Lord Beast (7 page)

“And that would mean,” she
continued, blithely, “that you’ve complimented me
twice
. So I can only
conclude that you
must
like me. Or you’re beginning to.”

He’d certainly complimented her a
lot more than that. The chit just had selective hearing when it came to things
he said about her person.

“Best I curb my tongue then,” he
teased.

“Oh, no, don’t. I’m rather
enjoying the praise and attention.”

He stifled a laugh and glanced
down at the top of her head. The sunlight caught in the strands, tinting them
with alternating hues of gold and red. Just brown? He’d never seen such
wonderful locks before, vibrantly alive with alternating colours and depths.
Curly, too, if the lock that had escaped her simple coiffure and curled about
the back of her neck was anything to go by. From his elevated vantage point,
Rhys had a rather good view of her bosom. Although her mourning dress was
nondescript and did little to flatter her ripe and womanly figure, her breasts
were ample enough to give him a pretty good idea about just what lay beneath
the thick black fabric.

He decided right then and there
that he had to stop torturing himself. After today, he couldn’t see Danielle
Carmichael again. His association with the determined miss had to come to an
end and the only one to do so had to be him as she had made it abundantly clear
that she’d have no such inclination. He’d make it blatantly eloquent to
her-later- that she couldn’t see him again but… hell… he just wanted this time
with her. Surely he was allowed that if he wasn’t going to see her again?

As if sensing his dark thoughts,
she tilted her head back and gave him a wide smile. His gut clenched.

Yes, he’d take just this day to
enjoy her company and then he’d sever all ties with her.

In little time they arrived at the
tall hedge walls of the Falmouth Maze. Slightly unkempt and overgrown, it was
still something to behold. Dani craned her neck up the length of one of the
entrances, shielding her eyes from the sun as she did so.

“There’s another entrance round
the other side,” Rhys explained. “I’ll leave you here, then I’ll take that
entrance. First one to the middle wins?”

She plunked her hands on her hips
and turned to regard him. “Wins what?”

He waved his hand dismissively.
“Twenty pounds?”

She snorted. “I don’t have that
kind of money at my disposal, my lord.”

“A kiss, then.”

She looked at him sharply. “Will
you remove your cloak?”

“No.”

She sighed dejectedly, crossing
her arms under her breasts and tapping her foot as she thought it over.
“Alright,” she finally acceded. “But I am the judge of the length and, er, type
of kiss.”

“I’ll accept nothing but your
lips.”

“Fine.” She threw her hands in
the air. “Can we get started please?”

“As you wish.”

And she darted inside, not
turning back to see if he had entered either.

It became apparent, after about
half an hour that the Falmouth maze was larger than Dani had anticipated. It
was, she reckoned, slightly overgrown and the hedges towered over her and cast
dark shadows over many a path, but she was usually quite astute when it came to
finding her way through one of these things.

She rounded a corner and…
another
dead end. The blasted maze was full of the things. It seemed that she had
been running into them for well over half an hour and the frustration was
beginning to choke her.

“Oh, for the love of
God
!”
she swore furiously, stamping her foot in frustration. She had been running
into dead ends ever since she had entered this sodding contraption and she even
suspected that this dead end was the same one she had stumbled upon ten minutes
ago.

“Having trouble, freckles?” came
a distant, amused voice.

She turned towards it and peered
through the thick leaves. “What did you just call me?” she demanded, peeved.

“Freckles,” came the unrepentant
response. “I rather like it. Suits you.”

She growled something quite
vehement under her breath. His answering chuckle made it quite apparent that he
had heard.

“Where are you, you fiend?” she
demanded churlishly. “I demand to know.”

“It’s quite nice in the middle, I
assure you.” A pause, then, “I eagerly await that kiss.”

“You’re not in the middle!” she
yelled. “I’d wager a
thousand
kisses you’re not! You can’t be!”

“Wager accepted.”

She gasped. “No! I take it back.
Forget I said anything!”

“No, no… being a man of honour, I
must hold you to your bet. A thousand kisses it is.”

“Rhys!” she whined pleadingly,
beginning to walk with more speed than before. She turned left, then the next
left again, then right- A stream of fluent cuss words flew from her mouth.

“Lost again?”

“Are you following me, my lord?”
she snapped, spinning on her heel and retreating. She turned left and followed
the curve of the hedge until she found an opening, which she swerved into.

“And lose myself in the process?”
he snorted. “Hardly. Your progress is being monitored by the tones of your
voice and the vehemence of your blaspheming.”

A rather unpleasant thought
drifted through her mind about the man taunting her but she utterly refused to
let it voice. “Then I shall strive for silence, my lord!” she barked.

“Ah, now where’s the fun in
that?”

“You mock me, my lord, and I fail
to see the humour in this.”

“I would never have guessed what
a sore loser you are, freckles,” he chuckled from somewhere deep within the
maze.

Dani ignored that and broke into
a trot, knowing it might render her paralyzed with pain later but refusing to
let the ornery man best her. Right, then right, then left… Oh for-

A frustrated shrill escaped her
lips and she kicked the hedge in fury.

“Rhys!” she practically screamed.
“You tricked me!”

His laugh was not in the least
bit comforting.

She gave the hedge another kick
for measure before pushing on, dipping and swerving several times until she
reached yet another dead end.

She sank to the ground and hugged
her knees. “I give up!” she cried brokenly. “I’m
lost
!”

“Stay where you are,” he told her
succinctly. “I’m coming to get you.”

She snivelled and laughed weakly.
“Don’t you need to follow the sound of my voice in order to find me?”

“I am.”

She paused. “But then you’d have
to keep me talking.”

“You manage that perfectly well
on your own,” he returned flatly.

“Of all the rude, horrible,
inconceivable-”

“See what I mean?” he laughed as
he rounded the corner and came into sight.

Dani glared at him as he neared
her and held out his hand to help her to her feet. “I’m quite angry with you,”
she told him.

“Just get up out of the dirt and
come with me,” he pressed gently with a small amount of good humour injected
into his voice.

He had a point, of that she
couldn’t refute. Reluctantly, and with another glare to boot, she gave him her
hand and he tugged her effortlessly to her feet. He didn’t let go of her hand.
Rather he turned her fingers within his own and laced their hands together
before leading her back the way he came.

“I didn’t trick you, you know,”
he said as he weaved her through the maze, tugging her left, then right, so
many times that she lost count and track of where she was going, thus putting
all her trust in the man leading her.

“I know,” she sighed. “I was just
frustrated. Usually I’m quite good at navigating these things.”

“Smaller ones, no doubt,” he
assumed and his voice held a smile. “Falmouth’s is quite large. Larger than
most I have seen, anyway.”

She made a disparaging sound in
her throat and cast a sceptical glance up at the towering hedges. “Much
larger,” she agreed heartily. “Probably quite meditative and romantic if one
wasn’t in a race.”

He made one last right turn and
they were in the middle. A huge oak tree centred a lovely, welcoming green
patch of lawn that was now overgrown. A wrought iron marquee sat underneath its
sweeping branches, decorated with engraved ivy leaves and placed over an ornate
stone bench. There was a fountain but it had long been put out of use and many
rose bushes littered the edges, some dead and dying, but none blooming.

Dani could well imagine the
magical place the middle of the maze had once been and even now, in its state
of disrepair, it was lovely to behold.

He brought her to a halt beside
the bench and turned to her. “I’d like to collect on my debts,” he told her
wryly.

“There is no chance of that
happening now!” Dani declared smugly. “How do I know you weren’t lying about
being in the middle? There is no proof-”

He pointed to an area behind him
and Dani craned her neck over his shoulder. Amongst a few tufts of grass was a
black, newly polished boot. She glanced down at his feet and found herself
directly looking at one booted foot, the other only clad in one white stocking.

“You lout!” she cried, completely
taken aback at how he had connived to best her. How could he have possibly
known she’d demand proof? Unless he thought she would trick him… “Did you think
I’d trick you into coming to find me, in the process refuting your claim to
finding the middle before me?”

“The maze is much too large for
me to have ever conceived of such a notion,” he drawled. “It did cross my mind
that you’d require proof, though.”

She crossed her arms and glared
at the offending piece of evidence. “I’m offended.”

“You did just try to back out of
our bargain.”

“The fact remains-“

“Pucker up, freckles.”

She gasped, affronted. “You, sir,
are intolerably rude-”

He grabbed her shoulders and
yanked her against him, bending towards her and Dani managed to catch a glimpse
of a shadowed smile before he crushed his lips against hers.

All the breath rushed out of her
body and she fell against him, clutching his arms as if he could support all
her weight. Her legs turned to water and searing heat scoured the places where
their bodies met.

He scraped his lips against hers
teasingly, coaxingly, until she finally opened with a desirable shudder. His
tongue dipped into her mouth, catching hers, sliding against her bottom lip,
and Dani was lost. She moaned insensibly against his sensuous lips, pressing
her body closer to his hard, solid form. Oh, God, she was going to burst into
flame, she was sure of it.

She panted, she groaned, she
sighed as his lips took command of her mind, body and soul. “Mmm,” he growled
against the corner of her mouth, his tongue flicking out to tease that
particular crease. “You taste sweet, freckles. So…” another lick… “damn…” and
another… “sweet.”

“Oh God,” she breathed, as his
mouth began to kiss her face in various spots… and Dani realised he was kissing
her freckles. Her knees buckled but he held her firm and then his lips were
dragged to her ear to wreak havoc there. “Rhys!” she gasped, her fingers
flexing into the skin of his arms as his tongue explored the sensitive crevices
and ridges.

His lips edged towards her neck,
his warm breath entwining with the hair at the nape, and Dani thought she might
die. Never, ever, had she felt such…
heat
, such need, a deep
inexplicable yearning that she couldn’t put words to. She wanted to feel him,
all of him, beneath her fingers. She needed to touch him, to feel his hair, to
know what he felt like underneath her fingertips. She raised her hands over his
shoulders, towards his neck-

“No!” he barked and lurched away
from her.

She stumbled, disorientated.

He’d only taken a step back but
the distance between them seemed to stretch for yards. Suddenly, she felt
bereft, desolate, and she hugged her waist.

“You mustn’t do that,” he
snarled.

She felt the anger pouring from
him in waves. She swallowed against the hurt that was beginning to make her
throat raw. Being unable to vocalise any thought or feeling, she just stared at
him.

Uttering a guttural oath, he
began to pace furiously. “We can’t continue to do this, Danielle,” he rasped.
“I don’t want you, I don’t need you, and I won’t marry you.”

Each word was like a barb that
pierced her heart, her body dizzy from the myriad of emotions tangling inside
her. She’d only known him three days… it shouldn’t hurt as much as it did.
Surely?

Why did it hurt? She knew he
didn’t want her or need her. He’d made that perfectly clear from the beginning.
It wasn’t as if she had wanted him… did she? She tried to study him
objectively. How could she want a man she couldn’t even see? Rhys was prowling
the perimeter of the hedge angrily, with such power and force and agility… and
yet he had clasped her to him with such yearning tenderness her body had ached
for him.