Binding the Baroness by Em Brown

Author:Em Brown
Language: eng
Format: mobi, epub
Publisher: A Ravenous Romance® Original Publication
Published: 0101-01-01T00:00:00+00:00

Chapter Ten

She wondered if he could hear her heat beating. After a difficult swallow, Abbey asked flippantly, “Did Frotham issue such orders to you? I had always suspected him to be the deviant.”

She felt him move across the carriage to the seat opposite her. If she could maintain a lighter tenor, her abductor might be more apt to talk.

“You speak with such venom. I take it you are not enamored of His Lordship.”

So the man knew the Earl, as she had suspected. The abductor was no commoner; that much could be concluded by his speech. But why would the Earl hire a gentleman to execute his plans? Perhaps Frotham trusted this man.

“I am no friend of his,” she phrased. “Whatever he is paying you, I will offer you double.”

Silence.

Encouraged, she added, “I am a woman of great wealth—worth far more alive than dead.”

“I have no intention of killing you,” he said with an odd hitch in his voice. “I am aware of your affluence, but I think you do not know the full extent of your worth.”

“Ten thousand pounds,” she spat. “He offered me ten thousand pounds if I would stay away from his son. A paltry sum for all the pain…I doubt he offered you as much?”

“Why do you presume the Earl is involved?”

“Because I know his motives. He would attempt much to protect his precious son from me.”

“You believe there would be no other cause for abducting you?”

“You may wish to ransom me, sir, but I have no family and no friends to whom you could address the request. But return me safely and I will assure you a most satisfying compensation.”

“Define ‘satisfying.’”

She thought for a moment. She had just dubbed ten thousand pounds as paltry. The amount would have to be significant to give him pause.

“Twenty thousand pounds,” she pronounced. Surely the miserly Frotham could not have offered better.

His silence confirmed her assumption.

“But setting you free would not be nearly as pleasurable,” he drawled.

Did her ears deceive her? Had the man refused twenty thousand pounds?

“Twenty thousand pounds,” she repeated. “I jest not.”

“Nor do I.”

“You may have the payment in any form that you wish. Your anonymity can be maintained if you worry of retribution or reprisal.”

He leaned in. “I have in my carriage and at my will a beautiful woman. A woman whose delectable body calls for the touch of man—a proper man. A woman who can ignite the deepest desires in a man with a simple glance. You would have me set free such a prize?”

Her mouth went dry. Was the man in earnest? Or was he attempting to extract a higher amount from her?

“I would consider an amount greater than twenty thousand,” she offered, her voice beginning to waver for the first time.

She heard him settling back into his seat. “You may offer any sum you wish, Baroness. Would the price of your freedom be less tomorrow?”

She paled as she realized the implications of what he said. At present, he held all the cards.

“I doubt it would it change if I released you today or a sennight hence,” he confirmed.

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