacheco's eyes narrowed. Every breath
flared his nostrils like an angered bull. Aging hands that bore no calluses,
only pale blue lines beneath leathery skin, clenched into fists. Fernan had
thought the man incapable of committing the same violence they had witnessed on
the roadside, but he altered that opinion.
    "Remember your tongue and where
your loyalties lie," Pacheco said, his voice unyielding. "Not with
the Order. Not with the Grand Master. "With me. I determine your future.
That is, unless you'd rather I reveal to your father the" location of your
Moorish bastard."
    Najih. His son.
    "Ah," Fernan said unsteadily,
bringing shaky fingers to his throat. "I'm hearing threats. At least, I
believe them to be threats. Alas, I am as dumb a fool as ever you saw."
    Pacheco grinned, a predator toying with
its next meal. "And I have never expected more from you."
    Gavriel laid Ada on a fresh pallet, her
room across a corridor from the one Pacheco and Fernan shared. He dropped
then-satchels. Compared to the modest accommodations of the Jacobean house in
Toledo, this room was sumptuous and smelled of sweet straw, incense, and herbs
dusted among the floor rushes. Dark murals adorned the smooth plaster walls; it
was a cool and private retreat illuminated by a pair of oil lamps.
    His burden discharged, Gavriel should
have turned and walked away. Weariness and his inner turmoil demanded rest. But
he could not leave, not until she was cared for.
    Ada's shivering would not abate.
Looking around the room, he found a thick sheepskin throw. He draped the heavy
mantle over her and knelt to touch her forehead. Cold skin, still, but slicked
with foul sweat A most abnormal fever.
    He set about attending the wound at the
base of her skull. Her scalp bled considerably, binding the hairs at her nape
in a sticky mass, but the cut was shallow and no longer than one of his
fingernails. He washed the area with cool water and a strip of linen until he
was satisfied the bleeding had stopped.
    She gasped. Pale lids opened wide to
reveal panicked blue eyes, her pupils shrunken to tiny points. Her hands
flailed wildly as she struggled to sit up. "No! Don't cut me again!"
    Gavriel dropped the cloth and held her
wrists. The sudden