My Ruthless Prince Read Free Page A

her eyes and repeated in a meaningful whisper: " Let me go. "
    "No," she breathed, staring into his eyes as she shook her head. "Never."
    "I already told you it's too late for me. I know what I'm doing, Emily. Now, go. You've got to do this for me. Nothing's worth it if you should die."
    Her eyes welled with tears.
    "Don't cry." He touched her face wistfully. "Don't make a sound. Just go back to that cave and stay out of sight. They're coming. Go on, now. I'll get them out of here. Wait till we're gone, then you run like hell down this mountain and go home. You've got to trust me. Tell the same to Max."
    Emily refused to move. "It'll never be home again," she choked out. "I can't leave you here to die."
    He looked over his shoulder. "If you don't run, you're going to die with me. Is that what you want?"
    "Maybe. It's better than going back alone."
    He looked taken aback at her answer, but she held his stare in defiance. Did the idiot still not know how she felt about him?
    "You have no idea of what you've yourself gotten into," he uttered.
    "I don't care, I can't let them hurt you again!"
    "Damn it! I'm going to wring your neck for this," he muttered, then suddenly grabbed her by her wrist and yanked her to him, taking the pistol out of her hand and tucking it into the back of his waist. A second before the Promethean guards rushed into the clearing by the stream, Drake did something he had never done before.
    Something that shocked her to the marrow.
    He caught her up in his arms and kissed her, claiming her mouth with unabashed, lusty intent.
    She was too shocked at first even to react. After all, his mother had made it very clear to her years ago, when Emily was as an awkward fifteen-year-old, that this must never happen, or her father would be sacked.
    She had done her best since then not even to let girlish daydreams of kissing him play across her mind.
    Not that her efforts had always been successful.
    She was old enough to know now that she wanted him and to sense that he had often stayed away precisely because he thought about it, too.
    But none of her daydreams had ever pictured their first kiss happening like this, with a dozen Promethean guards rushing into the clearing and surrounding them.
    Terror mingled with intoxication: Both made her knees weak. She clutched his broad shoulders to keep from falling over, tentatively following his lead.
    Drake ignored the men completely and went on kissing her, his tongue in her mouth, his fingers sensuously clutching her hips while the men jeered and shouted in surprise to find them thus.
    When he finally ended the brash, rather rude kiss and released her, Emily saw stars.
    "False alarm, boys," he drawled at last, sounding slightly breathless. He licked his lips and hungrily held her stunned gaze--though she noted his exasperation with her still simmering in the midnight depths of his eyes.
    She could not look away, quite shocked at him and at the potent mix of fear and want pounding in her blood.
    "What's this?" one of the guards demanded in English.
    "This?" Drake cast the man one of his old, devilish grins. " This is my girl."
    "Your girl?" they exclaimed in skeptical surprise.
    "Aye. You boys nearly shot my favorite little servant wench. I'd have been very cross if any of you had so much as scratched her pretty bottom." He slapped her on the arse, and Emily gasped outright.
    The men exchanged wry, humorous glances.
    "Your servant, Capitaine ?" a leathery Frenchman questioned, as though not quite buying it.
    "Oh, yes. She's quite devoted to my comforts," Drake said slowly, with an innuendo that roused their laughter. "Aren't you, love?"
    Emily could not manage an answer at first, blushing and tongue-tied. She knew she had better play along but was completely out of sorts and rather mortified.
    Above all, she was stung by his insulting choice of terms for her--a servant wench, indeed?
    The difference in their stations had long been a sore spot for her, as he knew full well,