Page 53 of Bride By Mistake
“Obeyme! As you vowed to.”
“When did I—oh, you mean the marriage vows. I was only a child then—”
“Nevertheless they are legal and binding.”
“Youwere all ready to break them.”
“I was not.”
“You were going to annul them.”
“As. We. Agreed. At. The. Time.”
She shrugged, clearly unimpressed, and turned away.
Luke clenched his fists, wrestling with a wild impulse to turn her over his knee and spank her backside. Her naked backside. He stepped forward.
“Do you have a knife?” she asked.
Luke blinked. “Knife?”
“A hoof pick, by preference, but failing that, a small knife will do. My horse has a stone in his hoof and I can’t get it out.”
“Yourhorse?” he said with withering sarcasm.
“Our horse, if you prefer.”
Her matter-of-fact tone infuriated him. She’d shown absolutely no remorse for her actions. He prowled toward her. He’d show her once and for all—
“Don’t forget the knife,” she reminded him and bent to lift the hind hoof of the lame horse. The supple buckskin stretched tight over her bottom like a second skin.
Luke stopped dead. His mouth dried.
There was a reason why women were not supposed to wear breeches, and he was staring straight at it. It wasn’t possible for a man to think of anything else when he was confronted with… with that. It was almost worse than if she were naked.
Almost. He repressed a moan.
Averting his eyes from the delectably infuriating sight, he drew a penknife from his pocket and bent to the task of removing the stone from the horse’s hoof.
He cleaned the hoof and removed the stone, then swapped the two saddles over. It was getting chilly by then, so he pulled his greatcoat out of her bag and tossed it to her with a curt, “Put it on.”
A look crossed her face as if she might argue, but then she capitulated and shrugged herself into it.
It covered her almost to her ankles, and as she buttoned it, he felt a little of his tension ease. He strapped his bag and hers to the lame horse, then remounted the mare.
He held out his hand to Isabella. “Up behind me.”
She gazed up at him, a mutinous expression on her face. “I will not give up the search for my sister. I’ll come with you now because I have no choice, but I tell you to your face, I’ll run away from you again if I have to.”
He gave her a hard look. “You are welcome to try.”
Without a word she took his arm, placed her boot on his stirrup, and swung up behind him. He felt her warmth at his back, then she slid her arms around his waist. He stiffened but didn’t say a word.
He’d bandy words with her no longer. Tonight, when they were in the privacy of the bedchamber, he’d administer her first lesson in being a satisfactory wife.
Actions spoke louder than words.
It was almost dark and the moon was rising, like a pale slice of lemon. They were riding east. Did he realize it? Bella wondered. She’d expected him to turn around and go back the way they’d come.
