The Devil's Thief Read Online Free

his bare back, and when he made no objection
she pressed her palms full against him. His skin was soft and warm, and she
could feel the pull of his muscles as he rocked her gently and nuzzled her neck
again. She had never been held like this. She couldn’t even remember the last
time she’d been this close to someone.
    “Yes,
Juliet, touch me just like that,” he murmured, and Julianna felt gooseflesh
break out on her arms.
    She
ran her hands down his back, more sure of herself now. She noticed the little
skip in his breathing, the shiver that raced down his back, rippling his
muscles. His arms tightened around her as her hands came to rest in the dip at
the small of his back. The skin there was warm and she glided her fingers
across it gently, making him shiver again. Some lines from Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet suddenly ran through Julianna’s
mind. She’d just seen the play last week. Part of Juliet’s speech to Romeo in
the balcony scene of Act Two seemed somehow appropriate tonight.
    “ ‘In
truth, fair Montague,’ ” she whispered, “ ‘I am too fond, and therefore thou
mayst think my behavior light.’ ” Mr. Sharp went still as she quoted Juliet. “
‘But trust me, gentleman, I’ll prove more true than those that have more
cunning to be strange.’ ”
    “Juliet,”
he murmured as his hands glided up under her now loose shirt and the short
chemise she wore beneath it. The feel of his large, warm, rough male hands
against the bare skin of her back felt so decadent and erotic, it made Julianna
want to moan. “Go on,” he urged softly, “more.”
    “ ‘I
should have been more strange, I must confess,’ ” she continued breathlessly, “
‘but that thou overheard’st, ere I was ware, my true love’s passion; therefore
pardon me, and not impute this yielding to light love, which the dark night
hath so discovered.’ ” She could barely say the final words—his hands
were driving all thought from her head as they rubbed and glided over her skin,
which felt hot and tight and more sensitive than ever before. She moaned as
soon as the last word was out, and he pulled his hands to her sides, his thumbs
rubbing along her ribcage, dangerously close to her breasts. Please, God , she wanted them on her
breasts.
    “Am
I now to swear constancy by the moon?” Mr. Sharp asked her, raising his head to
gaze intently at her face.
    Julianna
licked her lips—she liked to watch him watch her do that—before
answering. “No, not the inconstant moon, Romeo.” He smiled wickedly at her.
“After all, I don’t believe that worked out so well in the end for
Shakespeare’s lovers.”
    Mr.
Sharp laughed quietly in genuine amusement. “No, I don’t believe so. But then
we are neither foolish nor in love.”
    Julianna’s
heart gave a little lurch at his teasing comment. No, they weren’t in love. Was
it foolish to want a man she didn’t love? She did feel foolish, as if this
brief encounter were indeed a play—a tragedy of epic proportions. Of
course they weren’t in love and never would be. She grew tense, but didn’t pull
away. She’d made her bargain and must deal with any regrets on the morrow. It
was too late to escape now, bound as she was by a thief’s honor.
    “But
I will swear to the constancy of my desire,” he promised, and gently kissed her
forehead. “ ‘Lady by yonder blessed moon I swear,’ ” he quoted as he slid one
hand up to cover her feverish, aching breast. Julianna gasped and her legs felt
shaky and weak. He wrapped his other arm around her back and tugged her hips
into his. She felt it then, the hard, pulsing heartbeat between them. “I think
perhaps you are as taken with desire, Juliet, as your Romeo.”
    “Gentleman,
by yonder blessed moon I swear,” Julianna misquoted, hating and loving her
breathless, uneven voice. She loved what he was doing to her, but she was
trying so hard to appear experienced and she was afraid the fear and
uncertainty in her voice would give