Free So Wild a Heart by Candace Camp Page A

surprise of the afternoon. "You! Why, you are the woman who—"
    "Yes," Miranda replied crisply. "I am the woman who saved your unworthy hide last night. If you were not so thoroughly arrogant and conceited, no doubt you would have realized it sooner. And I can tell you that I am rapidly regretting that I made the effort. A drubbing at the hands of those ruffians would probably have done you a world of good. Indeed, I am inclined to think that perhaps they were hired by some other woman who you insulted with a marriage proposal."
    "Insulted!" Devin exclaimed, fury surging up in him. He wasn't sure what annoyed him more—this woman's disdain, or the fact that his body remembered quite suddenly and vividly the desire that had stirred in his loins last night when he had looked at her. "You dare to say that I insulted you by asking you to marry me? I am the sixth Earl of Ravenscar. I can trace my bloodlines back to the twelfth century. I dare swear you would be hard put to know who your grandfather was."
    "That is a colossally foolish argument," Miranda said dispassionately. "Everyone's ancestors go back that far. The fact that you know the names of yours means nothing except that your family kept good records. The Lord only knows what sort of man your ancestor was—he may very well have been the most evil fellow around. And it certainly doesn't mean anything about your character. That is something that you make yourself, and from the things I have heard, you have not done a very good job of it."
    "You dare—" Ravenscar looked at her through narrowed eyes. "Good God, if you were a man, I'd call you out for that." He moved even closer, glaring down into her face.
    "Another supremely silly thing to bring up, since I obviously am not," Miranda pointed out, standing her ground. She was not about to let him intimidate her by looming over her this way. Her temper was up, and she was enjoying herself. This man deserved to be taken down a peg or two, and she was quite happy to be the one to do so. Lifting her chin defiantly, she glared back at him, only inches away from his face.
    "You impudent little—" Ravenscar broke off his words, and suddenly his hands went around her arms like steel. He jerked her up and into him, and his mouth came down on hers.
    Miranda stood stock-still for a moment, unable to move. She had never been treated like this before in her life, handled so roughly or kissed so thoroughly. No other man would have had the arrogance—or the courage. Indignation shot through her. But at the same time, every fiber in her being thrilled to the sensations that coursed through her. His mouth was hot and demanding, and the taste of it intoxicated her. His lips pressed into hers, fervent, velvety, searing. Then his tongue was in her mouth, invading her. A tremor of excitement shot through her, a vibration that sizzled down every nerve ending in her body in a way that she had never experienced—indeed, had never even imagined existed.
    An ache started low in her abdomen, warm and pulsing, insistent. She sagged against him, lost in the heat and pleasure, her anger and indignation burned away by the desire that swept through her. Her breasts felt full and soft, the nipples prickling with longing, and she was aware that she wanted to feel his hands on them, to have him touch her everywhere. She shuddered, her moan swallowed by his voracious mouth.
    Then, suddenly, shockingly, his mouth was gone from hers. He pulled back and looked down into her passion-softened face. His eyes glittered, green as glass.
    "There," he muttered huskily, his hands falling away from her arms. "Now you know what you could have had but were too much a fool to take."
    His caustic words cut through the haze of pleasure, and Miranda's spine stiffened. Anger and a fierce self-dislike seized her. She lifted her hand and slapped him hard.
    "Get out," she snapped. "Get out of this house, and never show your face here again."
    "With great pleasure," he