Riverbreeze: Part 3 Read Online Free

of your past you would never be so cruel.”
    Rob opened his mouth to defend himself, but Jamie spoke first. “Uh oh. You’re in trouble now.” He said with a grin.
    Robert glared at his brother. “You stay out of this.” He growled. To Elizabeth he said, “Can you honestly say you believe she doesn’t deserve a beating?”
    “Yes!” Elizabeth answered without thought.
    “Oh please.” Robert scoffed, crossing his arms over his chest. “She’s a shrew! Like I said, a beating or a loving. Either one will shut her mouth.” His tone indicated that his mind was set and there was no room for debate.
    “Oh really?” Elizabeth said, ready to have some fun with him. She sashayed closer to him, swaying her hips and walking her fingers up his arm in a very suggestive manner. “If I were to act so spoiled and whined and complained until you couldn’t stand it, what would you do to me? Beat me? Love me?” By this time her fingers were caressing the side of his face.
    She wasn’t sure how Robert would react to her teasing, but she quickly learned how happy he was to play along with her. He grabbed her hand and looked deeply into her eyes. Slowly he kissed each fingertip, pinning her with his piercing gaze. A shiver went through her. This could become dangerous. Her little game could backfire on her for he could quickly put her in an embarrassing and compromising position right here in this public place. She should stop this right now, but for some unknown reason, she didn’t.
    His voice was low as he said, “I would throw you over my knee, lift your skirts very slowly as my hand skimmed up your legs and then I would spank you until your bottom was rosy red—“
    “Rob!” Jamie gasped, chiding him.
    Robert ignored him. He continued as Elizabeth stood frozen, her heart pounding, her breath held, “Then when your flesh was sufficiently warm and burning with pain I would plunge my fingers into your—“
    “Rob!” Jamie shouted louder this time, grabbing his arm and squeezing hard. “This is not the place for your perverted fantasies.”
    Robert’s head came up, a funny little smile on his face as if he had been caught doing something naughty, which he had! Nevertheless, he shrugged his shoulders and said, “She asked.”
    And then he looked back at Elizabeth and in that low voice, said, “You asked.”
    She swallowed hard. Yes, she had asked and she had heard something that she should have never heard—Evelyn shouldn’t have heard it either—but against her own better judgment she had followed some naughty streak in herself and had taunted him and lost. “Now I know.” She said in a shaky voice.
    “Yes, now you know.” He said in a queerly flat voice.
    Fortunately for Elizabeth, they were interrupted at that point by a distant scream.
    “What was that?” Evelyn said, finally speaking. Elizabeth glanced at her and could sense that Evelyn had been just as shaken by Robert’s revelation as she had and now was eager to change the subject.
    “Look!” Jamie exclaimed, pointing to the Dutch ship.
    All eyes looked. A man was diving off the ship into the river where a woman was desperately trying to keep her head above the water. She was flailing her arms so wildly, it was almost impossible for the man to get close enough to save her.
    All of a sudden Robert guffawed. “Wouldn’t that be grand if that was Helen Boyle in the water? Aw…” He mocked her. “Her beautiful gown ruined, her coiffure wrecked.”
    Elizabeth just stared at him, too shocked to speak. She had seen him lose his temper before and yell scathing insults at a doctor, and she had seen him spar with Jamie time and time again, and she had heard him spout sarcastic remarks about others until she was sure the others’ ears were burning, but never had she seen him act so cruel and heartless toward a woman. Did he hate Helen Boyle so much or did he hate her behavior?
    Jamie was equally as shocked and disgusted. “That is just plain vicious