Nicole Jordan by Master of Temptation Read Free Book Online Page B

curled in a wry grimace. “Are you quoting the gossip columns again?”
    “Indeed. We read newspapers on our island, Mr. Leighton. They are weeks old, but we still get them. Your name has been linked to any number of heiresses and titled ladies eager to become your bride. Last month it was a European princess, was it not? The predictions are that a match will be announced very soon.”
    “The predictions are wrong. I have no interest in marriage.” He gave her a speculative glance. “Are you interested in marriage, Miss Evers?”
    Caro returned a startled look at the strange question. “No, not in the least.”
    “Good. That greatly relieves my mind.”
    “I don’t know why it should.”
    Instead of replying, he strolled over to the window, pushing aside the heavy drapery to peer out at the dark night. “I trust you won’t object if I take refuge here for a while?”
    She hesitated a moment. “It would hardly be proper. This is my bedchamber.”
    Turning, he propped a shoulder against the window frame. He remained silent, merely studying her with a raised eyebrow, his expression seeming to say,
I have been in a much more intimate setting with you than your bedchamber.
    “Are you so concerned with propriety?” he asked. “Judging from the rumors, you thumb your nose at decorum every chance you get.”
    It was Caro’s turn to deplore the gossips. “Not
every
chance. I imagine you heard the shocking details of my London Season,” she said stiffly.
    “I wasn’t overly shocked. It seems that your chief offense was inspecting human entrails. And I saw enough of those bloody things during the war to become inured.”
    “But I am a
female
,” Caro retorted, unable to keep a tart edge from her tone. “To the ton, it is a crime for me to do anything more than ply a sick patient with calves’ foot jelly.”
    “You are criminal indeed,” he murmured in amusement.
    Shrugging off her longtime disaffection, she managed a smile. “Why don’t you return to the ballroom and your admirers? I’m certain they can regale you with tales about me that would curdle your blood.”
    Max shook his head. “I’d wager they know almost nothing about the real Miss Caro Evers. They wouldn’t know, for example, that you like to bathe in the moonlight.”
    Caro felt her breath falter. “You really shouldn’t be here, Mr. Leighton.”
    “Why not?”
    When she made no answer, he slowly crossed the room to stand before her. His nearness made Caro retreat a step. A mistake, she realized, since her back pressed against the door, shutting it with a loud click.
    “Are you afraid of me?” Max asked, his hushed voice somehow more intimate than his bare hands on her skin.
    “Of course not. But it seems that for some reason you are trying to intimidate me.”
    He smiled at that. “It would be futile of me to try. You are obviously not a woman to be easily intimidated.”
    “I’m not. But I still would prefer that you leave.”
    “You weren’t concerned about propriety that night.”
    “What night?”
    “Are you again claiming you don’t remember?” His gaze searching her face, he took a step closer and reached up to touch her lower lip with the pad of his thumb.
    Caro drew a sharp breath. Of course she remembered. He had filled her dreams for months afterward. Even now she still sometimes dreamed of him….
    “I think you haven’t forgotten about that night,” he murmured. “I certainly haven’t.”
    She couldn’t lie so brazenly, but she could at least prevaricate. “No, I haven’t forgotten. It was…interesting.”
    “Merely interesting?”
    Determined to resist her ridiculous attraction to him, Caro moved across the room to the table where her valise lay and busied herself folding a shawl. “You are asking a great deal of probing questions,” she observed.
    “Just answer this one question, then. Why did you give yourself to me that night, a stranger?”
    The intimacy of his question flustered her, but she