In The Prince's Bed by Sabrina Jeffries Read Free Book Online

since Lovelace is taking his sweet time proposing, you thought to hedge your bets by bringing me in.”
    A small smile touched Byrne’s lips. “It can’t hurt to have two of you on the field. Even if you don’t win her, you might prod Sir Sydney into offering. The result is the same for me—Miss Merivale gets her fortune, her grasping mother pays off the five thousand owed to me, and everybody is happy.”
    “In other words,” Alec bit out, “you don’t much care if I’m the one to win her, as long as you get your money.”
    Byrne casually flicked a cherry blossom off his coat. “If you don’t like the competition, say the word. I’ll find you another heiress.”
    “No,” Alec said, surprising himself with the swiftness of his response. “No, I want this one. But I don’t like being manipulated. You intended all along to play Lovelace and me against each other, you devious bastard.”
    “Devious? I’m not the one marrying for money or hiding that fact from the lovely Miss Merivale, am I?”
    Alec glared at him. “Why tell her now and ruin everything?”
    “Because she’ll find out eventually. And when she discovers she’s been tricked into giving up her beloved poet for a penniless earl whose estate lies in a shambles, there will be hell to pay.”
    “Not if I can help it,” Alec snapped. “She’ll have no cause to complain about our marriage, fortune or no.” He could certainly do better by her than the old earl had by Alec’s mother. “I know how to keep a woman happy.”
    “Thanks to all that debauchery you engaged in abroad.”
    Alec ignored Byrne’s sarcasm. “Granted, military camps provide few opportunities for that, but I’ve had my share of women.” The occasional camp follower, a bored officer’s wife, and, briefly, aPortuguese mistress.
    “Do you intend to tell Miss Merivale what you were really doing abroad?”
    “And explain why an earl’s heir found it necessary to fend for himself? I don’t think so. She’ll have to accept me on my own merits.”
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    “That’s asking a lot.” Byrne cast him a taunting glance. “Especially when you have Lovelace, the consummate gentleman, to compete against. And if she’s in love with him—”
    “She’s not.” Or she would never have kissed me with such enthusiasm . “Scoff at my chances, but you’ll see—I’ll steal the filly from Lovelace before he even knows what happened. I’ll loop the halter about her pretty neck so loosely she won’t realize she’s caught until she’s stepping blithely through her paces.” Alec scanned the room. “Now excuse me, but I must find someone to introduce me formally to my future wife.”
    Time to follow the rules—at least until he could get her alone again.
    Katherine ought to be relieved.Sydneyhad forgiven her “outburst,” as he called it, and had easily fallen back into the way things were.
    A pity she couldn’t do the same. But her thoughts kept straying to Lord Iversley’s kiss, so surprisingly tender, then hot, then—
    Oh, why couldn’t she forget it? It was an interesting experience, that’s all. She’d had her taste of passion, and it was enough. It had to be; she was marryingSydney.
    “Shall we visit the card room, my dear?”Sydneyasked, offering her his arm like the perfect gentleman that he was.
    Nothing like a certain earl who backed her against a marble rail and took liberties with his mouth and his hands and his—
    Curse him. “Yes, that would be lovely.”
    “No, indeed,” Mama interrupted. “It’s kind of you, Sir Sydney, to show Katherine so much attention, but you must allow her to converse with her other admirers. It’s not as if you two are betrothed, you know.”
    WhenSydneywinced, Katherine wanted to sink through the floor. Mama was about as subtle as a sledgehammer. “You know very well, Mama, that I have no other admirers.”
    “Nonsense,” Mama persisted. “That