Free Claiming the Courtesan by Anna Campbell

retorted.
    “You’re what I say you are. That’s the price of betrayal.” A few deft movements and her hair cascaded around her shoulders. He ran his fingers through the tumbled mass, straightening the kinks. “That’s better. Now you look like my mistress.Although I own to finding the seduction of the virtuous widow rather piquant. We must save it for another occasion.”
    His easy confidence rankled, as she was sure he meant it to. “I’m not your mistress any more. I told you—Soraya has gone forever.”
    The relentlessly combing hands paused, then resumed. She tried to tell herself the stroking didn’t disturb her, but each movement was a promise of delight.
    Lying promises, she reminded herself.
    “Soraya is just hidden, that’s all.” His certainty made her want to hit him.
    “You’ll get tired of this.” She hoped she was right.
    “Perhaps. But do you really doubt whose will is stronger?” His hands slid around to rest on her shoulders.
    If he shifted those hands an inch, they could be around her throat. He’d already threatened her with violence. She struggled to awaken her fear as a barrier against him, but it was impossible when his touch conveyed only tender possession.
    Tender possession?
    Curse her, but she was a fool.
    He connived endlessly at her destruction while she sat gulling herself into thinking he had some regard for her. She deserved to be in this fix if she allowed herself to credit such sentimental drivel.
    Verity heard Kylemore sigh. “I’ll make a deal with you, Miss Ashton.”
    She lifted her chin. “I already know you don’t keep to your bargains, Your Grace.”
    At least when he talked to her, he wasn’t kissing her. Even though his deep voice slid along her veins like warm honey and the motion of the speeding carriage rubbed his body against hers in a ceaseless, erotic rhythm.
    “Well, this is my offer. Kiss me properly and you are safe from my attentions until we reach my hunting box.”
    “‘Properly’ means what exactly?” she asked with suspicion.
    He laughed. “That’s familiar—you barricading yourself behind legal definitions. Their protection is spurious, as you should know by now.”
    Devil take his confidence. “If I cooperate, will you untie me?” She had nothing to haggle with. They both knew she was totally in his power.
    “It depends how genuinely you cooperate.”
    As he sat back, she took a deep breath. And unwillingly inhaled his essence. He seemed to have permeated the very fabric of the carriage. She wondered despairingly if he’d similarly permeated her life. Would she ever be free of him, even when this ordeal was over?
    As surely it had to be over one day.
    His fine-boned face indicated his irritation with her havering. “I needn’t offer you anything. You’re my prisoner. You have no say in what I do to you.”
    The bastard was right. This time, hating him was no effort at all. “So I let you kiss me, and in return, you maul me no further until we reach our destination?”
    Another curl of his lip. “If you participate fully in the kiss, I swear not to toss you on your back and plow you with the thoroughness you deserve.”
    She swallowed nervously. “That’s not what I said.”
    “No, but that’s the proposition on the table. Take it or leave it.” He folded his arms and waited for her decision with ill-concealed impatience.
    Her inevitable decision. One kiss in exchange for a breathing space? A breathing space in which surely she’d find some chance to escape. She had no alternative but to agree.
    Verity met his eyes in the shadowy interior. “All right.”
    “Good.”
    She waited for him to take her in his arms, but he didn’tmove from his relaxed pose against the shiny dark leather of the upholstery. Although she told herself she should be grateful for any reprieve, however short, his lack of action quickly began to irk her.
    “I’m ready,” she said sharply.
    Those supercilious eyebrows rose. “I believe the