Scandal's Bride by Stephanie Laurens Read Free Book Online

there are some things not available locally, but we send out for them.”
    â€œNaturally,” he murmured. Shifting so he stood beside her, supposedly scanning the room, he glanced swiftly at her profile. The ice had melted significantly; with her flaming tresses and those gold sparks in her eyes, he felt sure there’d be a volcano beneath. For the first time since joining her, he focused intently on her face. “Your lips taste of roses, did you know?”
    She stiffened, but didn’t disappoint him; the look she shot him over the rim of her cup held fire, not ice. “I thought you would be gentleman enough to forget that incident entirely. Wipe it from your mind.”
    There was compulsion in her last words; Richard let it flow past him. He smiled lazily down at her. “You have that twisted. I’m far too much a gentleman to forget that incident, not even its most minor detail.”
    â€œNo gentleman would mention it.”
    â€œHow many gentlemen do you know?”
    She sniffed. “You shouldn’t have grabbed me like that.”
    â€œMy dear Miss Hennessy! You walked into my arms.”
    â€œYou shouldn’t have held me like that.”
    â€œIf I hadn’t held you, you would have slipped and fallen on your luscious—”
    â€œAnd you certainly shouldn’t have kissed me.”
    â€œThat was unavoidable.”
    She blinked. “Unavoidable?”
    Richard looked down, into her green eyes. “Utterly.” He held her gaze, then raised his brows. “Of course, you didn’t have to kiss me back.”
    Color rose in her cheeks; she looked back at her cup. “A moment of temporary insanity, immediately regretted.”
    â€œOh?”
    She glanced up, hearing danger in his tone, but wasn’t quick enough to stop him from stroking, not the nape of her neck, so temptingly exposed, but the coppery curls that caressed her sensitive skin. Unobserved by the company, Richard caressed them.
    And she shivered, quivered.
    Then hauled in a breath and thrust her empty cup at him. “I find the company entirely too fatiguing—and the journey here was boring in the extreme.” Her words were couched in sheet ice, her tone a chill wind blowing straight from the Arctic. “If you’ll excuse me, I believe I shall retire.”
    â€œNow, that, ” Richard said, taking the cup, “I didn’t expect.”
    She paused in the act of stepping away and shot him a suspicious glance. “What didn’t you expect?”
    â€œI didn’t expect you to run away.” He looked down at her as she studied him, and wondered how she did it. No hint of volcanic heat remained, not even a tiny glow of feminine warmth; she was encased in polar ice, colder than any iceberg. And the air had literally turned chill—the lady of the vale could give the ice-maidens of London lessons. He let the ends of his lips curve. “I’m only teasing you.”
    It came to him then—no other man had—no other man had ever dared.
    She frowned, measuring him and his words. Eventually, she exhaled. “I won’t go if you keep your hands to yourself and don’t mention our previous encounter. As I told you, that was a complete and utter mistake.”
    Catriona imbued the last words with conviction, but, as before, it had little effect. He seemed immune, as if he could deflect her suggestive powers easily—an observation that did little to settle her skittish nerves.
    When she’d walked into the drawing room and seen him there, his blue gaze direct, as if he’d been waiting for her, she had, for the first time in her life, literally felt faint. Dumbfounded. And . . . something else. Something more akin to searing excitement, something that had made her nervous, aware, set alive in a way she’d never been before.
    For the first time in a long while, she wasn’t sure she could control her world, her situation.