Read Witch's Harvest for Free Online Page A

Riocho Negro. As,' he added drily, 'I tried to tell your cousin.'
    'She couldn't have understood,' Abby began, but he interrupted, his dark brows snapping together.
    'No, Abigail. It is you who does not understand. My engagement to your cousin is over, and I have asked you to be my wife. I am
    still waiting for an answer.'
    There was a long silence. Abby's heart was bumping against her ribs. She said, 'It's impossible.'
    'Why is that?' His eyes were fixed unnervingly on her face. She shrugged. 'Because—well, we're strangers to each other.'
    'But intimate strangers, you must agree.' His grin was slow and amused, and she found her own lips reluctantly curving in
    acknowledgement. 'Besides, querida , if I'm honest, the possibility of a child is not the only consideration. My neighbours, the workers on the plantation, are expecting me to return married. To go back to Riocho Negro alone would not be a pleasant
    experience. In such a small community, there would be gossip—speculation.'
    'And you think they'll say nothing if you turn up with the wrong woman?' Abby asked. 'Or do you expect me to masquerade as
    Della?'
    'Of course not,' he said impatiently. 'Why do you insist on mentioning her at every opportunity?'
    'Because she exists.' Abby waved a hand, rather wildly. 'You can't just—dismiss people from your life like that!'
    'The decision was hers alone.' His face and voice were implacable. The only decision that now concerns me is your own.'
    'But it seems so cold-blooded,' she protested.
    'Is that what you think?' he asked cynically. 'I thought last night would have taught you differently. I am now trying to be
    practical, yielding to the pressure of our circumstances.' He was silent for a moment. 'Yes, we are little more than strangers,' he went on, more gently. 'But in my world, still, that is not so unusual. Besides,' he paused again, 'you cannot deny that in one area at least, we would be—compatible.'
    The note in his voice, the overtly sensual reminiscence in his glance, brought the colour flaring in Abby's face. She said,
    stammering a little, 'I don't know how you can say that, after—after…'
    'After you allowed your sense of grievance at my brutality to supersede everything else,' he said sardonically. 'But you must
    admit that until the moment of truth you had enjoyed being in my arms. You have admitted you wanted it to happen, and I regret
    that you found the experience a disappointment. Next time will be very different, I promise, carinha ?
    'You don't have to promise anything,' Abby said shakily. 'I—I never want you to touch me again. I couldn't bear that. That's why I can't marry you, Vasco. If there's a baby, I'll cope somehow. People do these days. It isn't the stigma it once was, really…'
    His hand fastened on her arm, the fingers biting into her flesh. 'And you think I can be content with that?' he demanded harshly.
    'Going back to Riocho Negro in ignorance, never to know, or set eyes on my firstborn? You imagine, do you, that I have no
    rights in such a matter?' He shook his head. 'You are wrong, senhorita . If you carry the heir to Riocho Negro in your body, then I intend him to be born with my name.' He paused. 'As for your not wishing to be touched,' he smiled derisively, 'I intend to
    change your mind on that score.'
    He pulled her to him before she could take any form of evasive action, his hand twisting in her soft hair, holding her head still, as his mouth possessed her startled lips.
    She braced her hands against his chest, trying to push him away, and instead reviving the aching memory of what it was like to
    feel the warmth of him under her fingers without the barrier of clothing.
    Almost instinctively her hands curled like a small cat's claws into his hard body, and as if he sensed her yielding, Vasco
    released his punishing grip to allow his own hands to slide the slender, graceful length of her spine, moulding her body against
    his as the kiss deepened passionately.
    When he lifted