Read Online The Highwayman (Rakes and Rogues of the Restoration Book 3) by Judith James - Free Book Online Page A

gentle, mindful of her bruises, but it thrilled her to her toes.
    Heedless of all the lessons she’d been taught, she stood up on her toes, wrapped her arms around his neck, and hesitant, curious…she kissed him back. He groaned and hugged her tight against him, backing her into the wall, the fingers of one hand threading through her hair as his mouth claimed hers in a heated caress. Her lips, already swollen and tender, ached with pain and pleasure. The feel of him pressed against her, his arms around her...made her forget all else. She didn’t want it to stop, she didn’t want him to leave, and she sighed when he finally pulled away.
    “My apologies, Lady Hamilton,” he said with a shaky laugh.
    “Please don’t do that.”
    “Do what? Kiss you?”
    “Please don’t apologize. That was my first kiss, Jack. Do you regret it?”
    His lips curled in a slight smile and he caught her chin between thumb and forefinger. “A starry night, a lady brave and bold, a first kiss. You have been an adventure well worth the risk, Bella, and I don’t regret a thing.”
    The way he said her name warmed her like a caress. “I owe you so much. How can I ever repay you?”
    “Come and find me if they ever catch me, and give me a kiss to warm my soul before I hang.” He brushed her bruised lips with a kiss as soft as a whisper, and she stepped fully into his embrace.
    His fingers traced her neckline with a delicate touch, leaving shivers of sensation that rippled through her body and made her nipples ache and harden as if from the cold. He caressed her collarbone, and then spread his hand wide and slipped it under the cool rope of her necklace, to lie warm against her skin. Her heart thrummed beneath his palm. He deepened his kiss as his fingers toyed with the faintly glowing moonlit strand encircling her throat. Traveling its length, his knuckles brushing the tender skin peeping from her modest décolletage to linger a moment, barely touching, just below her ear.
    He felt her tremble. He felt a moment of knee-weakening lust, surprising tenderness, and unexpected regret, and then he plucked her necklace from her neck, and dropped it in his pocket.
    “Jack?” She stared at him in stunned surprise, clutching her throat. “What are you doing? That was my mother’s!”
    “I warned you, Bella. I am a highwayman.” He let out a piercing whistle and Bess came galloping, with Nate not far behind. “Keep her safe, Nate,” he called as he caught the swift moving mare by the mane and swung easily onto her back. Wheeling about to face Arabella, he bowed from the waist and tipped his hat with a flourish. “Adieu, Bella! Until we meet again.” The black horse reared up, taking several steps backwards, and then leapt forward. A moment later horse and rider were swallowed by the night.
    Arabella stood there, staring into the dark. She could hear the bustle from the inn behind her. Someone was playing a fiddle. An argument was growing heated on an upper floor. A carriage rumbled by on the road behind her and somebody slammed a door. They were ordinary sounds on an ordinary night. She felt for her necklace, but both it and her highwayman were gone. I have just awoken from a dream . Her overwhelming feeling was one of loss.

 
     
     
CHAPTER EIGHT
     
     
    Riding hard along the North Road for Newark, Jack slipped his hand into his coat pocket and hefted the modest string of pearls he’d taken from his bedraggled countess. They had a pleasing weight and a sensuous texture, slipping from his palm, sliding through his fingers to pool in a smoothly rounded cluster, waiting to be gathered and caressed again. They reminded him of his virginal adventuress. Natural, lacking in pretension, with an understated quality and substance that set her more flamboyant sisters in the shade.
    He’d been feeling restless and empty of late, dissatisfied with everything, taking no pleasure from that which he used to enjoy. Bored, jaded, he’d been hoping for