Seducing the Regency Dom by Raven McAllan Read Free Book Online Page A

connected their box to the one adjacent.
He called a discrete "come in", and Jane and Stephen interrupted him
and Susanna. He ignored the look that passed between the ladies: knowing, intimate
and satisfied. It set alarm bells ringing inside his head.
    It also made him wonder just who was seducing whom,
and why.
    He knew what he was doing. He rather thought he'd
succumb before too long and offer for Susanna. The evening's activities had interested
him enough to know any coupling in the future would be with her and no one
else. If only she agreed and was happy with his desires. To judge by the last
few hours, she might well be. He took Susanna's arm.
    "Chin up and be haughty. Emulate Lady Danvers."
    Susanna grinned. "I do feel somewhat
disheveled, but I also want to put on a most superior grin and tell those poor
misguided fools who never experience what I just have, how sad and pitiful and
empty their lives must be."
    Tony burst out laughing. "I so agree."
    Stephen winked at him. It seemed Jane and Stephen
had also passed their time agreeably. Probably not giving
their full attention to the play. However, as a married couple, they
could at least be left alone without scandal. He had to protect Susanna's
reputation.
    The four of them proceeded to make a great show of
leaving, from the same box. Tony ignored the knowing looks and nudges from
their peers as he escorted Susanna out of the theatre and into his coach.
    Once inside the chat became general, and it was
obvious none of them had seen much of the performance after the interval. He'd
have to hunt the darned poem out and make sure he could make an educated
comment about it.   Damn Byron and his verses.
    He delivered Susanna to her door and bowed punctiliously
over her hand in front of a benign Major Domo. Once Stephen and Jane left him,
he dismissed the coachman and walked to clear his head. He'd missed something
regarding his dealings with Susanna, and he didn't know what. Even now as he
climbed into bed he still had no idea what elusive thought he should have. Why
would she be insistent he didn't offer for her and then give herself to him
without any terms and conditions? Something was wrong with that scenario.
    Several hours later he accepted he wasn't going to
sleep the sleep of the just and righteous, and lit his candle, to allow him to
descend the stairs to the library. A glass of very superior brandy, a perusal of
the newspaper and a think were in order.
    The embers of the library fire were glowing enough
for him to rekindle them. Soon the coals were blazing, and he was able to sit
out in his old leather chair, stretch his legs out in front of him, and swirl
the liquor around the bulbous glass.
    Tony always prided himself on his methodical mind,
but that seemed to have gone to the wind over the last few days. Instead he was
bemused and bewitched by a pair of fine green eyes and a redhead who he
suspected lived up to the temper said to go with the color of her hair. He
would never have said red hair appealed to him, especially a red haired muff,
but after their evening together it could become a firm favorite. Well, not the
muff, but the rest. He laughed under his breath. The seduction scenario was
appealing more and more.
    Tony began to plot.

Chapter
Eight
     
    An hour before Tony was due to collect her, Susanna’s
nerves were shot. Not that she would let anyone know that. She smoothed her
riding habit, twitched her hard won curls—straight hair was the spawn of the
devil—and strove not to bite her nails. Why did it take so long for the clock
to reach eleven?
    When, right on time, her mother's Major Domo
announced Tony had arrived Susanna was a nervous wreck.
    Did her rear look overlarge? Was her bosom smooth
under her gown? Was her lacy fichu still covering the red mark he'd left on
her? Should she wear the bonnet with the pale yellow rosebuds or the one with
the green ribbons? Should she have eaten more than one slice of bread, and made
sure her tummy didn't