Improper Seduction Read Online Free Page A

him. As if, she thought, he were talking of the horses during mating season.
    "You speak as if I'm one of your mares – in heat," she said hotly.
    "There are practical considerations, of course," he continued in the same professorial voice as though she had not spoken so frankly.
    She thought she hated this tone of Thomas.
    "When a mare is in heat, she is ready for the stallion. When a woman has her courses, she cannot get pregnant. There is no biological reason for ... sexual congress."
    She gasped audibly and felt heat rise from her bosom to her cheeks.
    So clinical, so logical, she thought, feeling herself on the verge of tears. The emotion was simply because of her monthlies, she told herself. That's why she wanted to scream and cry like a child withheld a pretty toy.
    Otherwise, she'd never weep in front of a stable master. Never allow Thomas to speak to her so candidly. Never, never find herself wanting to fling herself into him arms for comfort.
    He stood and held out his hand for hers, spoke with the same calm solemnity. "Let me show you."
    She followed him grudgingly, allowed him to lead her back to the blanket, force her to lie down. He set her cloak aside, but pulled another thick cover from the basket and laid it over her body.
    Then he sat beside her, reached toward her cheek and traced the tear she hadn't known had fallen. Her nose felt nippy as well as her ears. She became aware of the distant sounds of birds in the trees, and far away the shout of a man, a laborer in the fields, she supposed.
    But inside this bubble of quiet and secrecy there were only she and Thomas.
    He removed his jacket and flung it beside his previously discarded hat. He wore only his coarse cotton shirt and trousers.
    Lifting the bottom of the blanket, he carefully removed her boots, set them aside, and gently massaged her cold toes inside the thin stockings. She closed her eyes and let the tender stimulation warm her – warm more than her feet, she realized.
    When he'd sufficiently ministered to her feet, he covered them with the blanket and tucked in the edges. "Better?"
    She nodded, her eyes still closed. She allowed herself to feel him rather than see him, focused on the sense of touch rather than sight or sound.
    She felt the rustle and dip of the grass beneath the blanket as he slowly lowered his large body until it covered hers. Her eyes flew open to stare into the eerie light blue of his own. "Wh – what are you doing?"
    "Shh," he murmured, placing a long forefinger over her lips. "Don't speak, just relax."
    She tensed, held her body so stiff she could almost feel her bones turn to stone.
    "Relax," he urged again. "I won't hurt you."
    "I can't."
    "Yes, you can. Take a deep breath and blow it out slowly." She did. "Ay, and then another."
    Chastity felt her body gradually relax beneath his weight, almost felt drowsy, and as the sun peeked in and out from behind the clouds, felt herself warm, her limbs go boneless. The weight of him on her hips did not feel oppressive as it did with Oscar, but comforting – secure. She felt the cramping of her loins ease a bit.
    "That's the way," he encouraged her in much the same way he'd gentled one of the horses that had gone anxious. "Am I too heavy for you?"
    She shook her head, afraid to speak. His breath feathered over her face with a clean, masculine scent, warm and inviting.
    They lay for long moments. She had no idea of the passing of time, but knew that her body felt wonderful, mindlessly disembodied and heavenly drifting. The padded ground beneath her provided sufficient cushion. The faint sun kissed her cheeks.
    How long could he hold himself off her, she wondered? She opened her eyes to find him examining her face. "Thirty," he whispered at her ear, "I'll be thirty at my next birthday."
    A full decade set them apart! A lifetime. Chastity nearly laughed aloud, but she didn't want to interrupt this delightful mood. 
    "I could be your mother," she finally protested, although that