Wicked Lord: Part One Read Online Free Page B

as his sharp gaze traversed the ballroom. No one would
notice them. A moonlit walk was normal among these weak society
fools.
    "Come, I will show you."
    Then, as easy as that, he had a high-society
whore out in the deserted gardens at night … all alone. He could
feel no one else walked the gardens but he and the woman of such
low virtue beside him.
    "The game is you shall run ahead and I stay
to count, until I reach twenty, then I will come to catch you and
if I'm able to catch you, you must forfeit a kiss to me."
    "A courting game, Lord Fanton?" she
questioned with such hope in her voice, he nearly chuckled.
    "Of course, my savory treat. You and I …" He
left the rest hanging for the blond slut to pick up, as he knew she
would.
    "For a kiss then," she said brightly. "If
you can catch me!"
    He told himself he would only play for a
little while … this time. He would simply show himself how easy it
was. Nothing more. He looked at the large glass-paneled doors to
the ballroom. They were closed, but light spilled out onto the
stone patio. He could hear the music and laughter as his gaze
turned to the pale, moonlit gardens and beyond into the dark
woods.
    How easy this was. He'd never realized.
    "I am counting," he declared. "One.
Two."
    "Oh, Lord Fanton!" she exclaimed. "Don't
start yet. I am going. Oh! Don't look which way I go."
    Fanton turned his back as if he were a
dutiful courting puppy and he heard the swishing skirts of his
prize as she skipped away. He looked up at a sliver of the full
moon trying to peek through the fog, counting aloud for the twit's
benefit as he wished the bobbing slut were Beth instead.
    His mind began to fixate on how he would
adore chasing his plump Beth deep into the dark woods, while he
rolled his shoulders, shedding his evening jacket. Better yet, he
would strip Beth of the fancy silk she wore, ripping the material
from her lush curving figure, before he let her loose. Then he
would stalk her pale, naked body. His cravat came loose and he
tugged at the collar of his pristine white shirt. He would watch
Beth's fat breasts and wide hips as she would try to run from him.
But no. She was not fast enough to escape his power … his strength.
He would run her down. His Beth would try. Oh, she would struggle
so hard trying to stop him. She would attempt to fight him with her
frail limbs against his powerful strength. She would try to leave
him. Yet he would never … ever let Beth leave him again!
    Shrill sounds suddenly pierced Fanton's
hearing. He snarled on the edges of a manic roar, looking down at
the blood washing his hands. His body shook as he wildly looked
around. What had he done? How had he come to this? Again! So soon.
     
    ***
     
    Beth heard a blood-curdling scream split the
night air. It seemed to come from the woods behind the Valtimer
mansion.
    "Ariel!" she cried, lifting her skirts to
begin running down the patio steps into the garden and beyond
toward the woods. She'd lost her, and then she'd lost Adam too.
He'd never returned to their rendezvous spot inside. She'd
considered the gardens outside. It was the only place she hadn't
searched.
    "Ariel, where are you?" Beth cried, darting
her gaze back to the closed ballroom doors. No one would hear her
cries with the music and the doors closed. She would be all alone.
"But I cannot ignore her need!" Her gaze returned to the hag-shaped
woods as she ran toward them. Did she really intend to go in
there?
    A wrenching scream split the cold night air
in front of her from deep within the haunted woods, and her steps
faltered. "Adam, oh God, Adam, I wish you were here."
    Beth clutched the small pearls on the
necklace at her collarbone as she tried not to cry out in fear. On
the scream’s heels came a more frightening sound. It was like no
sound she'd ever heard, and it brought her rushing steps to a halt
right at the edge of the eerie, blackened woods. She couldn't tell
the direction of the sound that was either terrible agony