Read In the Heat of the Bite for Free Online Page A

Not nearly enough.
    Caitrin giggled, and her husband avoided looking across the coach at Rhiannon. His eyes were everywhere else. Out the window. On the ceiling. Staring at his Hessians. If that wasn’t a sure sign she was indecently exposed, what was?
    “It looks better on ye than it ever has on me,” Cait admitted. “Does she no’ look lovely, dear?” she asked of her husband.
    His noncommittal grunt was his only response.
    Cait elbowed him in his side. “Dash!” she scolded. “Tell Rhiannon how wonderful she looks.”
    The Lycan sighed loudly. Then he finally allowed his gaze to dance across Rhiannon’s dress. “If you plan to force me to assess Miss Sinclair’s cleavage, then yes, she looks… abundant. I mean abundantly beautiful.” He leaned over and kissed Cait’s cheek, lingering briefly to nuzzle her cheek.
    “I told ye.” Rhiannon sighed as she sank back against the squabs. “It’s no’ decent.”
    “Stir a little wind, Rhi. Yer embarassment’s makin’ it hot in here.” Cait fanned her face. Then she scolded her husband. “And ye need ta behave yerself, Dash.”
    “I have a feeling I’ll have a whole night of behaving myself as I try to protect Miss Sinclair’s honor. The men will be on her like hounds on a bone when they see her, and that’s not even including my brothers.”
    Cait rolled her eyes. “Ye have so little faith in them. I’ll have ye ken, all three Hadley men have promised ta be their most gentlemanly this evenin’.”
    The marquess laughed. “That hardly means anything, Cait, and it means even less when Miss Sinclair looks like
that
.”
    Cait turned her attention back to Rhiannon. “Just think, ye could meet the man of yer dreams tonight,” she gushed. Such a romantic. But then Cait sat back against the seat and smirked as though she was the cat who ate the cream. “Or perhaps ye’ve already met him.”
    “Doona go peekin’ inta my future, Cait!” Rhiannon cried.
    “I wasna lookin’ inta yer future. I was makin’ an educated guess.” Cait harrumphed. She patted her husband’s knee. “Ye’ll want ta get her some of that special punch as soon as we arrive, Dash. Otherwise, she’ll be a bundle of nerves and her powers will go off all over the place.”
    “And getting her foxed will help with that?” He raised his eyebrows at Cait’s ludicrous suggestion.
    “Of course,” she said primly.
    The coach rambled to a stop, and Rhiannon forced herself to take several deep breaths as she was presented to the Pickerings. Though they were only fashionably late, the ball was already in full swing. Couples were already dancing, and women fanned themselves from exertion. Rhi glanced around, looking for Aunt Greer and Ginny.
    “Do ye see them?” Cait asked as she tugged at her sleeve.
    Rhiannon just shook her head. “No’ yet.” She saw everything else, however. London was quite different from Edinburgh. She’d heard the term “a crush” before, but she’d never actually seen one. Throngs of twittering girls gathered together, as did young bucks, more dignified gentlemen, and a contingent of older women who seemed more intimidating than the whole of the French army. Rhi gulped. How would she ever find Ginny here?
    “Perfect,” the marquess grumbled under his breath.
    Rhi shifted her gaze to Eynsford. “What’s the matter, dear?” Cait asked.
    “That ol’ dragon just looked this way. There’ll be no avoiding her now.”
    Rhi glanced over the crowd and spotted the woman Eynsford must have meant. She was as regal as she was aged. She wore an unpleasant snarl on her face and a large, purple ostrich feather in her turban that was almost as tall as she was. And the woman in question was glaring in their direction. “Who is she?”
    “The Duchess of Hythe,” he groaned. “She and her decrepit husband were friends of my father’s. All things being equal, I’d just as soon never lay eyes on Her Grace again.”
    Rhi could see his point. The duchess seemed