Read Hellion (Seven Brides for Seven Bastards, 7) for Free Online

kept them open, for it
didn't take her long to make up her mind. She looked at him again.
Those peculiar, lavender-tinted eyes flickered, flared boldly, as
if this idea had come to her in the spur of the moment and she knew
it was wicked. But she didn't care.
    Lady de Leon was in a reckless
mood.
    Then she smiled, slowly,
dazzlingly.
    "Move the posts four feet and see," she
said softly, her tone teasing.
    "Tell me first, woman!"
    She laughed, and his pulse
quickened again. "Move the posts four feet," she repeated,
snatching her wimple out of his tight fist, "and see ."
    Turning, she walked away down the
slope.
    The woman was toying with him, as no
other woman would ever dare.
    Oh, this was bad, he thought morosely.
He should be holding a hard line and telling her she could expect
no more than he would deign to give her. Yet there he was, thinking
about her hair and what it would feel like to wrap his body in it.
Wondering all sorts of things about her. Whether she liked soft
fucking or hard fucking. Whether she was a screamer in bed, a
howler like a wolf, or a pigeon that cooed. Whether she tasted as
damn good as she smelled.
    The sun was getting hotter by the
second.
    She had now reached the bottom of the
slope, and her hair was covered again by the wimple. She hadn't
bothered to re-braid all those tumbling waves, but the luster was
safely, properly covered again. Good, it better be. He didn't want
other men's eyes admiring that beauty. Sal coughed, needing to ease
the tension in his throat. He wiped a hand across his sweating brow
and drew his palm down over his face, hoping he hid the sheer lust
that must surely be marking his expression at that moment. Not that
she could see his features clearly from that distance, but if she
realized how much he'd been thinking about fucking her lately, he
would lose— end up giving her the very boots off his feet before
he'd got as much as he wanted from the woman.
    And this was too good a game to risk
losing. Yes, she was playing with him, gambling with him, but he
didn't mind it. Not. At. All.
    He couldn't help but admire her
bravado, her fearless spirit.
    Still, he was confused about what had
brought her to him that day with her negotiating game. Helene de
Leon had never hidden what she thought of him— that he was her
inferior, because he was the bastard born grandson of a blacksmith
and had none of that noble Norman lineage that was so important to
her sort.
    However, they both had something the
other wanted, didn't they?
    Now he'd have to trust her. If he
moved those posts as much as she wanted, he could be left looking a
fool. On the other hand, she would know she'd found a way to win
herself something from him and doubtless there were other things
she wanted. Other things for which she would bargain.
     
     

Chapter Five
     
    There was no reasoning with the
tumultuous feelings coursing through her body, she'd decided.
Therefore she would concede to this terrible, lusty desire to play
with Salvador d'Anzeray while she still could. The morning sun,
merry birdsong and that glorious expanse of blue summer sky had
cheered her spirit that day, made her feel invincible.
    Before a new husband was sent to her
and the walls of her prison closed in, she must make the most of
it.
    Later, when her guards reported back
that the fence posts had been moved to give her four feet of
additional land at the end of her field, she felt a skip of
excitement. He had complied, taken her bait. Now she must fulfill
her side of the bargain.
    She wrote him a message and sent it
via the boy, Harold, a slim, freckled lad who could approach
d'Anzeray's gates without fear of being shot at with arrows. The
only one of her servants he had ever allowed near his
fortress.
    Only after Harold had gone did she
pause to wonder whether Salvador could read. Oh well, too late now.
Hopefully he could.
    She ordered a bath and had Elyce rub
her body from head to toe with perfumed oil. And then all she had
left to do was