Secrets for Seducing a Royal Bodyguard Read Online Free

London?”
    “We’re not riding. It’s too far and it would expose us to prying eyes. I have a carriage waiting for us in a nearby village. The sooner you mount, the sooner we’ll get there.”
    The astringent note in his voice automatically raised her hackles. “I can’t possibly ride on the same horse with you. It wouldn’t be proper.” She winced at how silly that sounded, given the circumstances. But the idea of being mounted in front of him on that great beast, with only her velvet cloak and two thin layers of delicate fabric between their bodies, made her feel much too exposed and vulnerable in a way she’d been fighting against since her kidnapping.
    “Since there’s no one here to see you, perhaps you could set decorum aside for now,” he responded dryly. “And if you think riding on a horse with me constitutes a scandal, imagine what the polite world would say if they discovered that you’d been held captive by a band of thugs.”
    Her cheeks flamed with heat. “Well, put that way, I do see your point.” She took a deep breath, mystified at her reluctance to ride with him. She’d let him hold her, lugging her for several hundred yards through the woods, so why did this particular activity make her squirm with discomfort? Somehow it seemed so very intimate, and she didn’t even know his name.
    Perhaps that was it.
    “You still haven’t told me your name. I should think I deserve to know that, at least.”
    His gloved hand tightened on the reins, and again the horse danced. He swiftly brought the beast under control. Silence fell again over the clearing, broken only by the nocturnal rustlings of some small creature.
    “Aden St. George,” he said a moment later, his reluctance to share apparent.
    Vivien brightened. “St. George? Would that be from the Earl of Thornbury’s family? My mother knows Lady Thornbury quite well.”
    She had the distinct impression her reply had him grinding his teeth.
    “I’m aware of that. And now that we’ve been properly introduced, would her ladyship please deign to get the hell up on my horse? We’re running out of time.”
    Though it was surely too dark for him to make out her expression, she scowled anyway. “There’s no need to get huffy. I’ve had to endure quite enough tonight without rude remarks from the man who is rescuing me.”
    He expelled a sigh. “Forgive me. I would simply like to proceed with that rescue, if you don’t mind. It won’t be long before you’re discovered missing, if it hasn’t happened already.”
    Vivien cast a nervous glance over her shoulder. She strained to see something, anything, in the encompassing darkness. “Oh, yes. Quite right, Mr. St. George. No time for lingering.” Wonderful. Now her nerves had set her to babbling. He must think her a perfect fool.
    He stretched out his arm, gesturing her forward. “I’ll pull you up in front of me. Step on my boot if you need to, but let me do the rest.”
    She swallowed hard and reached up, watched his hand swallow hers, and let out a startled squeak when he pulled her straight up into the air as if she were a cloth doll. Her feet scrambled for purchase on his boot, and she had a moment’s panic when she thought she was about to tumble back to the ground. But he swept her up in a dizzying rush, and a breathless moment later she sat before him, her bottom enclosed by his muscled thighs and his arm wrapped around her waist in a solid embrace.
    With her heart thumping wildly she clutched at the horse’s mane, her skittish response to him blending with her fears about the danger that might lurk ahead. As she took a deep breath, trying to calm her jangling nerves, he pressed his knees against the side of the horse, and they moved into the dark reaches of the forest.

Chapter Three
    Tremors shivered through Lady Vivien’s slight frame as she held herself rigidly upright in front of him. It was a wonder she could still tolerate a man’s touch at all, much less the close