Read Tempt Me With Kisses for Free Online

grudge against your entire country ever since. Unfortunately, her notions seem to get more set and settled with age.”
    Fiona sat on the bed. “So I should not take her rudeness as a personal insult, then?”
    “Well, how you take it is your business,” he said, coming closer. “But with that red hair of yours she would feel the same way if you were the queen of Wales. In that case, she’d probably tell everybody you had bewitched your way to the throne.”
    Was that a jest? She couldn’t tell.
    She also thought it had been a mistake to sit on the bed as he loomed over her. He cocked his head and studied her until she felt like reminding him it was rude to stare. “I am the lord here, Fiona, not Ganore. I decide what I do, and whether or not anybody else approves is not important.”
    She suspected that he was setting limits and boundaries with her and making his leadership plain, just as she had with Ganore. “I understand, my lord.”
    A look passed across his face, as if he didn’t understand, but it was just as quickly gone. “Since we are to be wed, call me by my name.”
    “Yes, Caradoc.”
    Again that look crossed his face, and then he frowned. “I am not a harsh overlord, Fiona, and I do not expect to be harsh with my wife, either.”
    For the first time since he had accepted her offer, she felt that she could breathe, and for the first time since she had seen him today, she saw something of the quiet youth who had captured her attention. “I remember you as a boy, Caradoc, and if I had not believed that to be so, I would never have come here.”
    Something flickered in the blue depths of his eyes. Pride and pleasure, she thought, and inwardly she exalted that perhaps he was not so unreadable as she had feared. She rose so that she faced him, and as she did, she wondered what else she could say that would make the quiet boy appear again, if only in his eyes.
    He went to the door. “I shall see you below in the hall for the evening meal.”
    He paused on the threshold and looked back at her. “I should warn you, Father Rhodri’s grace is probably not going to be a pleasant one. He does not approve of my betrothal, either.”
    If so many objected, and despite his vow that he alone decided what he did, he might yet change his mind and call off the marriage. But as if he could read her thoughts he said, “He does not rule Llanstephan either, Fiona.”
    Trying to let his words lift the burden of dread that had settled upon her, she nodded and walked toward the window.
    Then she waited, her whole body tense, to see if he would offer words of solace or encouragement, or perhaps take her in his strong arms again and press his warm, surprisingly soft lips to hers, to have his wonderful mouth tease hers into opening like a bud coming into flower so that his tongue could slip inside—
    The heavy door closed with a thud.
    She glanced over her shoulder. She was, indeed, alone.
    She should be glad he had gone and that he had not tempted her with more amazing kisses. She should be more wary of him. It had been years, after all. He had changed, and so had she. He was no longer a boy, and she no longer a maid.
    Therefore, it was better he had gone without a kiss or caress, so that she did not have to struggle against the astonishing desire he aroused and act the affronted maid. For her past to remain in the past, she must convince Caradoc she was a virgin still. Then he would not be curious about the man who had taken her maidenhead, and as good as sent her here.
    Ask of me no questions, and I shall answer with no lies .
    At the clatter of hoof beats on the cobblestones, she again looked into the courtyard. A dark-haired woman in a blood red cloak rode hell-bent through the gate, her head bare, her black hair loose and tousled, her red cloak streaming behind her like a pennant in the breeze. She yanked the white beast to a halt, and despite its prancing, jumped nimbly down. She tossed the reins to one of the stable