title: Dark Rider: A Novel
author:  Iris Johansen 
description: Cassie Deville rips off her own bodice at the start of this new romance by the author of Midnight Warrior. When Jared Danemount, Duke of Morland, meets the bare-breasted, sarong-swathed heroine on the beach in Regency-era Hawaii, he thinks she's just another Polynesian maiden. He doesn't know, as he tries to ride her wild stallion, Kapu, and gazes hungrily at her pectorals, that she is the daughter of his sworn enemy, Charles Deville, an artist who betrayed Jared's father during the Terror. Cassie offers herself as Jared's sexual hostage if he will take her, Kapu and Lani, Charles's Polynesian mistress, back to Europe with him so that she can try to save her father's life. Although, in a bit of role reversal, Cassie goes nightly to Jared's cabin aboard ship, she will not spend the night or give her heart. Johansen, who specializes in hot talk and steamy sexual politics, is less skilled once her lovers disembark. In unimposing Regency set pieces, Cassie makes friends with Jared's French ward, Josette; she shocks British high society with a low-cut red dress; she tries to save Jared's life as he stalks the cruel French villain. In a disjointed way, Johansen has provided sex talk for grown-ups and other scenes for adolescents. <br />Copyright 1995 Reed Business Information, Inc.
zlib_text: _**Dark Rider**_
  
  Iris Johansen
  
  *
  
  PROLOGUE:
  
  September 15, 1795 Marseilles, France
  
  "You demon from Hades, come back here!" Cassie jumped over a small cask and
  darted around a sailor.
  
  "You know what will happen if I have to come after you!"
  
  Oh yes, she knew. She would be forced to listen to one of her nurse's long
  lectures and then be locked in the ship cabin for hours and hours. But she had
  seen the crew load horses, two beautiful horses, and she would not lose this
  opportunity because of Clara's threats. Some things were worth any punishment
  her nurse could inflict.
  
  She glanced over her shoulder. Clara was stalking after her, her face twisted
  with anger.
  
  Darting around a corner, Cassie dived behind a pile of trunks. She held her
  breath as she heard the swish of Clara's stiff skirts.
  
  She waited two minutes more before peeking around the trunk. Clara was not in
  sight. Her breath released in an explosion of relief. She started running back
  the way she had come.
  
  "And what have we