Read [Samuel Barbara] Lucien's Fall(Book4You) for Free Online Page A

quite extraordinary."

    They passed a wide space, centered with a hedge in the shape of a triangle.
    Curious, Lucien slowed. Madeline, a smile curling the edges of her mouth, gestured for him to go in.

    He peeked into the opening and saw another of the stone benches within, but this one sat amid a tangle of bushes. Small pink and red flowers with ragged edges and a spicy scent filled the narrow bed. On the gray stone bench, its tail swishing, was an enormous black cat. Lucien grinned at the billowing spill of his belly. "Hullo."

    "Meet Boss," Madeline said, bending to scratch the creature’s battered ears. "This is his domain—I’ve rarely known cats able to catch squirrels, but this one thrives upon them."

    She knelt, almost by rote, and yanked a stand of grass from between the flowers.
    Lucien admired the smooth straight line of her spine.

    Suddenly in the quiet, her stomach growled. She colored faintly. "I’m afraid I’m growing famished," she said. "And Juliette will never allow me to come to the table this disheveled. I must return."

    "By all means, lead us out," he said. "Not that such a lady as Juliette will have stirred at so ungodly an hour."

    "You’ve a wicked tongue, Lord Esher."

    "I am a wicked man."

    "Yes." Madeline nodded. "That I can believe."

    …

    No one—under pain of dismissal—disturbed the countess before noon unless she rang for them. So at this still tender hour of nine, Juliette was indeed only just stirring awake. The room was agreeably dim, the heavy draperies drawn against the invasion of morning.

    Juliette moved carefully, one limb and one joint at a time. She moved her fingers, then her wrists, keeping her eyes closed. Only minor stiffness. Her mouth was deadly dry and a dullness fogged her mind, but all in all, considering the copious amounts of wine she’d consumed the night before, it wasn’t as horrid as it might have been.

    She chanced opening one eyelid. A scene of some debauchery greeted her—her torn gown, a twist of stockings, a discarded pair of silk breeches lay in piles on the floor.
    Apricot silk and brocaded blue satin, tangled as their owners were.

    A musky male scent touched her nostrils, and Juliette shifted, turning over to look at Jonathan, asleep next to her. His skin was hot, smooth, taut under her hand.

    So young.

    The night flooded into her mind—all that zest and energy were astonishing. He was an inventive, passionate lover. More than that, he shared her secret need of a certain brutality in the act. Sometimes both of them ended up bruised, scratched, bitten.

    He moved under her hand, slow and sleepy and aroused. Juliette braced herself against the morning onslaught—always so much more difficult than the night, when wine blunted her emotions. Mornings, she was ill prepared for the clever plying of his hands that knew all the ways she liked to be touched, ill prepared for the heat of his mouth on her throat, or the warm sound of his need rumbling into her ear.

    So gently he moved! A gliding hand, a sweet kiss, a reverent sigh. He used his youth to move in her slow and easy no matter how she tried to urge him into the torrent of wild, brutal love they knew at night. And young he might be, but masterful, and Juliette swallowed tears of despair and yearning as she succumbed once again. Anything else she might have resisted. Not the gentleness.

    So young.

    Damn him!

Chapter Four

    Present mirth hath present laughter;
    What’s to come is still unsure:
    In delay there lies no plenty;
    Then come kiss me, sweet and twenty,
    Youth’s a stuff will not endure.
    —Shakespeare

    Madeline spent the day in her greenhouse, making notes, sketching out beds and plans and schedules, calculating what she might be able to do on her own, what would have to wait.

    As much as she enjoyed it, the sheer enormity of the tasks that awaited her made her feel weary. When the marquess sought her out to ask if she might like to ride in the cooling afternoon, she agreed