One Night of Sin by Gaelen Foley Read Free Book Online Page A

to the wind. Besides, there’s such a thing as luck, and lately mine’s all bad.”
    “You met me,” she pointed out, mustering up a saucy smile. “Perhaps your luck has changed.”
    He laughed aloud at her assertion. “I like your style, my girl.”
    “I am in earnest. I was born lucky. It’s true.”
    “If you’ll forgive my saying so, you don’t look all that lucky to me.” He pinched her cheek playfully, and then lowered his hand to his side.
    His frank words startled her, then she broke into rueful laughter, in which Lord Alec joined her. It felt so good to laugh and smile after the past few days’ ordeal. She shook her head, lowering her gaze.
What am I doing, flirting with him?
She couldn’t seem to help herself. Her blush deepened as she realized she was behaving like a romping country hoyden, exchanging banter with the fine lord, just asking to be ravished.
    Very forward, indeed. Dangerous, too. But it didn’t scare her. Not compared to the Cossacks. It only made her blush, and she was glad it was dark so he could not see the way his sensual stare turned her face pink.
    You’d better tell him it’s not going to happen,
her better sense warned. But then he’d leave, and now she found herself wondering what it would be like to kiss him.
    “What’s going on in that pretty head of yours?”
    She lowered her gaze, fighting a smile. “I have no interest in Lord Draxinger,” she murmured, peeking at him from beneath her lashes. “For whatever it might be worth.”
    “Ah. Well. There’s always my other friend, Rushford. The one you kicked.”
    “No!”
    “He’ll be a marquess one day.”
    “I don’t care. He’s a pagan and a brute!”
    “Yes, well—no. Not really. Very well. Sometimes.” He chuckled, attempting to defend his friend. “He’s just not used to girls who don’t swoon at his glance.”
    “Neither, I wager, are you,” she shot back, then bit her lip after the pert remark.
Oh, dear.
She cleared her throat. “My point being that, er,
you
didn’t act like a brute.”
    Lord Alec raised his eyebrows mildly. “No. Well. It does not matter, anyway, I’m afraid. I am sorry to say Lord Rushford is a . . . trifle cross at you at the moment. I fear the family line may be in peril after you nearly gelded him. Besides, he’s already got a mistress. On the other hand, of course, he will be bored of her by week’s end, so perhaps if you bide your time—”
    “No thanks.” Becky gave him an arch look and folded her arms across her chest. “What about that third fellow? Who was he?”
    “Fort? Yes, Lord Daniel Fortescue. Capital chap, but you don’t want him. He’s a mere younger son, like me.”
    “Younger son?”
    He nodded. “In my case, the youngest of five.”
    “Good heavens, you’ve neither fortune nor title?” she taunted with a smile.
    He shook his head sardonically. “No, but I do have a number of talents that I think would astonish you.”
    Something in his stare made her believe it. “Really?” she forced out weakly.
    “Mm.” He nodded.
    “Like what?”
    He flashed a reckless smile. “Come home with me and you’ll find out.”
    Lord, he was too much. She bit her lower lip, captured by his cobalt eyes. Truly, he was the most beautiful man she had ever seen in her life, an Adonis, nay, Apollo. A sun god with hair of tarnished gold and eyes as blue as the deepest ocean.
    She forced herself to look away, feeling breathless and slightly overheated.
    “Well?” he whispered. “What’s it going to be, girl?”
    “You’re very bad, aren’t you?” she murmured, stalling for time as she struggled to relocate her wits.
    “On the contrary, my love, I am extremely good,” he whispered. “Why do you fight this? Don’t you like me?”
    “I like you.”
    “I’m not going to beg.”
    “Lord Alec—”
    “I want you. Stop playing games.”
    She turned as red as the cross on the Union Jack. What in blazes had she gotten herself into? What was she to say? Then