Sweet Madness: A Veiled Seduction Novel Read Online Free Page B

standing near the center of the chaise. Her heart sped, thumping against her throat as if she were the one trapped. She prayed they did not hurt Gabriel in their bid to subdue him.
    One of the men lunged for him then, attempting to catch him about the waist. She gasped as Gabriel leapt vertically, pulling his knees high as his feet landed upon the chaise in a move most reminiscent of a large cat. The attendant missed, falling to the ground with a surprised grunt.
    “My lord!” Mr. Allen shouted, then raised his hands in what Penelope assumed he meant as a soothing gesture. “My lord,” the man said again, more calmly as Gabriel straightened. “Please, there is nowhere for you to go.”
    Penelope’s gaze darted to the other attendant, who was creeping behind the chaise while Mr. Allen had Gabriel’s attention.
    “We mean you no harm,” the director said, his voice a soft lull.
    But she could see that Gabriel was beyond words. The skin on his face was pulled taut in a terrified grimace. He wasn’t even looking at the director at all, she realized, but rather at the floor. He looked as if he longed to run for it, but was afraid to step down. His eyes darted to and fro, clearly seeing something that wasn’t there. Something that frightened him terribly.
    “No,” he groaned. “No! Stop tormenting me so. There was nothing more I could have done!”
    The intensity of his fear raised gooseflesh on Penelope’s skin as tears pricked hot against the backs of her eyelids. What on earth did Gabriel think he saw?
    Just then, the second attendant clipped his boot against the leg of the chaise, alerting Gabriel to his presence behind him. He tensed, crouching low on the chaise again. Mr. Allen chose that moment to make his move.
    And so did Gabriel.
    He flew. Leapt, really, but with an energy that seemed inhuman. With the added advantage of the chaise’s height, he easily cleared the top of Mr. Allen’s head, who had bent to try to capture him. But how did Gabriel think he was going to—
    The tinkling of thousands of crystal teardrops rang in the air as Gabriel’s outstretched hands found purchase in the lowest tier of the massive chandelier above them. His momentum turned the chandelier into a pendulum, swinging him away from his captors.
    Penelope watched in awe as the fast-moving glass caught the weak winter sunlight from the mullioned windows and cast shards of colored light dancing upon the walls. Dozens of snuffed candles lost their mooring, raining down like wax-covered twigs in a particularly vicious windstorm. Light and shadow played against Gabriel’s naked skin, muscles flexing as he held fast.
    Lord, he’d be beautiful to paint.
    Penelope blinked. Goodness, where had that inappropriate thought come from?
    So shaken was she that she didn’t even register that Gabriel was swinging right toward her until far too late. She threw up her hands to protect her face at the last moment, but nothing could protect her from the force of fourteen stone slamming her to the hard marble floor.
    “Oh!” Pain exploded in more places than she could feel at once. Everything hurt. Her backside, mostly, which had taken the brunt of the impact. But her left shoulder had come down hard next, and the back of her head smarted terribly, as, curiously, did her chest.
    She blinked to clear her vision, glancing down to find the top of Gabriel’s head, his face buried directly in a rather delicate position. So
that
is what had caused that sharp jolt of agony. His forehead must have collided into her breastbone when he landed atop her. She winced. That was going to leave a bruise for certain.
    As other sensations returned to her stunned system, she realized she lay quite pinned beneath Gabriel’s larger frame. His naked, still dripping wet frame. Even the layers of her widow’s weeds couldn’t shield her from feeling him against her or from the moist heat that seeped through to her skin.
    “Mmph,” she groaned. She bent her elbows