Proper Scoundrel by Annette Blair Read Free Book Online Page A

break the rules.”
     
    She cocked that brow higher. “Need?”
     
    “More needs than you can imagine where you’re concerned,” he said, his voice rougher than he expected, peaking her interest, judging by the warmth in her gaze. A lifetime of needs, he very much feared.
     
    That he might have found his missing half brought sorrow. His responsibilities made a future for them impossible, yet, as fast as it came, he thrust away his pall of disappointment, determined to accept the gift of the moment. He could do worse, during his time with Jade, than to teach her that a man could be gentle.
     
    Besides, destiny had a way of taking a stand. He had to hope that it would continue to work in his favour.
     
    “You’ve been avoiding me,” he said.
     
    Jade made to speak and stopped, her silent stance reminding him that as her employer, she owed him no explanation.
     
    “I’m glad you eluded me, else I’d never have come,” he admitted. “I vow I’ll carry a picture of you like this in my mind until my dying day.” With a slow, scalding perusal, he caressed her once again, from top to toe, the way he’d like to caress her in truth.
     
    His purpose backfired and rushed his near-arousal to blatant life. Placing his foot on the dais, he rested his arm against his raised knee to disguise the evidence.
     
    “Did you want something special?” she asked, the gleam in her eye confirming he’d failed, that she perceived his distress and turned the tables.
     
    “You know I do.” He reached for a rosebud-topped garter, hesitated, and reached higher to stroke the lace band on her drawers.
     
    She shivered and shifted a hairsbreadth away.
     
    Glad he remained in the concealing position, Marcus mentally applauded her move and her instinct for self-preservation. “I heard you were going to the assembly this evening.”
     
    She nodded, a good deal less certain of herself than a moment before.
     
    “Good. I expect to be there myself, in the card room for the most part. But I’d like the honour of partnering you for the supper set.” He yearned for her company and needed to hold her in his arms, by God, for longer than a minute.
     
    He needed to ask her if she’d stuffed a dress and left it on the railroad tracks.
     
    Disgusted with himself, Marcus tossed a ruined neck-cloth and picked up another, annoyed at being caught up with a woman in a way he swore he never would. Staying at Peacehaven this evening would be the wise decision. Heading for home now, if he had to walk all the way to Seaford, would be wiser. Running would be wisest.
     
    He sighed. Nobody had ever accused him of being wise.
     
    Look at him, primping like a randy stripling. If his London cronies saw him, they’d run to the betting books. He only wished the odds against him weren’t so high.
     
    Of course, if his cronies had seen Jade this afternoon, they’d line up beside him. Line up? They’d trounce him, and each other, to get to her.
     
    Ivy stepped into his room and looked him up and down. “You’re dressed more appropriately for a London ballroom than an assembly card room.”
     
    Marcus threw down a second ruined neck-cloth and ignored his friend’s sarcasm, however astute. “I asked Garrett to come and stay for a while—as my brother who needs my care, though I didn’t mention the care part. Will you go and fetch him?”
     
    “I’ll go tonight, if you tell me you’re done with blaming yourself.”
     
    “I’m trying to be done with it, but sometimes I can’t help thinking, ‘What if I hadn’t challenged him?’”
     
    “You’ve been racing each other since you were old enough to sit on a horse. Brothers often do.”
     
    Marcus sighed. “In the logical part of my mind, I know that, but—”
     
    “That’ll do for now. I’ll bring him in the morning.”
     
    “Thank you. I think Peacehaven will be good for him.”
     
    “I think so too.” Marcus ruined another neck-cloth.
     
    “She just left,” Ivy