Read Online Succumb to Me by Julia Keaton - Free Book Online

enough, for the moment, to assume
that it would be relatively safe to attend the ball she’d been
summoned to with the belief that the ax was not to fall on that
occasion.
     
    At any rate, it seemed unlikely that she
would get another opportunity to search for the painting.
     
    As useless as hindsight was, she realized she
should not have said the things she had that night long ago, should
not have done what she did. Young and foolish went hand in hand,
but she saw now she had been unnecessarily harsh, too wrapped up in
her own fear of failing, her confusion about the feelings he
aroused in her, and her father’s good opinion to spare a thought
for the effect her behavior would have on him. And she would pay
for it. The bloom of bliss and wealth had shriveled into awful
awareness and powerlessness … the inability to stop her fate from
rushing to greet her. Would that she could undo the past....
     
    A small box addressed to her and signed
by an admirer arrived the day
of the ball. Winter knew immediately who had sent it. She was
tempted to throw it away without looking inside, but curiosity got
the best of her and she opened the box. Enclosed in the velvet
depths was a silver chain.
     
    Drawing it out, she saw the chain held a
charm: a silver snowflake that glittered with the brilliant fire of
white diamonds … the ice princess.
     
    Winter stared at it, feeling anger surge
through her as she looked on it. Unconsciously, her hand curled
into a fist around it. She was on the point of hurling it across
the room when a thought occurred to her and stopped her.
     
    She opened her palm, staring down at it once
more. He was so certain she was cold, calculating…unfeeling, only
because she had thoughtlessly injured him once.
     
    Perhaps she should be an ice princess?
Perhaps she should show him just how cold she could be. She held it
up, allowing it to sway gently, smiling as she studied the cold
glitter of the diamonds. Let it be a
talisman against him , she
thought. She smiled at the thought.
     
    Despite her bravado, the moment she put it on
she felt immediately like a noose had tightened around her
throat.
     
    She dismissed her misgivings, deciding he
would not find her an easy target to humiliate or ruin. A painting
and jewelry did not mean he owned her, regardless of what he might
think. He would regret ensnaring her in his designs. She would make
certain of it.
     
    The night of the ball arrived, warmer than
the day had been, as if the fires of hell worked in accordance with
Logan Cordell, awaiting her entrance to their depths with open
arms.
     
    She was as prepared as she could be, given
the situation. She wore her best gown. It had been fashionable two
seasons ago, and she knew full well that all of society would
consider it a sign of her poverty that she had worn it again, but
there was nothing to be done about it.
     
    She and her mother did not have the coin to
spend frivolously on new gowns when the old ones were still of some
use. And, in truth, she had long since ceased to suffer a great
deal of anxiety over what her peers thought … or, at least that was
what she regularly told herself, hoping that, eventually, it would
be true.
     
    On this night, it was. She had far too much
to worry about already to spare much thought to her impoverished
situation. Her family’s straightened circumstances was a known
fact, impossible to hide anymore. It was one thing, however, to
find oneself in straightened circumstances, and quite another to
have one’s morals called into question. She might not be considered
a good matrimonial match, but at least, if she could keep her
reputation intact, she was still considered genteel, and relatively
safe from indecent proposals.
     
    One whiff of doubt about her morals and she
would have wolves crawling out of the woodwork trying to give her a
slip on the shoulder.
     
    The deep wine gown she wore was daring. At
the time she’d had it made, she had been protected by her