Page 15 of The Moonstone Pirate
“Good, then it is settled. I’ll send him home with you.” He gave a curt bow and strode out to join the other men.
Deandra leaned forward and whispered in her ear, “Ooh, I think my cousin likes you.”
“Nonsense,” Imogen whispered back, but the possibility sent a tingle through her.
Having taken responsibility for Parrot, Imogen was standing alone with him by the carriages twenty minutes later when Draco came around the side of the house, saw her, and immediately frowned. “What are you doing out here on your own?”
“I’m with Parrot,” she explained. “He had…um, business to take care of before he hopped into our carriage. He’s just behind those bushes.”
Draco glanced around. “And where is everyone else?”
“In the house. Oh, they’ll be out in a moment.”
A muscle tightened in his jaw as he continued to look around. “But they are not here now.”
Imogen thought he was being overly concerned, for the carriages were close by, and his butlers and footmen were constantly marching in and out of the house, although no one seemed to be present at this precise moment. “Kindly do not lecture me. I have only to scream, and a houseful of guests and servants will come running to my rescue.”
“I took you for smarter than that,” he said, his frown more pronounced because he was obviously irritated by her response. “It is easy for a man to come up behind you and cover your mouth so your screams would be muffled.”
“Parrot would tear out of the bushes and bite him. Is this not why you put him in my care?” She tried to stare him down, but noticed the flicker of amusement in his eyes as the peepers atop her head bobbed up and down. He was never going to take her seriously while those things protruded from her skull and bobbled in the wind, so she unpinned them and held them in her hands, since she had no place else to put them. “Parrot would protect me.”
“Assuming he had not already been silenced.”
“Why are you intent on frightening me? Why give me Parrot if you dismiss his abilities?”
“I am not dismissing his abilities, but he is still offpissing, or whatever else he does to amuse himself in those bushes.”
“Draco, enough. I am hardly ten steps from your house.”
“And you think this is adequate?” He raked a hand through his hair and then began to pace in front of her. “Look around you, Imogen. You are still alone.”
“I am not…” She refused to admit he was right, for not even the drivers were at their carriages. Well, there was one young groom running back and forth from one carriage to the other to check upon the horses. He was paying no attention to her at all.
She turned stubbornly toward her pirate earl. “Well, you are here with me now. And Parrot appears to be almost done with whatever it is he had to do.”
She heard a rustling in the bushes, but Parrot did not come out.
Apparently, he was not quite done yet.
“Take this seriously, Imogen. Anything can happen, and it only takes a few seconds, not even a minute, to occur.”
“But I would scream to alert the others.”
“Why are you being stubborn about this? May I show you how easily something can happen?”
She must have had a doubtful look on her face, for he suddenly moved behind her, his body big and warm as he placed an arm around her waist, drew her up against him, and at the same time covered her mouth with his hand. “Sorry, Butterfly. This is for your own good.”
She had hardly a moment to realize what he was doing before he hauled her into a darkened recess along the side of the house.
Imogen’s heart began to pound wildly. “Let me go!” she tried to shout, but her words were completely muffled while his hand remained pressed to her mouth, and his muscled arm held her pinned to his hard body.
“I am going to take my hand away now,” he said calmly, “but you must promise not to scream. I am also going to ease my hold on you. Do not run away from me, Imogen. This is too important. I know I scared you just now. I am truly sorry for that, but you scared the wits out of me, too. What if the killer had been lurking in the bushes? I would have lost you. Do you think I could ever live with myself if this happened?”
She stopped fighting him.
He removed his hand from her mouth.
She turned and punched him in the arm the moment he released her. “That was a horrible way to teach me a lesson!But…I’m sorry, Draco,” she whispered brokenly. “I thought I was safe.”
