Read Demon Lover for Free Online Page A

demand a payment.”
    What this time? Her heart pounded as she remembered the ravishing kiss last night, the way it had stolen her breath away and made her skin burn.
    “I have this necklace.” She fingered the cold, hard gems. “Although I don’t know how I would explain its loss to the king.”
    “Then you don’t really have the necklace if it doesn’t belong to you.” He stroked a hand down her arm from shoulder to wrist, and her flesh tingled. “But you have other jewels more precious than those. Rubies.” He touched her lips lightly with a fingertip. “Star sapphires.” He indicated her blue eyes. “And a single precious pearl.”
    One gloved hand slid down the front of her gown to cup her mound through the layers of silk and petticoats. He pressed hard with his finger on the very bud she had massaged earlier, and warmth bloomed from the sensitive spot.
    Gwyneth drew in a sharp breath.
    For a sizzling moment they remained locked together with his hand on her pussy the only point of contact, and then, abruptly, the demon stepped away from her. She felt the absence of his commanding presence which had made the air around her positively crackle with energy.
    She licked her lips before she spoke. “What would you have me give?”
    He looked around the room. “There’s more work to be done tonight.”
    It was true. The room was filled with nearly half as much straw as the previous night.
    “I would need more than a kiss this time.”
    Scissors of fear and excitement snipped through her mask of calm. “How much more?”
    “I want to touch you. Everywhere. And I want you to touch me.”
    Her excitement mounted. He would unmask, then. She would see his face at last. But then the other half of what he demanded struck her. He wanted to see and touch her body—naked. She’d never been naked in front of anyone in her entire life.
    At her hesitation, he added, “I will not have sex with you, nor will I force you to do anything you don’t enjoy. But I must have something for my trouble.”
    Gwyneth had no other options, and a deep-seated part of her wanted to know his touch and to have his gaze travel over her body. Just thinking about it set her afire all over again.
    “Very well. It’s a deal.”
    “Then you may begin to spin. I suggest you hurry, as there’s a great deal of work to be done and I demand some time at the end of the evening for myself.”
    Gwyneth gazed at the mountainous bales of straw and empty spindles waiting to be filled. Her fingers were already swollen and sore despite the balm one of the serving women had treated them with. The task before her seemed monumental— but at least not impossible now , she reminded herself as she cut the twine on the first bale of straw.
    She sat on the stool and fed the strands into the flyer while her foot pumped the treadle, making the wheel spin round. Gold thread began to coil around the first empty bobbin. She fed her lapful of straw into the machine and reached for more, all the while rhythmically pumping her foot up and down. It was impossible to see at what point the strands of straw became metallic gold. The wheel was a blur, the distaff spun and Gwyneth gave up trying to see the moment of change, accepting the magic as she did the mysterious wizard himself.
    She hummed softly and rocked in time to the rhythm of her foot on the treadle. All the while she was acutely aware of the man who watched her.
    “Do you enjoy spinning?” he suddenly asked.
    “When I’m not doing it to save my life, yes.”
    “What is that song you hum?”
    “An old spinning song one of the women in the village taught me. It helps me keep a rhythm so the thread is spun evenly.”
    “Your mother didn’t teach you?”
    “No. She died when I was very young.”
    “I see.” He had moved to stand beside her, watching her hands move and standing with his own clasped behind his back. “And what of your father?”
    “He raised me the best way he could, I