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hot, so she sat on the edge of the bed and
sampled the choice bits of food.  Mulled wine warmed her throat and heated her
from the inside out, and her nerves mellowed.
     
    Full and sated, she stood and
untied the lacings on the sides of her gown enough so that she could pull it
over her head.  She dropped the hopelessly soiled dress on the floor, then
shrugged her shift off her shoulders.  The thin shift followed the gown, and
she stepped from the pile.
     
    She shook her hair out,
stretching her muscles, then walked to the tub, eager to wash the grime away.
     
    “Is all to your liking, my
lady?”
     
    Bianca whirled around and
screamed, covering her naked breasts and womanhood with her arms. 
     
    Damian stood near the bed,
watching her.
     
    “Get out!” she screamed and
shook her hair forward for more coverage.  She could reach for a bath linen,
but then he would see something she’d rather he didn’t.  How could he have
entered?  She’d heard nothing, not the opening of the door, not his footsteps,
or the creak of his armor--nothing!
     
    He raked his gaze down her
body, and her skin flushed under his perusal as if he touched her.  “I assure
you, Lady Bianca, I have not the appetites of a mortal man.  Your virtue is
safe from me.”
     
    His gaze rested lingeringly
on the blossoming curve of her breasts before moving up to settle on her face. 
His face remained impassive, but there was a glint to his eyes she’d not seen
before.  It was sufficient to make her doubt his words, and despite his earlier
actions, a flash of heat suffused her insides and caused her skin to prickle
with awareness.  But perhaps it was merely the wine that made her react so.
     
    Bianca swallowed and closed
her eyes, counting to ten before opening them once more.  Still he stood there,
watching her, not recognizing--or perhaps unwilling--to take her hint to leave
her room. 
     
    She straightened and regarded
him with a cool stare.  “Leave me, now, or I swear I will do myself harm if
only to be free of you,” she said slowly, enunciating each word for emphasis.
     
    He smiled then, a curving of
his lips that was crooked and self-satisfied.  Gone was his fierce demeanor. 
She could almost believe him just a ... man.
     
    “As you wish, my lady.  I
will return to you on the morrow.”  He turned and strode to the door.
     
    “Remember to knock next
time.”  Her words stopped him.  For several moments she more than half feared
that he would turn his wrath upon her again, but after no more than a brief
hesitation, he continued as if she had not spoken.
     
    She glared at the panels of
the door as he closed it behind him.  Though it was muffled by the thick wooden
door, she swore she could hear him laughing. 
     
    But that was impossible.
     
    He was a beast.  Amusement
was an emotion he could no more feel than he was capable of experiencing other
human emotions.
     
    Immediately, she twined a
bath linen around her body, then strode to the door and checked to make certain
it was locked, not that it would keep him out should he choose not to honor her
privacy.  She fumed inside, thinking of his gall.  Oh how her father and his
men would laugh to see her now, and then quail at the thought of her defiance
to a creature of infamous legend.
     
    She’d reached the point of
exhaustion where even facing nightmares failed to rouse her sense of
self-preservation, though he’d managed to stir her with his entrance ... and
not entirely with fear.
     
    With that disturbing thought,
she went to take her bath, but looked constantly over her shoulder, expecting
to meet his piercing, encompassing stare as she bathed.  Tomorrow, she would
find a way to escape if it killed her.
     
     
    Chapter Four
     
    Round and round she went in
her mind, trying to think of a way to leave the castle without him being aware
of her escape.  He controlled the building and the grounds, but how far his
reach encompassed, she couldn’t know