Teresa Medeiros by Breath of Magic

Author:Breath of Magic [Magic, Breath of]
Language: eng
Format: epub, mobi
Published: 0101-01-01T00:00:00+00:00

19

Something was banging on the bedroom door.

Arian stumbled out of Tristan’s bed, rubbing her raw eyes and wondering if she was awake or if this was just another of the disturbingly vivid dreams that had plagued her throughout the night. As she bumped her shin on the footboard, pain jolted up her leg, assuring her this was no dream. The sun slanted through the drawn drapes, warning her it was nearly noon.

Biting back a curse, she limped toward the door, her bleary mind still haunted by echoes of her sleep-induced fantasies. She had been at a ball, she remembered through a drowsy fog, drifting down a marble staircase into the waiting arms of her black-garbed prince. She sighed with longing, but that innocent vision was consumed by one so sinfully and deliciously carnal it brought a flush of mingled lust and embarrassment stinging to her cheeks.

“Naughty girl,” she mumbled to herself. “What would Goody Hubbins say?”

Her dreams had become even more preposterous as the night wore on, culminating with Tristan asking her to be his bride. Arian stumbled to a halt, almost pitying herself for letting such a ridiculous fancy send a thrill of pure joy shooting through her heart.

“No more chocolate cream before bedtime,” she muttered, shaking off the poignant daze.

The banging on the door had ceased, but Arian would have sworn she heard a faint roar, like that of the ocean at low tide or the murmur of many voices. She pressed her ear to the door, frowning. Perhaps it was just Sven watching cartoons again.

She dragged open the door and padded into the living room, indulging in an enormous yawn. “All right, Sven. None of your saucy Monsieur Roadrunner and his annoying ‘beep-beep’ before I get to watch Dreaming of Mademoiselle Jeannie.”

At least twenty pairs of eyes swung around to blink at her. None of them were Sven’s.

Arian put a hand to her tangled mop of hair, then lowered it as if it would be enough to shield a figure barely confined by the rumpled silk of Tristan’s nightshirt. She stumbled backward toward the bedroom, but her escape route was cut off by a matronly woman bearing a thick stack of pamphlets.

“Good morning, Miss Whitewood. Mr. Lennox asked me to scour the newsstands for these. He said he hoped you would find them inspiring.”

The woman dropped the pamphlets into Arian’s arms and retreated with a motion that was only a bob short of being a curtsy. Arian caught a brief glimpse of a lady in white on one of the glossy covers. Nuns? she thought, her confusion growing. Why was Tristan sending her pamphlets about nuns?

She had little time to ponder for it was as if the woman’s approach had released a floodgate of jabbering strangers.

“Miss Whitewood, if you would just sign this release form in triplicate, Mr. Copperfield can put the paperwork for the prenuptial agreement into motion.”

She recoiled from the gold pen thrust in her face.

A gaunt woman darted at her, her lips pressed in a disapproving line.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.