Free Lord Beast by Ashlyn Montgomery

in
provoking me.”
    She inwardly flinched at each
harsh word he enunciated with livid gravity. “I don’t believe you would hurt
me,” she told him quietly.
    He reached her, grabbed her arm
and began to yank her into stride behind him. She stumbled over her skirts but
he continued to drag her along perpetually. Out the chamber. Out into the cold,
dark hall. She dropped the invitation.
    “Rhys,” she cried, “what are you
doing?”
    “Deciding,” he grated viciously,
“whether to drag you to the bedroom or outside!”
    “Rhys, please!” She tried to pry
his fingers from her elbow that were gripping her skin like a vice and he
stopped abruptly, spinning toward her.
    “What?” he roared. “What do you
want to tell me? Must I stand here and listen to a wisp of a woman tell me what
I want? Must I?”
    “No!” she snapped. How dare he
talk to her like this? “You’re hurting me!”
    He growled inarticulately,
ripping his hand free of her as if she burned his very skin. “Escort yourself
out,” he clipped.
    “No,” she returned stubbornly,
folding her arms and considering him belligerently.
    “You try my patience!”
    “And you mine!”
    They were silent, staring at each
other with charged animosity. Danielle was first to soften, uncrossing her arms
and sighing wearily. “Just… consider the invite,” she told him forlornly. “I’ll
go, but I’ll be back… after the masquerade.”
    Quietly, without waiting for him
to respond, she left.

Chapter 8
    Lady
Worthwell’s Masquerade
     
    He wasn’t going to come.
    Dani’s shoulders slumped in
disappointment.
    Rhys hadn’t given any inclination
of being taken with the idea of a masquerade in the first place so her
disappointment should not come as much of a surprise. That didn’t stop her from
becoming just a little bit depressed by his absence, though.
    “ Who are you looking for?”
Victoria demanded, plunking her hands on her hips and throwing Dani a dry look.
    “No one!” Dani answered quickly,
grateful that the black mask that covered most of her face hid the guilty blush
infusing her cheeks.
    “Liar.”
    Dani huffed. “I was just seeing
if anyone was here that I knew,” she lied.
    Vicky gave her a disbelieving
glance, which was understandable as the entire point of people wearing masks
was that they wouldn’t be recognisable. Forcing herself to put Rhys from her
mind, Dani turned to Victoria and smiled. “I can’t see anyone I know,” she
admitted sheepishly.
    Victoria looked stunning in a
gown of sapphire blue, a sequinned mask covering her eyes. Gabriel, on the
other hand, did not look flattering at all and upon discovery of his attire, he
had inflicted a foul mood on both his wife and her companion. Currently, the
man had extracted himself from their company and was skulking amid a group of
his own finely attired acquaintances, leaving Vicky and Dani to their own
devices.
    “Not that you would want to,”
Vicky said happily. “Come, let’s take a turn about the room and you can tell me
all about this gentleman you’ve been looking for.”
    “Vicky! I did no such thing.”
    The other woman chuckled and gave
her nose a conspiratorial tap before looping her arm with Dani’s. “Don’t be
silly. You would think you could tell me anything, Dani. After all, we’re
practically sisters. Although I must say, all those seasons we went through
only to have you meet some country gentleman, such a waste of time, don’t you
think?”
    “Well, not all of us have
the privilege of marrying our brother,” Dani teased.
    “Gabriel is not my
brother!” Vicky swatted Dani on the arm gently. “Don’t you dare start using
that against me.”
    “You two might as well be
related,” Dani said. “You did grow up together.”
    “Entirely against my will, I
assure you,” Vicky grumbled. “The man was a perpetual nuisance and we scarcely
managed a civil word to each other.”
    “Mmm. How far you’ve come.”
    “Yes.” Vicky turned to look