Ruin Me Please by Nichole Matthews Read Free Book Online

her to escape from all the rules and regulations expected of her by s o ciety. 
    The s weet smells filled her senses.  The butterflies fluttered above. The buzzing bees provided t he i r own special symphony.  What others considered weeds , Poppy considered bea u tiful flowers . C herry blossoms, bluebells, daisies , sunflowers, violets, even a common musk thistle grew among the magnificent assortment.   Wayward Ivy completed the garden ; c overing the stone wall that surrounded her secluded hideaway.  As she walked down the rows, it was as if she pushed her way through a flower tunnel. 
    No particular order. 
    No particular rules. 
    She pushed her way through the flowering mass and sat on one of the wrought-iron benches under a n isolated trellis, shut her eyes and just breathed.  Her senses so ared and her thoughts took over as she sat in the serene atmosphere of her garden a bsorbing the e s sence of life around her .  
    Q uite obvio us ly many believed her past three seasons were failure s .  Poppy stre n uously disagreed.  She had figured out the most important aspect s of mar riage w hat she desired in a husband and what she did not. 
    How many times had the ton compared her to a diamond?   Had anyone ever stop to consider that maybe she did not want to be a diamond?  She like d rubies, emeralds and sa p phires equally as well.  Sapphires br ought out the color of her eyes anyway .    Besides, i t was not as if she did not ‘take’.  Why , she had three rather dramatic proposals of marriage and undying love her first week out alone .   She could not even count the amount of hothouse bouquets she had r e ceived.  Boring and overdone .   She despised hothouse flowers .  
    Not one of her suitors had even bothered to find out what flower she preferred.   None even made an exerted e f fort to get to know her .   Her wants, her desires, her likes.  They just expected her to be an exact repl i ca of ev ery other girl who came out year after year after year.  A beautiful vacuous female they could tuck neatly away in the cou ntry allowing them the o p portunity to live their lives of d e pravity elsewhere.  That was exactly wh at le bon ton expected of her.  S he rolled her eyes caustically , to make an exceptional match to some lackluster stranger just because he had a title and she had the blunt . 
    Well she had other plans .  Loftier plans.  She planned to chat over breakfast with her husband while reading The Times j ust as she had done with her papa and now with her brot h ers.  She required her future husband to have some expectation that she had a brain and that she c ould use it .  She d id have the ability to partake in intelligent conversations. 
    She desired passion.  She had been bored to tears with the men who courted her in London within five minutes in their company, let alone contemplat ing being with them for a lifetime .    Not in a million years was she going to a ccept that kind of life. 
    She dreamed of a love match just as Piper did or no match at all .   A n enigmatic smile covered her lips.  S he refused to be just another o rnament on another man’s arm and that was f i nal .   Luckily , she could afford to be finicky .  
    An expected interruption intruded on her quiet reflections. 
    “Georgie!” She cried.   “Where have you been?” 
    Poppy’ s tiny pug companion joined her during her morning ritual.  He bounced and yipp ed in a frenzied ex u berance for life.  She leaned towards Georgie, snuggled him close to her bosom and embraced h im with giggles. 
    “Georgie, what have you been into?”   Her eyes narrowed.   “I can tell by the look in your eyes that you have been an ornery little boy . ” 
    G eorgie gazed adoringly back at her as he delivered little wet kisses on her upturned face .  
    D eclan froze after ducking under the flower filled archway.   He blinked ; sure that she was a figment of his imagination.   He couldn’t catch his