Free My Three Masters by Juniper Bell Page B

secrets. Who lived in harmony with her true self.
    He brought me down slowly from that mad peak. His hands
magically changed from arousing to soothing. He gentled me as if I were a horse
in a lather; the lather part was certainly true. Perspiration studded my skin,
and I couldn’t seem to slow my great, embarrassing pants.

Chapter Seven
     
    The Marquis’ cock pulsated with feverish need, but the look
on Miranda’s face made the pain fade. As much as he longed to satisfy himself
within her body, she didn’t trust him yet. As he watched the clouds gather on
her damp, Madonna-like face, he knew he’d done the right thing in denying
himself. There would be time. She would come to him when she was ready.
    She sat up, arranged her lush bosom back within her bodice
and fixed her large, river-brown eyes on him. “What am I to you, my lord?”
    She’d asked the most difficult question of all, one he
didn’t understand himself.
    “You’re my…protégée. I swore to protect you. I failed when I
frightened you with that riding crop. It was careless and I apologize.”
    She shook her head impatiently. “Do you think I’m a
simpleton? You swore to your wife, whom you despised. Why should you keep such
a promise?”
    “I think you’re anything but a simpleton. I think you’re
extraordinary.”
    A tear slid down her face, but the Marquis couldn’t tell if
it was due to the aftermath of her passion or to his words.
    “As for my promise, it has nothing to do with my late wife.
I always keep my promises. Ask anyone, they’ll tell you. Even my worst enemies
know I’m a man of my word. And I have more than a few of those running around.”
    He hoped his dry tone would relax her. It did the opposite.
She scowled at him. “What do you want from me, my lord? Do you wish to claim my
virginity, as my master? Do you wish to prove how easily you can sway my body
to your will?”
    All the above, in time. But for now…
    “I want only one thing at this moment, and it has nothing to
do with my raging cockstand. I want to know what happened to you.”
    She drew in a harsh breath. Her gaze sharpened, intensified,
as if she were truly looking at him for the first time. To be the focus of
those clear eyes was intoxicating.
    “And that’s not all. Who are you? What’s your real name?
Where were you born? How did you become what you are today? Who scarred you?
Was it intentional? Where are they so I can kill them with my bare hands?”
    Her hand flew to her cheek. “Why?”
    “Why to which question?”
    “Why do you care about any of that? I’m only a nursemaid.
I’m nothing.”
    “Not to me,” he said flatly.
    A small frown pleated the fine skin of her forehead. Her
wide eyes scanned his face. He held still under her scrutiny, afraid to make a
move. Soft woodland sounds rose around them. A chickadee chirped somewhere in
the treetops. A gust of wind rustled the birch leaves like a lullaby. The two
of them stared at each other for what seemed like an eternity.
    Then she spoke, her lips trembling as they parted. “My
guardian took the whip to me. You see, I wanted to marry, and he had something
different in mind. He wished to render me unmarriageable.”
    A strange prickling wave of heat passed through the Marquis’
body and left him fighting for breath. He sat up, trying to contain the
feeling. It didn’t work. He wanted to rip the trees up with his bare hands. He
wanted to snarl like the beast she’d called him. He wanted to hunt and kill and
throw the man’s carcass to the dogs. “Who is he?” His voice came out in a
choked, harsh voice he didn’t recognize.
    She flinched. “I won’t tell you. I won’t go back to him.
He’s still my guardian. If he finds me…”
    “He should worry, not you.”
    But he could tell she was already withdrawing from him. She
knelt on the ground, gazing at him with desperate intensity in her tea-brown
eyes. “I don’t want trouble. I just want to be left in peace. No more
questions, I