A Seduction at Christmas by Cathy Maxwell Page B

“I’ll untie one wrist. You sign the document, and I’ll leave to go to the bank. Unfortunately I will have to retie you, but you understand. When I have my money, I’ll return to set you free.”
    There, let him believe he was going to see her again.
    Pleased with herself, Fiona bent over in her chair to undo the knot around his wrist closest to her.
    What she didn’t expect was for his other hand to come across and reach for her.
    Or for the ropes tied around his body to fall away as if they weren’t tied at all.
    Before she completely comprehended what had happened, he dragged her onto the bed, flipping his body over hers. Holding her down with his weight, Holburn took out the neck cloth gag and captured her hands by the wrists.
    He smiled, his blue eyes elated. “Surprised?”
    Stunned was a better word.
    Tad anxiously approached the bed. The duke gave his head a pat and said, “Down.” Tad immediately dropped to the floor.
    “Your dog isn’t much of a guard,” Holburn informed her. “And you aren’t as good at tying knots as you think you are.”
    “What are you going to do?” she demanded, surprised she didn’t feel panicked. She didn’t fear him…but she was very conscious of him.
    He was hard, aroused, but there was no anger to him. No meanness.
    “I’m going to put my breeches on, Fee,” he said, “but first, we need a reckoning. Now, what sort of penalty should I extract?”
    And she knew he was going to kiss her.
    That’s when she understood exactly what Grace had meant…because she wasn’t adverse to that kiss. She’d lost five hundred pounds, but it was part of the game they were playing between them. The game that had started the moment they’d first met.
    “You would be wiser to just go,” she told him.
    “I would, Fee,” he agreed, his voice was close to her ear. She could feel his breath against her skin. “But what fun would there be in that?”
    His head turned, seeking her lips, and God help her, she let him find them.
    Five hundred pounds lost and she would sell her soul for his kiss. What madness was this? She turned, the better to deepen the kiss—
    The door to the hallway shook with the force of someone pounding on it. Even the walls seemed to shake. Tad jumped to his feet, the hair rising on his neck, his teeth bared.
    “Annie Jenkins?” A male Irish voice, Thomas’s voice called out, “We know you live here. Let us in.” Without waiting for a response, he said to someone with him, “Crash it down. I’ll not have her hiding from us.”

Chapter Six
    N ick came up off the bed and crouched, ready to ward off attackers. At any second, he expected the door beyond the curtain to be smashed to pieces.
    But the door remained intact. The sound of splintering wood came from the room next door. The thinness of the walls had carried the sound as clearly as if the Irishman stood in front of theirs.
    Tad started to growl.
    “Quiet,” Nick ordered and was pleased when the dog obeyed.
    He glanced back at Fiona. She sat up on the bed, her back against the wall, her face drained of all color.
    “Don’t worry,” he whispered to her. “I won’t let them harm you.”
    Those dark solemn eyes of hers looked to him with a child’s trust and it was his turn to have doubts. Damn it all. How had this happened? No one trusted him. Everyone knew he cared about nothing but himself.
    “Why are they looking for Annie Jenkins here?” he mouthed.
    “She lived next door.”
    There was clumping around and the sound of furniture being thrown on the other side of the wall. “There’s no one here,” one of the lads called to his leader who swore colorfully.
    “Tear the place up,” he ordered, “and then we’ll hunt her down. She has to be somewhere around here.”
    Nick didn’t want to face the bastards naked. “My clothes?” he asked Fee.
    She nodded toward the curtain.
    He moved quietly to the other room and found his breeches, shirt, and jacket hanging to dry. Tad followed