Samantha James Read Online Free Page A

belong! We’ve customers waitin’!” His eyes lit on Cassie. “You,” he growled. “Take a bottle of brandy to the two gents at the back table. Use the best crystal.”
    Nell wheeled about eagerly. “Oh, there’s no need for Cassie to burden herself,” she said brightly. “I’ll serve it—”
    “Not you, Nell. Her .” He jerked his head toward Cassie.
    Cassie had gone utterly still. A flash of alarm surged within her. Serve him ? The one who stared so boldly? Cassie was well aware Nell had not made the offer out of any goodwill on her part—indeed, she was undoubtedly looking forward to warming the gent’s bed tonight, which was just fine with Cassie.
    Nervously she wet her lips. “It matters little to me if Nell—”
    “Ah, but it does to me!” There was a long row of copper pans and utensils hanging from a beam. Cassie flinched when he grabbed a wooden spoon and shook it threateningly. “I said you, missy, not her! Now get to it ’fore I lose my patience. Smile and be nice to the gents—and stop trying to hide your bosom!”
    Scalding tears burned Cassie’s eyes. She damned Black Jack, even as she damned herself for her weakness. Blindly she reached for a bottle of brandy and Black Jack’s best crystal goblets from the pantry. She tried to assure herself it was foolish to be so reluctant; after all, it wasn’t as if she hadn’t done this a thousand times before. And surely these two could be no worse than any of the others.
    Mustering her courage, she pushed through the double doors and back out into the noisy taproom. Boisterous shouts hailed her return. Ignoring the coarse calls and snatching hands, she weaved her way through and around tables toward her destination.
    Her steps slowed as she approached. She was but a few paces distant when the black-haired one, the earl, turned his head.
    Their eyes locked.
    For Cassie, it was as if a bolt of lightning zigzagged through her. Rampant in her mind was the urge to turn and run, as far and fast as she could. Why it was so, she did not know.
    But for a timeless instant, she could not move. What was it Nell had said? Wickedly handsome, he is . But of the two, wicked was the one etched sharply in her brain.
    Oh, there was no denying his handsomeness, by far and away. In all her days, Cassie had never seen a man’s face so arrestingly pleasing to the eye. High cheekbones slanted above clean-shaven cheeks; his jaw was flawlessly chiseled, and all in perfect proportion. His hair was black as a crow’s wing, and cropped rather short; dark, tousled curls fell across his forehead in a style unlike any Cassiehad ever seen before. Yet for all its perfection, his was a face of supreme masculinity.
    Yet she sensed a harshness within him, a harshness borne out by the unsmiling cast of his mouth. Set beneath winged black brows, his eyes were like pale frost, as cold and piercing as frozen glass.
    Cassie was the first to look away. She swallowed, forcing her feet to do her bidding and close the remaining distance between them. All the while he stared at her through eyes of burning silver, as if he chose to see all that she would keep hidden. Nell was right, she thought on a note of panic. He gave her the shivers, but it was scarcely a pleasant sensation.
    “Here you are, sirs.” It was by no means an accident that she stationed herself next to the fair-haired gent Nell had called Christopher Marley. Quickly she set the crystal goblets before them.
    Christopher Marley smiled up at her. “You are Cassie, are you not?”
    Cassie reluctantly met his gaze, only to breathe a silent but profound sigh of relief. Instinct alone told her that his was a presence not nearly so threatening as his friend’s. He had kind eyes, and a warm and gentle smile. “Yes, sir,” she murmured. “Cassie McClellan.”
    “And is Cassie short for Cassandra?”
    “Aye,” she nodded. “But no one has ever called me anything but Cassie.” Feeling more at ease, she ventured a faint