Page 10 of Married By Treachery

His fingers reached only so far as to snatch the little lockpicks she’d secured.

“Thief! How dare you! Return those at once!”

“Need I remind you thatyouare the one who snuck into my bedchamber in the middle of the night to murder me in my sleep.” His one hand calmly gripped both of hers and held them fixed over her head while he held the lockpicks with his other.

“You left your door totally unguarded and unlocked,” she shot back. “One might think youwantedme to murder you.”

“I did wonder if you had the nerve,” he admitted. “Though I failed to realize how many more little claws you’d hidden on your person.” He leaned closer, and his sweet breath brushed over her face again. “I wonder… Should I strip you down until I’ve uncovered every one of them, mybelovedbride?”

“Stop calling me that!” Raquel kicked high, knocked the lockpicks out of his grasp, and they flew across the room as she twisted away from him. This time she remembered to grab her skirts beforehecould, and she dove for the blade she’d lost. Still, he moved lightning-quick and was upon her a second later. She just managed to roll out from under him, onto her back, as she raised the blade.

Only to be blocked by his.

He’d pinned her again, but this time to the floor. His body was over hers, his heavy legs weighing hers down, while their blades crossed resolutely between them. “Most women would beg for me to call thembeloved.”

Raquel couldn’t help it. She snorted.

“Well, that isn’t veryloving,my bride,” he drawled, and—to Raquel’s satisfaction—he now sounded marginally out of breath.

“I find it incomprehensible thatanyonewould pine for the affections of a feral beast!” Raquel tried to buck him, twisting her legs to gain the advantage, but he remained one step ahead. As if he anticipated her movements and was simply toying with her. And while that was deeply concerning, there was something infinitely more pressing that Raquel needed to sort out.

“Where the devil is all your hair?” she demanded again.

His shoulders shook with quiet laughter, and then a light sprang into being.

4

At first, Raquel could not make sense of what she was seeing, because the light shone from a lanternbehindthe Bear Prince, and all she could make out was his looming silhouette. But it quickly became apparent that this silhouette possessed no bushy mane.

She might have thought he’d chopped it off, but it wasn’t even the same texture. This was smooth and glossy, in contrast to that wild mass of tangles, and he’d tied it back at his crown, though a forelock slipped free as he leaned over her. No, he wasn’t the Bear Prince at all. This man had hair black as night, a pair of intense honey-brown eyes that pierced right through to her soul, and smooth (un-hairy) skin. His features were sharp and fine like that of his kind, but mischief curled his full lips, unbalancing his aristocratic air, which Raquel found oddly and woefully endearing.

Saints above! This was not good. Not good at all.

And, to her dawning mortification, he was naked. Utterly and completely. Bare as a new babe in his mother’s arms.

His mischievous curl deepened, and two dimples appeared. It was definitely the sort of smile thatmost womenwould beg for.

“And how do you find your prince now that you can see through all of his hair?” he asked lowly. His words slipped around their crossed blades and grazed her lips.

Raquel’s cheeks caught fire for entirely different reasons. She’d never seen a man naked before, not like this, let alone had one on top of her. “You could have warned me!”

“My sincerest apologies, my beloved,” he said in that small space between them. His eyes were liquid gold. “The next time you attempt to stab me in my sleep, I’ll request an intermission to clothe myself. However, I must admit: this appears to be proving a far more effective distraction than anything else I’ve…”

Raquel growled in frustration, shoved their blades aside, and slammed her head against his nose.

The Bear Prince, who resembled a bear no longer, cried out with a laugh—actually laughed!—as Raquel kicked him off of her and climbed to her feet.

“I think you broke my nose.” He sounded almost impressed. He touched his nose where bright red blood trickled, and then he stood at full and glorious height.

Oh, sacred saints in heaven.

Raquel was definitely not gawking at him. He was going to kill her. One did not gawk at one’s murderer, no matter how devastatingly beautiful he was.

“Get dressed!” she sort of shrieked at him.

He looked at her as if she were a crazed animal.

And then a light rapping sounded upon the door. “Everything all right in there, Jake?”

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