Silken Threads (49 page)

“Does it help you to justify your
viciousness,” she asked quietly, “if you can blame your prey for
having invited it?”

“Oh, you invited it, all right, wandering
the streets alone at this hour as if you owned the world, smugly
certain that you’re too clever to ever fall victim to a blackguard
like me.”

“Too well-armed, actually.”

He snorted disparagingly. “If you were
counting on that puny little weapon to protect you, you’re
suffering from some dangerous illusions.”

“It’s protected me in the past, and come
away bloodied. I’m not afraid to use it, if that’s what you’re
thinking. So don’t be so sure you’ve got the upper hand here. I may
be small, but I’m quick and agile, and I won’t hesitate to defend
myself by slicing whatever part of you happens to be closest to
hand at the moment.”

“Ah. Well, that won’t do.” Seizing
Phillipa’s weapon hand, Hugh twisted it, using just enough pressure
to pry her fingers open without snapping any bones. She let out a
furious little whimper as the dagger fell to the ground. “I’m
rather fond of my body parts,” he said as he kicked the weapon
aside. “Wouldn’t want any to come up missing.” Any more than
already had.

As Hugh’s eyes grew accustomed to the dark,
he could see her more clearly. By the rapid rise and fall of her
chest, and the hint of panic that had crept into her eyes, he knew
she was finally coming to terms with the futility of her
situation.

Good.

“That dagger only made you more vulnerable,
because it gave you the illusion of protection where none existed,”
Hugh said. “As you see, even unarmed, I would have bested you.” He
took a step toward her, bracing his left hand on the stone wall
while his right still held the
jambiya
so its blade just
barely kissed her throat; she shrank back from him, her expression
grave. “I’m twice your size and far, far stronger, and very
determined to get what I’ve come for.”

She held his gaze steadfastly, although she
shivered from head to toe.

“You’ve misjudged the situation badly,” he
said, lowering his voice to a menacingly intimate timbre as he
leaned in closer. “A comely young thing like you should know better
than to let yourself end up all alone with the likes of me in a
dark, secluded place like this, with no room to maneuver and no one
to help you...or to hear you if you scream. You’re entirely at my
mercy.”

Hugh’s gaze lit on her eyes, liquid-dark
against creamy skin...on her mouth, as pink and precise as if it
had been painted onto a statue. He shifted the
jambiya,
gliding its edge along her throat like a lover’s caress.

With the tip of the blade he nudged her
mantle aside, draping it over her shoulders. She sucked in a
breath, closed her eyes. He appraised the rest of her as she stood
flattened against the wall, her arms rigid at her sides. She was a
delicate little thing, with fine bones and high, small breasts. The
beaded girdle with which she’d cinched in her tunic pointed up the
narrowness of her waist, the feminine swell of her hips.

He returned his gaze to her eyes, to find
her regarding him with loathing...and surprising dispassion. “Get
it over with, then.”

Hugh pushed back from the door, studying her
closely. “Just like that?”

“You’re right—I’m outmatched,” she said,
exhibiting a remarkable degree of composure, under the
circumstances. “I may not be able to walk away from here unscathed,
but I do intend to walk away. I won’t struggle, so long as you take
that knife from my throat and just...do what you came for and be
done with it.”

“Indeed.” With a smile of triumph, Hugh
slipped the
jambiya
back in its sheath and reached toward
his belt. “How very accommodating of you.”

About the Author

Patricia Ryan has written more than two dozen
novels, which have garnered rave reviews and been published in over
twenty countries. A RITA winner and four-time nominee, she is also
the recipient of two
Romantic Times
Awards and a Mary
Higgins Clark Award nomination for the first book of her historical
mystery series featuring Boston governess Nell Sweeney, which she
wrote under the name P.B. Ryan. Pat’s Evil Twin, Pamela Burford, is
also a published romance novelist. Visit Pat’s website at
http://www.patricia-ryan.com
.