Free Bargain with the devil by Jayne Castle

chase in disgust.
    There had been no sound of a car being started, however, so she hadn’t been lucky enough to have him leave altogether. That meant he was still somewhere around, but where?
    Very cautiously, Stacy edged around the corner of the greenhouse. In the dim light spilling from the open kitchen door she could see nothing. A strange, fearful curiosity began to go to work in her head. She had assumed he would simply run her down, and she would be left to plead and argue and threaten uselessly. There was no movement from within the house, and Stacy finally summoned up her willpower. She certainly couldn’t stand outside all night, and if he had meant to chase after her and drag her back to the house, he would have done so by now.
    „Hunter?“ she whispered breathlessly, taking one delicate step just inside the kitchen door. „Hunter, can’t we talk about this? I’ll give you my word not to back out of the marriage if you’ll just – “
    „If I’ll just what, Stacy?“ he asked mildly from directly behind her.
    „Oh!“ She spun around to face him. She had gone right past where he stood in the shadows of the porch! He was close enough to put his hands on her. With grim realization Stacy acknowledged that her recklessness and her impetuosity were both poor survival charac-teristics around a hunter who knew when to stalk his prey and when to outwait it.
    „Go ahead,“ he drawled, his fog-shrouded gaze on her startled face. „Let’s hear what new intricacies you’re trying to weave into our deal.“ y- What was the point? Stacy thought, resignation sweeping out all her other emotions as she stood looking up at his implacable face. Her wide green eyes were filled with reluctant acceptance of the bargain she had struck with the devil tonight, and she could tell by the glitter of male satisfaction in his narrowed gaze that Hunter saw her capitulation.
    „It might be tricky getting a Rylan to carry out all the terms of a bargain that isn’t particularly in her favor, but I’m going to do it. I swear it!“ Hunter’s words were uttered with such absolute determination and such a sense of overpowering inevitability that Stacy didn’t even try to protest when he put out a hand, curled it around the nape of her neck, and lowered his head to take her lips.

CHAPTER FOUR
    Stacy stood with a strange, totally artificial calm as Hunter’s mouth invaded her own. She knew she should be reacting in some way, trying to talk him out of his intentions, but all the fight seemed to have temporarily gone out of her limbs. It was as if knowing he held all the aces in their uneven game had finally brought her the realization that it was useless to struggle anymore tonight. She stood passively, her eyes closed against the reality of what was happening, and waited.
    „That’s better,“ he ground out against the skin of her throat as his lips sought the small pulse there. „Your fate was sealed back there at your brother’s house tonight. There’s no point in struggling against it. Come and find out what it holds in store for you….“
    Stacy heard the soft, beguiling tone of his words and shivered with dismay. „Why do you waste words trying to coax me into giving you what you want?“ she asked. „You’ve made it very clear that you’re going to force yourself on me regardless of my wishes!“
    „So now you’re going to try the role of martyr?“ he taunted lightly, not seeming particularly worried. His hands slowly tightened around her waist as he continued to explore the skin of her throat and shoulders with his lips. There was a slow, lazy, tantalizing aspect to his love-making that was disturbing something deep within Stacy.
    „It doesn’t suit you, Stacy,“ Hunter went on after a few seconds of deepening kisses at the corners of her lips. Kisses that urged and beckoned.
    „Wh-what doesn’t?“ Stacy swallowed, feeling his hands pull loose her shirt from the waistband of her jeans. An instant later his