Sweet Deception Read Online Free Page B

inside those gargantuan outer garments within moments.
    “Devil take it, Pygmy,” he growled, coming alongside her. “A woman shouldn’t be out in this storm alone.”
    “No, she shouldn’t,” Emma agreed, her tone placid. She kept her eyes straight ahead and didn’t slow her stride one whit. “Which is why I am going to find her and bring her home.”
    Derick stopped walking, staring after Emma. “You deliberately misun—”
    “And
don’t
call me Pygmy,” she snapped over her shoulder.
    Emma forged ahead, holding up her dress and coat as she might the skirts of a ball gown she was trying not to step on while ascending a staircase. The raised hems revealed a dirty pair of—
    What
did
she have on her feet? And had she borrowed those ungainly boots from the same owner as the coat?
    Derick shook his head, but despite her ill-fitting footwear and the slippery terrain, she picked her way across the yard with a single-minded dexterity that would have made any spymaster proud.
    It took only four long strides to catch her once again. “At least stop and wait here whilst I fetch my horse,” he requested, expecting once again to be ignored and already thinking of ways to bend her to his will.
    But Emma did stop. She opened her mouth, no doubt to protest. He placed his fingers over her lips to shush her. Her soft skin radiated a pleasant warmth against his chilled fingers. Her cheeks flushed pink and her eyes widened.
    Heat unfurled low in his gut. Removing his hand from her mouth, Derick slowly curled his fingers into a fist.
    “I noticed you assigned the farthest and most treacherous section of the map to yourself,” he said gruffly. Emma had not given the servants a dangerous task that she was unwilling to do herself. Admiration and disapproval welled up in him. She might be foolish, but she was also noble. “If you truly mean to get through it by dark, a fast steed and another warm body would not be amiss,” he murmured.
    Her gaze held him, assessing. Unknown thoughts flittedacross her face, as if she were trying to discern his very character.
    Well, that wouldn’t do. Derick lowered his eyes to break the contact between them.
    He mustn’t forget his role. People tended to let their guard down more easily when they thought him superficial. They just assumed that a man so focused on himself didn’t listen to anyone else. It made lips looser, and his job easier.
    He pasted a smile on his face and regarded Emma with a well-practiced “put upon” expression. “Besides,” he said, giving a wave of his hand, “since you’ve appropriated all of my groomsmen, my horse hasn’t been properly rubbed down. He’ll have to be run anyway.”
    Whatever favor he might have found in her eyes vanished and her face went slack. Just as well.
    “Fine,” she said, her mouth twisting. “But hurry.”
    Emma held herself stiff, not giving in to the urge to relax and settle back against Derick’s warmth. The heat radiating from his hard thighs where she sat cradled sideways upon his lap caused fluttering enough.
    Perhaps she should have protested when he’d pulled her onto the horse. But they would reach the search area—and hopefully Molly—faster on horseback, and as Emma wore a dress, being held thus was the only practical solution. At least the oilskin blanket Derick had procured to protect her from the storm afforded a measure of separation, and comfort. She had to admit, the relief from the wind and driving rain was welcome.
    What was
not
welcome was the churning in her middle. Fig! She had worked so very hard to forget Derick Aveline. In the back of her mind, she supposed she’d expected he would return to Derbyshire someday, given that he was set to inherit the castle. What she hadn’t expected was this sharp ache, as if his very arrival dug into her soul, turning over feelings long buried, exposing them to the sun like a farmer’s pitchfork turning over fresh dirt forthe spring planting. She had thought these