The Pleasure Master Read Free

to herself. Not a dream? Then
what?
    When she finally managed to lift her gaze, she looked into eyes as gray as the mist surrounding them. A midnight tangle of hair framed a face meant for a dark god or fallen angel. And something so explosive it took her breath away passed between them.
    She’d imagined it. Nothing explosive had
ever
passed between a man and her. After her failed marriage, that’s the way she liked it, that’s the way she meant to keep it.
    â€œAre ye feeling a wee bit better?”
    â€œNo.” Too much. Her confused mind could make no sense of what she saw, felt. And so she focused on just one thing. His hair. She reached out with fingers as icy as the dread building in her soul, then slid her hand the length of his hair, past his shoulders to where dark strands spread across his chest.
    Fascinated, she watched the rapid rise and fall of his broad chest, a rise and fall matching the beat of her heart.
    With all her questions fighting for supremacy, she could only force one comment through her lips. “You have virgin hair.”
    â€œI dinna think so. I havena had any virgin parts for a verra long time.”
    She felt his deep chuckle shudder through her and raised her gaze once again to his face. The white flash of his wicked smile fixed her attention on his lips. It was a full lower lip, sensual, but somehow it did not soften the hard angles of his jaw and cheekbone.
    His gaze slid the length of her body, and the caress was as real as though he’d touched her with his fingers, his mouth.
    A dangerous man.
Perhaps the two she’d chased away were the ones who’d needed saving.
    His smile turned wolfish. “Ye wouldna enjoy a man who hadna lain wi’ a lass.”
    Panic clattered around in her mind, frantically trying to get her attention. It finally succeeded. She tried to push away from him, but he simply closed his thighs on her legs. She might as well have been shackled in iron.
    Even as she raised her fists to pound whatever part of him became available first, she sensed the uselessness of her effort. He wrapped his arms around her and held her still.
    â€œDinna be so quick to run.” His breath fanned against her cheek, heating her senses, her anger. “Ye must have been fair desperate to gain my advice. I’ve ne’er seen Colin and Neil bested before. But ye took unfair advantage of their fear for their manhoods. ’Twasn’t needed. I would have asked my brothers to speak wi’ me later.” He drew his finger along the line of her clenched jaw.
    â€œYour
brothers?
” Jerking her head from his touch, she looked frantically around for help. She’dkill for the sight of a golden arch or even a New York cabby offering her a friendly finger signal because she’d cut him off. “Those two are your brothers?”
    â€œAye. We were born together. Still we dinna resemble each other overmuch.”
    â€œBorn together . . . ? Oh, triplets.” Hard to believe. The other two were lumbering bears, while this man . . . this man was a dark jungle predator.
    Where
was
she? Had she taken a wrong turn in Central Park and landed in Oz?
    â€œEven though we were born together, I came first. They dinna want to accept me as the eldest.”
    â€œHey, I feel for them. Who came out first is important.” Horse pooky. She had
really
important things to worry about.
    She drew in a deep breath to hold her panic in check. He hadn’t hurt her, and already his faded red plaid was growing sort of familiar.
No.
She couldn’t let anything in this nowhere land get familiar.
    She shivered as the mist’s damp fingers touched her with an unspoken promise that nothing in her life would ever be the same again.
    Some women might still think they were dreaming. Not her. She recognized dreams. She’d certainly had enough nightmares after the collapse of her marriage. This wasn’t a dream.
    Then
what?
Amnesia? Could she have