Page 62 of The Trouble with Tigers
He loosened his grip to run his thumb over the tender skin at her wrist. “Kitty, you must see I’m trying to help you.”
His new tack didn’t fool her for a second. But to buy time, she nodded once.
He opened his fingers.
She snatched her arm back and massaged her aggrieved skin.
“Cousin, what do you think will happen to you when it comes out you’ve been living with Thurgood for the last several months? After he casts you aside, your reputation will be ruined beyond repair. You’ll be a social pariah.”
“What do you care what happens to me? You’ve claimed your reward. You’ve got the Maidstone title, a substantial inheritance, and now a tidy sum in exchange for marrying me off. I would think you’d be satisfied.”
A cold smile spread over his face. “The funds will soon be in my account, and they’re mine to keep whether or not Thurgood goes through with the ceremony.”
“Which he will.” She hoped she sounded convincing. “Garrick, you must know if you do anything to obstruct my engagement, the earl will exact retribution.”
His lips tightened. “I have no need to act. I have only to wait. But for your sake, I’m asking you to come away with me now. We can forget all the ugliness of the past.”
She stared at him. “Come with you and do what?”
“Marry me, of course.”
She laughed. “Are you mad?”
His jaw clenched. “I’m trying to save you from disaster, cousin, as any good guardian would. Do you remember the first time we met?”
His question caught her off guard. “It was at my parent’s funeral.”
“I watched you prissing about in your finery, you and your spoiled brother. My father told me how your side of the familyheld itself superior. And that day, I saw it myself, first-hand. Do you think I didn’t know you whispered behind our backs?”
She frowned. She hadn’t even known who he was until he left and she overheard her grandfather discussing Garrick and his kin with Collin.
“I still see it. You think you’re above me. Just like the old man thought 'til the day he died.” Garrick’s upper lip curled into a sneer.
“You’re wrong, Garrick. Grandfather took you in, accepted you as family, made you his heir.”
“Ah yes. His heir. Because there was no one else to name after your dear, sainted brother disappeared. But he treated me like so much dirt under his nails.”
His slander was too much. “He welcomed you into our home. And you repaid his generosity by—”
“Generosity.” Garrick erupted. “Everything you took for granted all your life—position, wealth, prestige—all of it should have been mine by birth.”
“And now you’ve got what you wanted, haven’t you? What have I to do with any of your delusions of grandeur?”
“Delusions?” he roared, spittle flying as temper exploded out of him. Grasping her face between his gloved hands, he forced her to meet his wild eyes. “It’s you who has delusions. When I get through with you, there will be no doubt who is superior,countess.”
“Let. Go. Of. Me.” She clawed at his leather gloves, more terrified than she’d been in her life.
Breath hissing through his clenched teeth, he pressed forward, forcing her bodily from the bench onto the thick ground cover, pinning her with his weight.
His dark eyes sparked with manic rage. He spread his legs, straddling her, trapping her skirts with his knees and immobilizing her from the waist down.
But her arms were free. She shoved at him 'til she felt her bones might snap from the strain, but he barely budged except to slide a hand between them to grasp a handful of her skirts.
“G-garrick, p-please. You really d-don’t want to do this.”
“No, Garrick, you really don’t.” Zeke’s deadly calm voice shocked Garrick into stillness.
A moment later, Kitty’s body was freed of his suffocating weight.
