Read Online This Fierce Splendor by Iris Johansen - Free Book Online

years. By the time of the second explosion, he was on his feet reaching for his gunbelt. When the third explosion rocked the hall, he was at the door.
    “Dominic,” Rina said sleepily. She sat up and brushed a shining brown lock of hair from her cheek. “What the hell—” She broke off as another explosion jarred her fully awake. “No, Dom, don’t go out there.” She jumped out of bed, reaching hurriedly for her lacy peignoir.
    Dominic wasn’t listening. All his senses were strained toward the danger in the hall. God, he was tired of this. Tired of never going to sleep withoutworrying if he’d face gunfire when he woke. He yanked open the door, stepping quickly to the side to avoid a possible spate of gunshots. The explosions continued, but there were no bullets sailing through the air, impacting floors and woodwork. He cautiously looked around the doorframe. The hall was filled with smoke and the explosions weren’t coming from a gun. He stared blankly at the string of explosives on the floor going off one after the other. “Firecrackers!”
    “What?” Rina was beside him. “Who would do a thing like this?”
    He didn’t have to consider the possibilities for more than a minute. He had been in the Nugget when Patrick and his friends had ridden through the doors on horseback throwing firecrackers right and left. “For Patrick, every day is a day for celebration,” he said dryly. “I imagine this was his way of bidding us a fond good-bye until next week. But, if I know my nephew, he wouldn’t be able to resist staying and watching the fun.” He was striding down the hall following the exploding string of firecrackers. “And when I catch up with him, I’m going to tie a string of firecrackers to
his
tail.” The explosions had reached the head of the stairs and so had he. He called down into the dimness at the foot of the stairwell. “Patrick, I’m about to lift your scalp.”
    He thought he heard a shout of laughter amid the explosions sparking down the stairs. It didn’t improve his temper. He started down but was forced to move slowly to keep behind the exploding firecrackers. “Did you consider the possibility you might have set the house on fire? Or that someone could have started shooting before they realized it was a torn-fool trick?”
    “It wasn’t Patrick’s fault, Mr. Delaney.” Elspeth moved out of the shadowed hallway to the foot of the stairs. She stood very straight, her eyes fixed on him as if mesmerized. “This was entirely my idea.”
    She could barely get the words past her dry throat. She had never seen a real live man naked, and Dominic Delaney was boldly and unashamedlynaked. When he had appeared at the top of the stairs with only the smoke wreathing his nudity, she had experienced shock, and then, almost immediately, her usual curiosity.
    Michelangelo. He was like a statue she had seen by Michelangelo in that museum in Florence. Powerful shoulders and pectoral muscles, a tight stomach and heavily corded thighs and calves. Only the colors were different, warm bronze instead of cold white marble. Dark hair feathered Delaney’s chest and lightly dusted his legs. There was also hair encircling his … Her eyes widened as she stared in fascination. In all the statues she had seen, that portion of the male anatomy had either been covered with a fig leaf or else the sculptor had depicted it as minuscule and unimportant. Even Michelangelo. But Michelangelo was
wrong;
it was neither of those things. She jerked her eyes quickly back to his face. “I’ve come to ask you to reconsider.”
    The expression of stunned surprise on his face was superseded by ferocity. “The hell you have.” He started down the steps toward her, each word punctuated by the explosion of the firecrackers. “I don’t like women who use their sex as a shield to invade a man’s privacy and put him at a disadvantage. I don’t like it one bit.”
    “You said you wouldn’t see me. I had to do something