Total pages in book: 87
Estimated words: 82367 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 412(@200wpm)___ 329(@250wpm)___ 275(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 82367 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 412(@200wpm)___ 329(@250wpm)___ 275(@300wpm)
“Not a lord. Feel free to call me Falcon.” A dazzling smile turned up his lips. One Rosamunde responded to.
“That’s Mr. Morgan,” Bryn snapped, moving them away from each other with a glare to his friend.
“Where’s the runt?” He took a deep breath before gazing down to her waiting green eyes.
“Lovell?”
Bryn shrugged, still not caring about his name.
“He was looking around.”
“But you came directly here.” He smiled as a flush seeped up her cheeks.
“You said you didn’t want us late.”
“Being in the building,” he said loudly, “but not here, is still considered late.”
She stepped back a bit and turned as her brother swaggered into the room. Bryn wanted to close the distance they’d just had put between them, however he stayed motionless, waiting.
Lovell had the same familiar, condescending smirk on his face as many of the members of peerage who came here did. Before they got their asses handed to them.
He sauntered up to where they stood and paused, hands in his pockets. “I’m ready.”
Bryn raked him with his gaze. “You’re late.”
The boy turned on his sister and snapped, “I told you to get here and tell him we were here. You’re fuc—”
Bryn had him by the throat and slammed him back into the nearest wall. “Watch how you speak to or about a lady, especially when it’s your sister. She was here. You were not. That’s completely on you.”
He gripped his throat and held him there, anger pumping through his veins like blood. In his periphery he noticed others watching but no one moved to interfere. And Rosamunde walked off.
So proud of her.
She found a seat and sat on the edge of the bench. He knew it was warm there for she was nearest to the fire.
Eyes slits, he focused on the piece of shit before him. “Understand?”
“Should probably let him get some air in there if you expect a response.” Falcon, always the peacekeeper.
Loosening his grip, ever so slightly, Bryn cocked an eyebrow. Lovell gulped, throat moving against his palm.
“Understood.”
His smile was far from nice. “I’m not working with you today.” Bryn walked off, heading over to where Rosamunde sat, flipping through a book she’d had in her bag.
“You said you’d help me,” Lovell protested as he dodged Bryn’s steps.
Rosamunde lifted her gaze to the earl and watched him carefully. He winked at her and never once turned to her brother.
“You said you’d be here on time. You want to box today, get in the ring with someone else. I’ll watch your form but I don’t work with people who don’t keep their word.” Bryn held her stare the entire time.
“Don’t even think about it, pup. Unlike my friend there, I will send you home beaten and bloody.” Falcon’s tone held a lot of promise.
Bryn sat beside Rosamunde as her brother walked around to find someone to spar.
“Would he really beat him that badly?”
He leaned back, resting his arms on the bench behind him. “Without a doubt and with no hesitation.”
“Why?”
“Because he’s an ass and was rude to you.” He hooked his ankles and watched two men climb in the makeshift ring.
The men milling around didn’t spare Rosamunde a glance. Women came in here all the time, despite many trying to say genteel women would never enter the academy, or ones of proper breeding. Plus they knew she was under his and Falcon’s protection. Which meant she wouldn’t be bothered.
Ever.
“I’m nobody.”
“I’m already moody, baby. Don’t push me.”
“Why are you calling me baby? I’m not your baby.”
He turned his head enough to see her face. Adorably scrunched up in confusion.
“And push you into what? I couldn’t move you if I tried.”
God her innocence delighted him.
“I like calling you that, but fine. I’ll find something else to call you.”
She lifted a perfectly sculpted eyebrow. “Rosamunde?”
Mine.
He chuckled. “No. That’s what everyone else calls you. I want something that’s just mine.”
Pupils dilating, she shrugged and dropped her focus back to the book in her hand.
He smiled and returned his attention to where Lovell sparred with Dennis. Falcon was by the men but his gaze was across the room, lips in a firm line of disapproval. Bryn followed the direction and knew why instantly.
His sister stood there, speaking to another one of the members. A decent man and an earl.
Emmett Appleby, Earl of Bloxam.
A thud grabbed his attention and Bryn found Lovell had been knocked down.
“No concern for your brother, baby?”
They watched him struggle to his feet, shake his head and put his fists up once again.
A sniff. “You mean my baby brother?”
He chuckled, low and intimate, in her ear, wanting nothing more than to curve his body around hers. “If that’s what you need to tell yourself.”
Chapter Seven
“This shouldn’t be allowed to happen, Bradford. You need to put a stop to it.”
Rosamunde paused on the stairs as she heard her mother’s unpleasant whine to her father.