Page 47 of Seducing the Knave

“He won’t do it again,” she replied quietly but in a firm tone.

“Ye’re fucking right about that.” Though his voice had dropped to a rough growl, his touch remained shockingly gentle as he ran his thumb along the edge of her lip before tilting her head to the side. When his eyes fell to her neck where Jasper’s fingers had likely left bruises, his features took on a wrathful, dangerous intensity. “Say the word, princess, and I’ll have him dragged by the throat and tossed at yer feet to beg ye fer mercy.”

Her breath caught at the savagery in his gaze and the dark promise in his words. It took her a minute to form a proper response. “That won’t be necessary,” she finally whispered as she gently shook her head. “All I want is to be free of him and his machinations.”

Though it looked like Max wanted to argue, after a moment, he gave a short nod.

“How’d ye manage to escape him a second time?”

Elle curled her mouth into a half smile. “The knife,” she answered. “I did a bit more than just nick him with it.”

His touch seemed to falter a bit—very subtly—before he replied in a smoky tone, “Good girl.”

Heat infused her body from head to toe. She wanted to look away from the glittering intensity of his eyes but she remained as she was—her spine tense and straight, her head tipped back, her lips parted, and her insides swirling with an exquisite and chaotic longing.

When he held out his hand, she slid her fingers into his palm.

He didn’t step back as he brought her to her feet, leaving them standing indecently close. Close enough for her to feel the quietly contained violence still flowing within him.

But it didn’t frighten her—the visceral certainty of what he was capable of. If anything, it assured her.

Still holding her hand in his, he met her gaze. “Ye can stay here with me—”

“Only until I arrange alternative accommodations,” she interrupted, wanting to make it clear this was a temporary arrangement.

His brows twitched and there was a brief moment of tension in his jaw before he gave a shallow nod and continued, “But ye’ll limit yer movements to this room. The rest of me house is strictly off-limits.”

Trepidation swept through her at the weight of his tone. The man was clearly very serious.

Her stoicism fled in an instant. “I’m never to venture from this room?” she asked in shock and disbelief.

“Ye can come and go as ye please, princess. Ye’ll just be required to use the stairway that brought ye up here and only for the purpose of leaving the premises through the front door.” His slashing brows lowered. “Ye’re not—fer any reason—to pass through those doors and go traipsing about in the rest of me house,” he finished with a pointed look toward the far end of the room.

Following the gesture, she turned to look at the pair of large doors that dominated the wall opposite the fireplace. Though she’d noted their shadowy presence when she first walked into the room and thought nothing untoward about them, she now found herself inordinately curious as to what lay beyond the imposing barrier.

Returning her attention to Max, who seemed to have been watching her intently as she examined the doors, she asked, “So I’m to sleep here, bathe and dress here, even eat here? Am I to have no privacy at all?”

“I’ll allow yer privacy, but ye ain’t to forget this is me home. Mine. Which means yer not to order me about. I’m letting ye stay—out of the goodness of me heart, no less,” he added with a return of his rascally grin, “and I expect ye to respect me authority within these walls.”

Elle felt as though there was an awful lot of meaning buried beneath his words, but his overall request wasn’t entirely unreasonable. Odd and mysterious with a hint of menace, but nothing she couldn’t manage in the short time she expected to be there.

She gave a little shrug. “Fine. I accept your terms. As long as you honor the restrictions of mine,” she added quickly.

The slow curve of his lips was undeniably carnal. “I’ll keep me hands off ye...until ye’re pleading fer me not to.”

Though desire flooded her system in a fiery wave, Elle somehow managed to keep from squirming. “That’ll never happen.”

“Then there’s nothing to worry about,” he murmured, repeating the phrase she’d uttered so confidently during their last negotiation.

As her belly gave a dramatic little flip, she was forced to acknowledge that she didn’t feel nearly so self-assured this time.

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