WeresDigest by Desconhecido Page B

do that.”
    “Of course you can.”
    He stood up and sat down beside her, drawing her into
his arms. “I’ve waited my entire life to find my mate, and now that I have I
can’t allow you to leave. I can’t,” he finished on a whisper.
    Raising her brow in surprise, Carrie asked, “So you’re
resorting to kidnapping me then?”
    “Yes, I couldn’t think of any other way to get you to
come home with me.”
    Pressing against his embrace, she spat, “And just how
long do you plan on keeping me a prisoner?”
    “Why, until we ma…marry, of course.” Forever!
    “You promised to court me,” she reminded him.
    * * * *
    His words stunned her. Carrie wondered how she ever
felt she could trust this man—learn to love him as she did. He’d outright lied
to her, and her heart broke. He was nothing but a selfish, insensitive cad, and
she hated him. She would not make this claiming easy for him. No, and in the
end, she’d make him pay for taking her against her will.
    Sulking in her seat as she stared out the window,
refusing to meet his gaze she knew was on her, she decided she wouldn’t fight
him. Much. She hadn’t really, thus far. Her cheeks burned as she thought about
what she’d just done to him. Serviced him, which meant she was nothing more
than a common whore.
    “What are you thinking?”
    Maybe tears would work.
    “I want to go home, Max. Please?” She allowed one tear
to roll down her cheek, then another, and she wasn’t faking them. They were
real, as real as this situation.
    “Not yet,” his low voice rumbled. “Afterwards.” Never! He started to stand when she held up her palm.
    “Stop! You stay there. I don’t want you near me.”
    “All right, but we’ll be at the castle soon,” he
warned as he sank back and folded his arms across his chest.
    Carrie was frightened, yet excited. While she knew
something about men, she didn’t really know this man all that well. Oh, she
knew from the beginning he hadn’t killed the woman outside the tavern. Carrie
had always been told she read people well, and instinctively knew Max wasn’t
the poor woman’s murderer. She needed to face the truth of the matter; she
wanted this man, wanted to marry him, still she wasn’t ready to make the
confession. Then she thought of her mother.
    “But what about my family?” she whispered.
    “I’ve already sent a messenger to your mother, asking
her permission for you to marry me.”
    With a sigh, Carrie knew she hadn’t a chance of
finding her way out of this. For how could her mother and brothers turn down
the offer from a duke’s son? Truthfully, she had no desire to leave Max. She
wanted to be with him, but on her terms, and she hadn’t changed her mind
on that. By the end of this night, he’d be begging for her, pleading with her
to marry him. Frowning, she mused, or things could be the reversed and she’d be
the one squirming, pleading, begging.
    The carriage stopped suddenly, the door opened and Max
was there, his hand out and ready for hers. With another huge sigh, she reached
out for his hand, grasped it as he pulled her from the carriage. Tucking her
arm through his, he patted one hand and murmured sweet utterances in her ear,
between tiny kisses.
    She supposed there could be far worse things that
could happen to a girl, than having a duke’s son seduce her.
    * * * *
    “Sign the damned thing, you old bastard!”
    Walter Evans, the Duke of Freemont, glared impotently
into the eyes of a man he hadn’t seen in years—his daughter’s betrothed—Canton
Mason. The man was still obnoxious, unreasonable, and dangerous. The duke had
no doubt now that he’d been cursed by the man, whom he now new was the evilest
of wizards. In one moment, he’d been able to speak and move about, but now he
was stiff as a board, unable to respond, unable to write with the pen the
wizard had tucked into his hand, which, the duke supposed, was a good thing. If
he signed the document, all of his worldly possessions upon