Free The Revenge of Lord Eberlin by Julia London

body.”
    MacKenzie laughed heartily and clapped him on the shoulder. “Have you whiskey for me, then? I’m chilled to the bloody bone.”

SIX

     
    T he storm continued to rage outside while Lily paced in front of the hearth in her suite, her long braid draped over her shoulder, her dressing gown dragging on the floor behind her.
    She was appalled at Tobin, shocked by the casual way he’d proposed such a vile thing . . . but at the same time, she was entirely, imprudently, aroused by it. That was perhaps what made her the angriest—that something about him had the capacity to arouse her deepest senses. God in heaven! She’d never known another man like him, someone who just took what he wanted. He’d kissed her without invitation—no request or apology, had just kissed her.
    She should be furious with him, irate! And she was, she was . . . but she kept thinking about the boy she’d known. She could see that boy in his face now, although his complexion was a bit darker from the sun, with faint white lines fanning out from the cornersof his eyes. She couldn’t help but be curious about his life, and how his father’s death must have affected him.
    A jolt of memory, another flash incongruent with what she thought she knew. She suddenly remembered a day when she and Tobin had been in the gardens playing—pirates, she thought, one of her favorite childhood games of make-believe. She’d made him be the marauding pirate, and she the heroic captain who jumped off the quarterdeck to slay him. Tobin had been very good at falling and playing dead. But on that particular day, they’d both been startled by the sound of a man and woman arguing. Had it been Aunt Althea and Mr. Scott? More likely it had been Aunt Althea and the earl, for they’d seemed to be in a constant state of battle. But Tobin had made her go down to the lake so they would not be able to hear it. He’d protected her from it.
    Lily shook the memory away. He was not the same person as that boy had been. The man he had become had no right to treat her as he had today, and she wanted to hate him. But she kept thinking of his breath warm on her ear, and the feel of his body so close, so firmly against her, almost dwarfing her. She kept seeing that ruggedly handsome face above her, his mouth as arousing as it had been today on her skin—
    “ Stop! ” she chided herself, covering her ears with her hands. “God forgive you, Lily Boudine, for what you are thinking!” She lowered her hands and staredinto the fire. She had best think of what to do with Tobin if she wanted to save Ashwood. She could not appeal to him on the grounds of decency. Nothing moved him, nothing seemed to sway him, other than lust.
    “Then what in blazes am I to do?” she murmured.
    Once, when Lily had just arrived in Ireland, and the news had come that her beloved aunt Althea had drowned, Lily had been despondent. She’d taken to her bed, mourning her deep loss. But after a day of it, Aunt Lenore had sat on her bed, had picked Lily up and hugged her, and told Lily she was so very sorry that she’d lost her dearest aunt, but that now was the time she must get up and get on with life. “Althea wouldn’t have it any other way,” she’d said. “She would want you to get up, gather all your wits about you, and do what you must to survive without her. Think of that, Lily darling. Think of what you must do to survive—and not how very sad you are.”
    Survive. Lily had to do that now: think of what she must do to survive without Althea, without Lenore, without even Keira to help her. There were so many souls depending on her that she did not have the luxury or time to be sad or bewildered. But what could she do ?
    Think.
    Tobin obviously enjoyed her discomfit. He seemed to believe that he could intimidate her with his brazen talk. Why did men always believe a look, or a kiss,would entice a woman to abandon her virtue? They all thought themselves grand lovers, capable of seducing the