An Improper Governess: An Improper Liaisons Novella, Book 2 by Amy Rose Bennett Read Free Book Online

blue eyes held hers, the atmosphere in the library suddenly became charged with undeniable sexual awareness. The air practically sizzled with it. When his gaze slipped lower to her décolletage , Abigail’s nipples pearled and her breath caught. It was like the storm of yesterday afternoon had descended upon them again, and Abigail was perilously close to being swept into a maelstrom she had no hope of escaping. Desperate to flee the temptation both his words and expression suggested—she was now in no doubt her employer desired her—Abigail picked up her new bonnet and basket and murmured in a breathless voice, “Well, if there’s nothing else...”
    Sir Nicholas dragged in a deep breath as if he too needed air before he replied, “Ah, but there is. I want you to go to Mrs. Graham’s office. Mrs. Thorpe from the draper’s in Hedgecombe is waiting to take your measurements for a new gown. And she will also make whatever garment it was you were intending to sew. As for your lost shoe, one of the gardeners found it in the grounds earlier this morning. It is now with the village cobbler and a new pair should be ready within a few days.”
    “Again, I don’t know what to say, sir, other than thank you,” Abigail said. She supposed she should also thank him for her new room, but the idea of discussing bedchambers suddenly seemed like a topic she should avoid at all costs.
    As she turned and exited the library with her brand new bonnet and basket, it wasn’t with a sense of relief or delight, but trepidation. Dealing with her rampant physical attraction to Sir Nicholas was difficult enough. But his acts of kindness made him even more appealing. Dangerously so. She didn’t want to desire him and like him.
    An inviting pathway to ruin seemed to be opening up before her, and God help her, she prayed she was strong enough not to take it.

Chapter 5
    N icholas Barsby , you are going to burn in hell.
    For what felt like the thousandth time that morning, Nicholas tried to focus his attention on the account ledgers, agricultural reports and various items of correspondence strewn around him on the desk in his steward’s office and not on the movements of the delectable Miss Adams in the library beyond. To be more precise, it wasn’t what Miss Adams was currently doing that was so distracting—removing books from the shelves and sorting them into great piles all over the floor, and whatever surface she could find—but what he imagined doing with her. The constant ache in his groin was bloody maddening.
    To make matters worse, after yesterday’s meeting in the library, he was now certain Miss Adams was attracted to him, at least in a physical sense. When she’d first cast him a frankly admiring glance from beneath her long brown lashes, whenever he’d flirted with her and she’d blushed, his fascination with her had deepened. There was one electric moment in particular when their gazes had locked that had convinced him Miss Adams’s desire might be as powerful as his own.
    He sensed she wasn’t a virgin.
    That didn’t mean he should seduce her, but brute that he was, it seemed he couldn’t stop thinking about her in a sexual sense. If he were honest with himself, the reason Miss Adams wasn’t on her way to Brighton right now was quite simple—he wanted her. Badly.
    Christ, he was even jealous of the footman who had been tasked to help Miss Adams lift some of the heavier books or those out of reach. If the footman and the well-meaning but ancient steward, Mr. Cruikshank hadn’t been here for every blasted minute of the last three hours...
    Nicholas blew out a heavy sigh, silently lamenting yet again, that Cruikshank reeked of tobacco and the fusty smell peculiar to the unwashed elderly. The connecting door to the library and the office window had been left wide open in an attempt to reduce the room’s stuffiness, but to no avail. Beneath his cambric shirt, sweat trickled down Nicholas’s back. Although it wasn’t