major grabbed her chin and forced her to face him again.
“What were you doing in my study?” he growled, his dark gaze boring into her.
Jocelyn remained silent, her gaze meeting his, their noses almost touching. She’d thought his brown eyes were soft and soulful, but now they were like dark holes, the pupils dilated and his breath hot on her face. He was staring at her, his breath quickening as he pinned her hips to the desk with his body. Jocelyn felt his arousal against her thigh and shuddered with revulsion.
“Please let go of me, Major Radcliffe,” she pleaded, her voice quivering with apprehension. “I had no right to be in your study. I was snooping,” she muttered. “I’m sorry.”
He didn’t react to her words. He was panting now, his fingers like steel clamps around her arms. “You’re not going anywhere. You were spying. You are a rebel spy,” he hissed.
“I’m not,” Jocelyn protested, but it was no use. She had no plausible explanation to give him. Something had made him return to the house before the carriage got too far. He may have forgotten something, or he might have had a premonition. It didn’t matter. What mattered was that now she was at his mercy.
“Please, Major,” Jocelyn begged, but her pleas fell on deaf ears. He spun her around and pushed her down on the desk. She cried out in alarm when his hands pushed up her skirts, his thighs holding her in place. She tried to fight back, but the major slammed her head against the wood, momentarily stunning her.
“You’ve been toying with me for months, you little harlot,” he panted. “Pretending to like me, to respect me.” His voice was gravelly as he shoved his knee between her legs, forcing them to part. “You’ve been playing me for a fool, encouraging Captain Denning’s attentions to make me jealous. I treated you like a lady, but you’re nothing but a cheap, lying whore,” he spat out. “And you will be treated as such. Tomorrow, I will have you arrested for spying. Do you know what the penalty for spying is?” he demanded hoarsely as he slid his fingers inside her, letting out a deep sigh of satisfaction as if he’d dreamed of doing that for some time. “Hanging,” he murmured in her ear as he bent over her. “That’s right. You’ll be dead by noon tomorrow, Jocelyn. It would be a damn shame not to avail myself of something that should have been mine,” he grunted as he guided himself inside her, pushing hard.
Jocelyn felt a searing pain as he breached her maidenhead, his engorged shaft stretching her until she thought he’d rip her apart. He grunted with satisfaction. “And a virgin to boot,” he panted. “A double pleasure.” He thrust into her again and again, his hands gripping her as his hips slammed against her.
Jocelyn’s cries seemed to arouse him, loosening his tongue. The things he said were obscene. He told her exactly what he was doing to her in the crudest terms possible, his breathing ragged as he promised to do it again and again before she was taken away in the morning. He loosened his grip as he spilled himself inside her.
“Thank you, my dear. That was most gratifying,” he said as he finally pulled out, releasing his hold on her.
Jocelyn crumpled to the floor, her skirts cascading down to cover her nakedness. Major Radcliffe had taken out his handkerchief and was wiping himself, his seed mixed with her blood.
Jocelyn hadn’t heard the door open, nor had she realized they were no longer alone.
“Is everything all right?” Jared asked. “I was waiting in the carriage…” His voice trailed away as he took in the scene, his horrified gaze fixing on the major’s shriveled cock and the bloodied handkerchief in his hand.
The major’s head snapped back, his wig falling off, as Jared punched him hard, then again. The major fell backward, his breeches still unlaced, his manhood hanging out as Captain Denning grabbed him by the lapels and lifted him up, his face twisted with rage. “You bastard,” he hissed, then brought his knee up to hit the major in the groin.
Major Radcliffe let out a blood-curdling shriek and collapsed on the floor once Jared let him go. Blood gushed from his broken nose, dripping onto the carpet as he lay curled up like a shrimp, howling with pain, his hands between his legs.
“You’re going to hang right alongside her, you idiot,” the major roared. “Sykes!”