Page 481 of Wicked Highland Heroes

He laughed, but the laugh turned into a wet cough that made her shudder.

“I am not yet dead,” he rasped.

“I have told my father the truth,” she said.

The baron’s eyes flicked to her father, then came back to rest on her. “I am sorry, Josephine. I know how you once felt about Grayson, but I had to tell the sheriff the truth.” He looked at her father. “I regret you had to find out the truth this way, Montagu. I wanted to come to you, but she insisted we run away—” he coughed again “—and inform you after we were married.”

“How dare you?” Josephine whirled and faced the sheriff. “Sir, there is one very good reason I would never have run away with Lord Wylst to marry him.”

“What is that?”

Nicholas grasped her arm. “Josephine.”

She looked at him. “I will not have you go to prison to protect me.”

“I will not go to prison.”

She returned her attention to the sheriff. “Because Lord Wylst is my uncle.”

Shock registered on Sheriff Boyd’s face.

“What the devil?” Lord Wylst burst out. “Josephine, what do you mean by this?”

She cut her gaze to him. “Your lies are finished, sir.”

“Is this true, Montagu?” the sheriff demanded. “Is Wylst your brother?”

He shook his head. “Not my brother.” Her father looked at the baron. “He is the Duke of Carlisle’s brother.”

The baron’s face mottled in rage and he tried to push upright, but collapsed onto the mattress wheezing.

“What does all this mean?” Sheriff Boyd demanded of her father.

“It means, I am not the man who fathered Josephine. Wylst was blackmailing her to keep the truth secret.”

Josephine started. She hadn’t told her father Lord Wylst had been blackmailing her.

The sheriff stared for a moment at her father, then shifted his attention to the baron. “It seems you are the one who should face charges, Lord Wylst.”

He coughed again, harder this time, and Josephine stared down at him. He was truly dying.

He turned feral eyes on her father. “If I go up on charges, the truth will become public.”

The sheriff’s mouth turned down in distaste. “You will not live long enough to tell anyone.”

Fear widened his eyes. “The doctor, I want to see—”

He coughed again and Josephine shivered at the sight of blood in the corner of his mouth. She turned and Nicholas pulled her into his warmth, then led her from the room.

He kept to the narrow hallway and up a flight of stairs until they came to a small library. Inside the room, he closed the door and pulled her into his arms.

* * *

“Nicholas,” was the only word Nicholas let Josephine speak before covering her mouth with his.

He knew his kiss was savage, but he could no longer halt the tide of emotion that had coursed through him since seeing her struggling with Wylst. He thrust his tongue inside her mouth and devoured her.

Josephine whimpered. Heat flashed through him like a sudden tsunami. Then she was kissing him back with the same violent need and Nick knew he had to stop before it was too late.