One Scandalous Kiss by Christy Carlyle Read Free Book Online

despite the restraint of her corset, as if the weight of all that her father had left her—his poorly managed business and completely neglected obligations—had finally flattened her.
    “I thought we could get out from under the debt.”
    Jack made a tsking sound. “By borrowing more?”
    The word borrow brought Kitty Adderly and her ridiculous bargain to mind. Jess closed her eyes to block out the memory of her foolishness, but shutting her eyes only heightened the memories. She saw the gas lit swatches of bright color in the gallery, the ladies and gentlemen in all their finery, and the black-haired figure in the midst of it all—a man with the coldest eyes and the warmest lips.
    “Did you hear me, miss?”
    Jessamin pushed the memories away and looked up at her employee.
    “I’m sorry, Jack. What was it you said?”
    “You’re not going to faint on me like some proper lady, are you?”
    “I don’t faint. And I’m sitting down. Now, what was it you said?”
    Jack averted his eyes and scuffed the toe of his boot across the floor. “It was hard enough to say the first time.”
    “Out with it, Jack. I can take it.” If bad news had to come, let it all be at once.
    “Mr. Harker’s offered me a position.”
    Jessamin gasped, and Jack’s next words tumbled out quickly.
    “I would never have considered it, you understand. Not unless I knew there was no chance of work at the shop. I would have stayed loyal to you, miss, just as I was to your father.”
    Jess didn’t wait for him to finish before wrapping the older man in a quick embrace. When she pulled back, it was clear she’d embarrassed him, but her joy at his news was too much to contain.
    “Jack, that is the best news you could have given me. Nothing worried me more than the thought of leaving you without employment.”
    A bit of the morning’s tensions began to seep away. A bit of the hollowness had eased. She could breathe again, and she sucked in a greedy breath, letting the relief of knowing Jack would be all right ease a bit of the guilt she felt over losing the shop.
    She beamed at Jack and pressed a palm against her chest, attempting to quell the ache there. Breathe. Focusing on the rhythm of her slow-to-steady heartbeat, Jess noticed another sensation—a fluttering, a lightness, as if a pressure on her chest had subsided. It was anxiety, surely. Her future had never been more uncertain.
    With his usual practicality, Jack fixed on the biggest question of all.
    “I’ll be fine, miss. Please don’t worry yourself about me. But what about you? What will you do now the shop is closed?”

 
    Chapter Five
    T HOUGH TH E W E A T H E R had been dreadful during his entire stay in London, on the morning following the incident, it suddenly turned warm and unseasonably bright. The sun rose with an extraordinary show of color and hung in a sky as clear and blue as a robin’s egg. Sleep had eluded him, and Lucius witnessed every moment of the sunrise’s bold display and had been awake, turning and tossing and checking the mantel clock far too often, during all the hours of evening’s dark before it.
    He’d returned to his sister’s town house and consumed more than enough brandy to assure a sound slumber, but the moment his body was prone and his eyes slid shut, the scent of violet water assailed him. His thoughts kept tangling in strands of auburn hair. Auburn hair released from its pins and cascading in waves over the shoulders of Miss Jessamin Wright. Miss Wright, whose mouth was full and delicious and had moved so sweetly against his own.
    He blamed his ruminations on the brandy. Romanticizing the woman was utter folly. She’d behaved outrageously. Appallingly. Yet as Lucius considered just how outrageous she’d been, his arousal grew in equal measure. And the relentless ticking of the clock did nothing but set his mind turning. And despite admonishing himself, reviewing the whole scandalous matter with logic and reason, and vowing to set it