Tanya Anne Crosby by The Impostor's Kiss

Author:The Impostor's Kiss
Language: eng
Format: mobi, epub
Published: 0101-01-01T00:00:00+00:00

Perhaps there were only a few men, but it seemed a hundred, or more, laughed at his jest.

Chloe bristled over his unremorseful tone.

It seemed she didn’t have a choice in the matter. Half a dozen shadowy figures with gleaming silver in their hands surrounded her. They stood at a distance, their weapons glistening by the light of the moon. In her quarter, the coachman sat with the reins still in his hands, not daring even to look in their direction.

Och, how could the evening have gone so wrong? Why, oh, why, had she agreed to this evening? What had she hoped to gain by accepting Lord Lindale’s invitation?

Even if she wanted Lindale—which she didn’t—he was hardly the sort of man who would lower himself to wed a commoner. He would dally with them, certainly, but he had nothing to gain by wedding someone without money or title, and he wasn’t the type to do anything lest it profit him.

Chloe had let herself be carried away by the moment, she told herself, by Aggie’s enthusiasm, by her own vanity. At twenty-three, it had simply felt good to have a man notice her—even if it were Lord Lindale. This town had scarce a man left in it who was unattached. And even if there were, there were none who were quite suitable for her. She didn’t want to feel herself vain and trivial, because it wasn’t so much that she felt herself too good to lower herself to being a farmer’s wife, it was just that she couldn’t quite relate to them. Thanks to her father, she aspired to more than simply shucking peas.

“The necklace,” Hawk prompted, reminding her of the gun’s presence with a cold kiss from its barrel against her cheek.

She peered up at Hawk, slow to respond despite the chill of metal against her flesh.

How had he known she would come this way? He must have known. She cast the coachman a glance, studying his demeanor. He wouldn’t even look at her.

Fear or guilt?

Hawk’s gaze never left her as he waited for her to comply. Feeling helpless, Chloe turned, giving him her back. “You’ll have to take it from me,” she told him, vowing not to aid him, though once she’d have leaped at the opportunity. “I won’t just give it to you!”

“Removing anything from your body would be my utmost pleasure,” he told her, handing his pistol to one of his men. Chloe swallowed as his hands worked to unclasp the necklace. Her heart beat a little faster as his warm fingers grazed her back. She swore she could feel the heat of his breath as he bent close to better see the clasp.

Once he removed the necklace from her neck, though she remained fully dressed, she felt vulnerable and exposed. With the weight of it relieved, she felt utterly stripped of her sense of honor. To her dismay, she felt like weeping and she hadn’t cried since her father had died—and before that, when her mother had passed away.

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