Deception by Amanda Quick Read Free Book Online Page B

Jared agreed. He was only a man, he thought with rueful amusement. He could not help but be warmed by the light of feminine admiration that he glimpsed in the siren’s eyes.
    “You are no doubt well versed in the customs of the inhabitants of other lands, I should imagine.” Olympia looked at him expectantly.
    “I have made a few such observations,” Jared said.
    “I consider myself a woman of the world because of the excellent education I received from my aunts,” Olympia confided. “But I have never had the opportunity to actually travel abroad. My aunts were not well off in their later years. I get by on the small inheritance I received from them but it is certainly not enough to finance an interesting journey.”
    “I understand.” Jared smiled slightly at the notion of Olympia as a woman of the world. “Now then, there are perhaps one or two small matters we should discuss about my position in this household, Miss Wingfield.”
    “There are?”
    “I’m afraid so.”
    “I thought we’d settled everything.” Olympia sank back into her chair. She heaved a sensual sounding sigh that in another woman might have been mistaken for passion. “I have never met anyone who has traveled aswidely as yourself, sir. I should dearly love to ask you a great many questions and to verify certain facts that I have gleaned from my books.”
    Jared realized that she was gazing at him as though he were the most handsome, the most fascinating, the most desirable man on the face of the earth. No woman had ever looked at him with such unabashed longing. She did not even appear to mind his sightless eye.
    He had never considered himself a skilled seducer of women. For one thing he had simply been too busy since the age of nineteen to devote much time to the matter. And, as his father had often pointed out, he seemed to lack the Flamecrest fire.
    It was not that he did not experience the normal male appetites, Jared thought. He was only too well acquainted with them. He was very aware of what it was like to lie awake late at night and hunger for a warm, loving woman.
    The problem was that it was not his nature to become involved in a series of shallow affairs. The few he had had over the years had left him feeling restless and dissatisfied. He suspected his partners had felt very much the same. As Demetria had taken pains to point out, once one got past his title and expectations, there was nothing very interesting left to discover.
    But today some deep masculine instinct told Jared that it would be quite possible for him to seduce Olympia Wingfield. She would not require poems and bouquets and smoldering looks.
    All he had to do was ply her with travelers’ tales.
    He considered just how he would proceed with the seduction. She would no doubt smile at him for the story of an adventure in Naples or Rome. She would likely melt for a tale of a voyage to America. There was no telling what she would do if he gave her a story ofa journey to the West Indies. His body grew hard as he contemplated the possibilities.
    Jared took a deep breath and clamped down on the hot, aching need that had seized his insides. He did what he always did when he felt his self-control slipping. He reached into his inside coat pocket for his appointment journal. He was aware that Olympia watched with interest as he opened it to the page that contained his list of notes for the day.
    “First, we should discuss the shipment of goods your uncle entrusted to my care,” Jared said.
    “Yes, of course,” she said briskly. “It was very kind of you to escort the shipment to me. Uncle Artemis and I have worked out a very profitable arrangement, as I expect he explained to you. He selects a variety of interesting items in the course of his travels and ships them back to me from various points along the way. I, in turn, sell them to some London merchants.”
    Jared tried and failed to envision Olympia as a shrewd merchant of imported luxuries. “Do you mind my