Scandalous Desires

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Book: Read Scandalous Desires for Free Online
Authors: Elizabeth Hoyt
Tags: FIC
his face and hands and headed to supper.

    The dining room was a cavernous hall—Mick liked to have all his people eat the evening meal together—and thus the room was usually quite loud. But as Mick entered tonight, what conversation there’d been quickly quieted.

    He looked about. Bran was seated next to Fionnula. Pepper was across from him, a book open on his empty plate. A couple of Mick’s current women tittered together in the corner, while Bert glared at them from across the way. And a dozen or so of Mick’s night crew took up the far end of the long tables set end to end. To a man they were a dangerous, shifty lot—and yet not a one could meet his eye. Even the sweetmeats boy, Tris, was seated behind Mick’s chair, ready to serve him.

    Everyone was there in fact, except Mrs. Hollingbrook.

    Mick strode to Fionnula. “Where is she?”

    The girl trembled. “She said that she couldn’t come down to sup.”

    Mick bent and whispered softly, “Couldn’t or
wouldn’t
?”

    The girl gulped and said bravely, “Wouldn’t”

    Mick inhaled, feeling rage boil within his breast. He turned heel and left the room without a word.
No one
ignored his summons to supper—a fact Mrs. Hollingbrook was about to learn the hard way.

    S ILENCE HAD JUST finished feeding Mary Darling her dinner when Mickey O’Connor burst into the bedroomwithout so much as a knock. She glanced up, startled, and then stiffened at the grim set of his mouth.

    Mary Darling frowned sternly, looking quite a bit like her sire at the moment. “Bad!”

    Mickey O’Connor narrowed his eyes at the baby and then turned to Silence. “ ’Tis supper time—or hadn’t ye heard?”

    She lifted her chin. “Yes, I’d heard. Fionnula informed me.”

    “Then why aren’t ye downstairs with everyone else, darlin’?” he asked much too gently.

    He stood preternaturally still, his head cocked as if listening to her breathing.

    Silence found herself licking her lips nervously. She reminded herself of the promise she’d made just this afternoon: she would not blindly obey this man again. Refusing to dine with Mickey O’Connor might seem like a small defiance, but it was the only one she had. “I prefer to eat in my room with Mary.”

    “All those who live under me roof dine together downstairs.”

    She tilted her chin. “Do they?”

    “Yes, they do,” he said. “Get up.”

    His tone was so commanding that she almost did just that. Silence exhaled carefully and lifted Mary from her lap. She set the toddler on the floor and Mary immediately began exploring the room, holding on to the settee seat as she went.

    She met his eyes. “No.”

    “What?”

    He’d heard her well enough so Silence merely folded her arms in answer. The posture also served to hide the trembling of her hands.

    He stared at her a moment and there was anger on his handsome face, but there was also a kind of animal curiosity as well. “Why not?”

    She inhaled, trying to calm the rapid beat of her heart. “Maybe I don’t want to break bread with pirates. Maybe I don’t want to dine with
you
. Maybe I simply prefer my quiet room. Does it matter? Whatever my reasons I will not obey you.”

    He’d stilled and she found herself holding her breath, as if waiting for an attack. He stood in front of the fire, the light limning the tight fit of his breeches on muscled legs, his hands fisted by his sides, his big shoulders bunched and ready. His face was absolutely motionless, and she thought again how beautiful he was—beautiful and dangerously feral.

    “Well, then, Mrs. Hollingbrook,” he finally drawled, “that’s yer choice sure enough, but ye’ll not be eatin’ at all until ye grace me supper table.”

    Her mouth dropped open in outrage. “You’ll starve your own child?”

    He sliced the air with the blade of his palm, his rings winking in the firelight. “I never said the babe won’t be eatin’. I’ll have enough victuals sent up for her, but not

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