The Samurai's Forbidden Touch by Ashley Radcliff

Author:Ashley Radcliff
Language: eng
Format: mobi, epub
Publisher: Harlequin
Published: 2010-10-01T04:00:00+00:00

She awoke to soft light, cool and pale like oversaturated ink, flowing through the thin silk walls of her bedchamber. Dawn painted the skin of Miku and Takeshi’s bare legs as they lay entwined with each other. She pressed herself closer to his bronzed chest, and his arms instinctively tightened around her, his lips seeking out hers.

And then without warning, his mouth was gone from hers. “The shoko sounds,” he said.

Miku struggled to her elbows, pushing back a thick lock of black hair from her eyes, and listened to the large brass gong that hung at the front gate of her uncle’s manor. Its distinctive clang rang through the courtyard, shattering their morning’s serenity. Servants were signaling her uncle’s return.

Almost immediately, a rumble of footsteps foretold her uncle’s imminent arrival at the door to her suite. Before she could do more than hastily wrap a robe around her naked form, the old man and his entourage of servants trampled through her parlor and pulled away the screen that enclosed her bedchamber.

Her uncle stopped abruptly, his irritable instructions to a servant broken off midsentence as his sharp gaze took in Miku’s disheveled appearance and Takeshi’s sword and bow, abandoned in the corner of the room. Though he’d managed to step back into his short cotton robe, the samurai’s shoulder-length hair was loose about his neck instead of tied up tightly in the formal knot required of his military station.

“No attempt to escape was made in the night, Master,” said Takeshi, sliding on his helmet and plated armor and calmly moving to retrieve his weapons. But before he could reach his katana, Miku’s uncle signaled for armed guards to retrieve the blade.

“Yes, I see that my niece is still here, as I commanded. Yet I wonder if she remained truly safe?” asked Miku’s uncle, his fury barely contained. “Or was her greatest threat lurking here, in my own home?”

“The only threat I face is from you,” said Miku, moving angrily toward her uncle as his scandalized servants backed away. “I will not—”

“What you will or will not do is my decision,” snapped her uncle. “Dress in your finest robes and come to the grand hall.”

“You cannot force Miku to obey you any longer,” said Takeshi, stepping between her and her uncle. “She is no longer yours to command.”

Turning toward his private guard, the old man pointed a gnarled finger toward Takeshi. “Arrest this traitor. He will be put to death…after he watches my niece marry another.” He rolled an eye toward Takeshi, smirked and said, “You seem to have forgotten that you are not armed.”

With a battle cry, Takeshi rushed toward his former Master, but a dozen guards with weapons drawn moved to block him.

“You will follow this sniveling coward?” roared Takeshi, as one soldier pressed his sword to the base of Takeshi’s throat while a second wrapped a strong leather rope around his wrists. “Then you are not true samurai—for samurai are men of honor and courage!”

Their faces flushed with anger

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