Free A Virtuous Lady by Elizabeth Thornton

repressed rage.
    Ravensworth's eyes narrowed to dangerous slits when he heard her words of refusal.
    "In the first place, I have no vocation to be a mistress. Pray forgive me. I collect that such plain speech wounds your sensibilities."
    Ravensworth's jaw clenched. "I do not want a woman who has a vocation to be a mistress," he retorted bitingly. "Why do you insult yourself and me like this? If I had wanted such a woman, do you imagine that I would have approached you?"
    "In the second place," continued Briony, deliberately ignoring everything that his lordship had said, "I would not form a liaison with you, no, not even a legal one, should you be the last man on earth." Her voice rose on a note of hysteria and she dug her nails into her palms in an attempt to master their involuntary shaking. She found it difficult to breathe and wished only to be rid of his hateful presence.
    Ravensworth reached out and captured one of her hands. He laughed softly. "You are angry with me. I have been too hasty. You need time to consider my proposal."
    Briony choked back the hot words that sprang to her lips. She would not give him the satisfaction of discovering how much he had wounded her. She tried to disengage her hand but he held it more firmly.
    "I need no more time to consider your proposal, my lord," she said stiffly. "You boasted, yes boasted, that you were a man of honor. I believed you. That for your honor!" She snapped her fingers under his nose and he recoiled. "You have insulted me in every possible way! You may take your honor, sir, and go to the devil."
    Ravensworth's brow was black with anger. He stood up to tower over her, and she shrank back to see the menace in his eyes.
    "Let me go," she cried, her self-control almost at breaking point.
    Cruel fingers dug into her shoulders as he turned her to face him. "I shall release you," he said grimly, "when you answer one, simple question. Do you care for me? Do you?" He shook her angrily. "Tell me, damn you!"
    Briony longed to deny it, but she could not. She gave him a stricken look and remained silent.
    "Oh Briony, Briony," he said with a harsh laugh, "how unfortunate for you that you are incapable of telling a lie."
    He took her face between his hands and drew her closer. Briony stilled in his grasp. Something in his coiled, pantherlike stance warned her that to resist would be fatal. She was conscious for the first time of the sheer power of him and it frightened her. This was not the man who had been solicitous of her welfare in the foregoing months, the man who had placed himself in jeopardy to save her in a runaway carriage, but a stranger. She heard the soft, fearful panting in her throat and tried to stifle it.
    "Briony," he said hoarsely as he bent his head to cover her trembling lips with his mouth.
    Briony sobbed and hot tears spilled onto her cheeks. He brushed them away with an uncaring hand and his arms encircled her, pulling her hard against the whole length of him, compelling her to put her hands on his shoulders. She twisted her head to escape the hunger she sensed in his mouth, but he merely bent to kiss the soft depression between her breasts. Gently but inexorably his ardent lovemaking coaxed her to surrender to his possession, and Briony, trembling in his arms with an anticipation she did not understand, felt powerless to resist. When she parted her lips to allow his probing tongue to penetrate her mouth, she knew that she had lost.
    "Tingling, my love?" he murmured provocatively.
    Briony was dimly aware that his caresses had ceased. She looked into Ravensworth's blazing eyes and the look of triumph she saw reflected there moved her to shame.
    "Let me go!" she entreated with quiet desperation. She averted her head as if his presence disgusted her.
    "Briony, Briony, don't turn away from me," he chided, grasping her chin. He spoke softly. "You belong to me. You do understand that, don't you?"
    She met his eyes squarely. "Once I thought we might be friends but