No Other Man Read Free Page B

seared through her. The oddest sensation of panic seized her, a
panic she couldn't even understand because it wasn't simply a fear of him.
Irrationally, she sprang from the tub, racing wet and naked for the door.
    Naturally, she didn't make it. When he seized hold of her
this time, lifting her into his arms, she half sobbed and half laughed,
slamming her fists against him. The robe he wore came open. She was aware of
his flesh, the warmth of it, the sleekness of it, the muscled strength that lay
beneath it. He smelled of soap from the bath, and to her horror, though she
was afraid, she was not as repelled as she
should have been.
    He laid her back down on the cot. He was entangled with her
hair, she with his robe. Whether or not he'd intended to, he fell upon her and
she became more vividly aware of the structure of his anatomy and all the
strengths and hungers within it. An awful breathlessness seized her, a fear, a
fire. Desperate, she twisted and writhed, struggling to free herself from his
weight. He caught her wrists, pinning them above her head, then cast a leg over
the length of her, holding her immobile no matter what energy she set into her
writhing and struggle. She was absolutely powerless against him and swiftly
growing exhausted from her efforts to free herself. She spoke, staring at him
with all the venom and courage she could muster.
    "I will kill you, you know, you overgrown savage."
    His
green eyes narrowed. His fierce, rugged, oddly handsome features were very
taut. He was furious with her. He might not understand her words, but he knew
she was threatening him, she thought.
    "Yes! I'll kill you!"
    It was
actually amazing that he hadn't already done her some irreversible harm. He
stared at her still. With those green eyes.
    A
shudder swept through her. Green eyes. She felt a strange sense of familiarity
as she looked into them. As if she'd seen them before.
    There was something about them ...
    Yes! They were dangerous, menacing.
    Deadly.
    Again,
she felt trembling and fire sweeping within her. She had to keep threatening
and fighting. Until she died, she reminded herself. There was nothing else for
her to do.
    "I'll
gouge your eyes out. I'll tear you to shreds, cut off your limbs one by one,
beat every single oversize muscle into pure pulp. Skin you alive, feed your
hands to the dogs, chop off your pen—"
    She
never finished her threat, for her captor decided to break his silence at last.
    "Madam,
make one more threat against my anatomy," he said suddenly in perfect
English, "and I will feel forced to make good use of it before it exists
no more!"
    Completely
stunned, Skylar lay dead still at last. "What?" she gasped,
disbelieving.
    "You
heard me—and I do believe that I made myself perfectly clear."
    He spoke English. Oh, God, he understood English.
    She burned. She shook. She was still terrified.
    But she was furious, too.
    ' 'You—you—despicable—''
    "Take care!" he warned.
    "Bastard!"
she cried out heedlessly. "You bastard!" she repeated. ' 'You speak
English damned well, you—who the hell are you?"
    Those strangely familiar eyes burned into her relentlessly.
Undaunted. Merciless.
    Deadly.
    And he spoke again.
    His voice deep, rich.
    Its tone . . .
    As deadly as the green fire in his eyes.
    "The
question, madam," he hissed furiously, "is just who the bloody hell are you?"
     
    Two
    She was going to quit shaking. She was not going to die a
coward.
    Please, God, she was not going to do so....
    "What
difference does it make to you who I am!" Skylar cried, pressing her hands
against him and finding him still immovable.
    Courage! she reminded herself.
    That lacking, bravado would do.
    "You've
murdered the stagecoach driver and abducted me; you'll surely hang no matter
how good your English may be!" Perhaps threats were the wrong tack to take
at this time. If he understood her, she could attempt to reason with him.
    She
began speaking quickly and breathlessly. "However, if you were just to let
me go at