Heir of Danger by Alix Rickloff

Author:Alix Rickloff
Language: eng
Format: mobi, epub, pdf
Tags: Paranormal Romance, Historical, Fiction
ISBN: 9781439170601
Publisher: Pocket
Published: 2011-12-27T18:22:59+00:00

fifteen

Mr. McKelway didn’t look old enough to shave, much less perform a wedding ceremony, though by the leering glances he kept stealing at Elisabeth’s breasts throughout, he was plenty old enough to have his ears boxed.

It was one thing to marry in such a helter-skelter way. Another to have the priest ogling her as if she were a side of beef at Fleet market. She speared the cleric with a ferocious stare that had him tugging at his collar as if he were in sudden need of air and hastening through the rest of the service in double time.

Not the wedding of her dreams. Madame Arana and Miss Roseingrave were the only witnesses to her honor’s restoration, Rogan pleading an aversion to churches in general and marriage in particular. And in place of Miss Havisham’s expensive confection of cream-colored silk and yards of silver lace, Elisabeth wore a modest gown of white muslin. One of the few outfits in Helena’s wardrobe that needn’t be let out or taken in.

Brendan stood beside her, pressed and polished and looking as mouthwatering as she’d ever seen him.

The Douglases possessed looks to draw every eye. Aidan bore an austere elegance and a confident swagger that left no one in doubt of his noble bloodlines. Sabrina’s winsome flashing smile and sparkling blue eyes more than made up for her inherent shyness. But Brendan outshone both of them with his sun-bronzed, square-jawed face, the dagger gleam of his gold eyes, and the taut balance of his swordsman’s body.

Until now he’d been a million miles away, his expression unreadable in the dim interior of the church, but when the priest asked, “Do you take this woman?” he finally looked at her, his eyes a darkened bronze like ancient coins, face uncharacteristically solemn.

“I do,” he said, his fingers tightening on hers in a gesture she chose to interpret as encouragement rather than dread.

It didn’t take nearly as long as she’d expected to change the course of her life forever. A few words spoken over them. An exchange of chaste kisses for the spectators, and a marriage seven years in the making was finally accomplished.

There should have been bells. A parade. Perhaps a few fireworks. Instead, Madame Arana blew a great honk into her handkerchief and Helena’s bark of brittle laughter echoed along the rows of empty pews. “Hunted by armies only to be caught in a wee parson’s mousetrap.”

Elisabeth heaved a sigh. So much for celebration.

Brendan must have taken her sigh as one of sad regret. He whispered in her ear, his soft breath against her neck shooting butterflies through her. “It’s not the wedding you deserve, nor am I the man you wanted. For that I am sorry, Lissa.”

Not the man she’d wanted? You couldn’t have told her that while Brendan’s lips had been trailing shivers of sensation over her skin. While he’d stroked her body to a fever’s pitch and she’d responded with a raw frenzied hunger.

Shame settled like lead in the pit of her stomach.

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