Page 18 of Juliet's Touch

Riley halted, forcing Eric to stop short so that he didn’t crash into his back.

“Are you telling me how to deal with my staff?” Riley asked.

Christ almighty, the man was rat dung.

The beauty’s back stiffened. “Will they not also be my staff soon?”

Riley leaned into her shoulder and whispered in her ear. She went stone still.

Prickles rose up Eric’s spine. If Riley had threatened her, he would flay his flesh from his bones. Slowly. Torturously. He’d lower the degenerate into a boiling cauldron, enjoying the man’s screams. Then, right before Riley took his last breath—still alive, but barely—ensuring he felt every inch of pain, Eric would start carving. Slicing. Sawing…

A man with his hands shoved into the pockets of a threadbare coat barreled toward the trio, interrupting Eric’s demented fantasy. If the out-of-control pedestrian didn’t slow down, he would crash into the beauty. As Eric ripped his mask from his pocket and slammed it over his head, another man, wielding a knife, charged the trio from the side.

To Eric’s horror, Riley squealed and pushed the beauty in front of him. What a deplorable, cowardly fuckrat!

The barreling man halted abruptly and withdrew a knife from his pocket. “Hand over your jewelry, ladies.” He rested the blade’s point on the beauty’s bosom.

She stoically met the man’s gaze, not a sign of fear in her determined stare.

“I will not,” the elderly woman said. “Charles, do something.”

ButCharleswas busy cowering behind his brave fiancée, whom he had offered up as a sacrificial lamb.

Eric slammed into the thief who had come from the side. In one swift move, he grabbed the man’s wrist and wrenched it backward until he heard the satisfying crunch of snapping bone. The man screamed, and the knife clattered to the ground. Before Eric had time to throw a punch, the man turned tail and sprinted into the darkness.

Their other assailant snarled as he directed his demands at the stubborn chaperone. “Give me your sapphires or the pretty one dies.” He pressed the knife to the beauty’s neck.

Eric rushed forward and kicked, driving his heel into the attacker’s breadbasket. The man stumbled backward, and his knife flew through the air. Eric grabbed the scalawag by his dirty lapels and tossed him onto the ground. Standing over him, he steadied his ragged breathing. He’d rather beat this scoundrel to a pulp than tie him up and leave him for the magistrate.

“You,” a gentle, feminine voice said. “You saved me. Again.”

Eric peered over his shoulder to find the beauty regarding him. While he was distracted by her wide eyes, the second man bolted onto his feet and fled.

“What do you mean he saved you again?” Riley asked, his chest puffed up as if he hadn’t just shoved a lady into the path of danger to save himself.

Heir apparent or not, this abhorrent excuse for a man needed to be taught a lesson. Eric’s fist shot out, smashing Riley in his haughty, upturned nose. Riley screamed as blood splattered. Once he stopped squealing like a toddler, the cowardly fuckrat brought his hand to his nose as he glared at Eric.

“I will see you hanged,” he declared.

“Help,” the elderly lady screamed. “Help! This masked beast just hit a future peer of the realm.”

Eric rolled his eyes. Frustration aside, he needed to leave immediately before a half dozen Bow Street Runners converged on him.

“Are you well, my lady?” he asked the beauty.

“Miss Juliet,” she said, her sweet voice akin to a gentle caress. “I am, thanks to you.”

“Help! Please help us,” the lady, who was so annoying that she had to be Riley’s relation screeched.

Riley whimpered. “The blighter punched me in the nose.”

Meanwhile, Juliet’s attention remained focused on Eric’s mask. She stepped closer and looked up at him, reverence in her gaze.

Her fingertips brushed over the bottom edge of the fabric. “Who are you?” she whispered as if it were just the two of them standing on that street.

“Juliet.” Riley growled. “What are you doing? Get away from that monster.”

She ignored her fiancé, trailing her finger beneath Eric’s eyes. Sparks sizzled through her glove and the mask to warm Eric from head to toe. Unable to control himself, he wrapped her in his arms. Instead of pulling away, she tilted her head back and parted her lips.

“Juliet!” Riley bellowed.

Eric lowered his mouth to place one gentle kiss on her silky lips, absorbing her sigh as if it were a life-saving breath.

“How indecent,” Riley’s annoying relation said. “Help!”

The clomp of fast-moving footsteps charged toward them. Most likely Bow Street Runners. Eric reluctantly let go of Juliet. Spinning toward the line of carriages, he sprinted between the two closest to him.

“Stop that masked man,” Riley yelled. “He went that way.”

Eric allowed himself one last peek over his shoulder, and his heart somersaulted because Juliet’s fingers rested on the pink lips that he’d just kissed.