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

rumble? How mortifying that would be. Had Tony changed
his mind? The questions jumped around in her mind, all shouting to be answered.
    She'd railed at her mother's interference and
insistence she should be subservient to Tony during their dealings, and defer
to his every utterance. Somehow she didn't think her mother and she thought of subservience
in the same manner.
    "I will treat him as I think fit," Susanna
said finally.
    The dowager had narrowed her eyes. "Have you
been reading that abominable book by that wretched Wollstonecraft woman
again?" she asked Susanna. Suspicion laced her voice, which rose alarmingly.
"She is abnormal. Trying to put all sorts of silly ideas
into young women's minds."
    Susanna sighed. She admired Mary Wollstonecraft, and
thought her ideas that women were not inferior to men, just less well educated
were sound. However, it would do no good postulating that to Mama.
    "Mama, Mary Wollstonecraft has been dead these twenty
years," Susana said. "And all I have ever done is read the copy of her Vindication of the Rights of Women I
found in the library. Our library, where you told me I should go to improve my
mind."
    Her mother snorted, and Susanna choked back a
snigger. Truly, when her mother got irate she looked like a gobbling turkey. The
snort brought to mind a horse in full flight.
      Was it polite
to compare your mother with an animal? The remembrance of those few minutes,
and how her Mama had added that Susanna must be all that was amiable, was
enough to set her mood to contrary.
    Tony entered the room as she picked up her gloves
and reticule. He looked her up and down and smiled. She mistrusted it.
    "That's it. I knew this wretched hat made me
look like the hothouses at Kew." Susanna rolled her eyes. "I blame my
Mama… she insisted I look ladylike. Pah, a ridiculous idea. It is not possible."
    Tony laughed and kissed her wrist. "Eminently possible, my dear. You look ravishing and
outshine any hothouse anywhere. Though I'd prefer you without
that apology for a cover-up." He flicked the lace at her neck.
"I assume it's necessary due to my, shall we say, attentions?"
    She nodded, and her skin heated under his amused
glance. "I thought I’d better, and according to Mama this darned fichu is
the height of fashion. I say it’s the height of itchiness."
    He ran his finger under the edge, and stroked her
skin. His fingers left a trail of arousal across the softness of her bosom.
Susanna shivered. Of course he noticed. "Not cold, are you?"
    She shook her head. Coherent words were beyond her.
    "Good. And I will take it upon myself to find a
fichu less likely to mark your softness, my dear. The only marks I wish to see
there are mine. Shall we go?" Before Susanna could think of an appropriate
retort, he took her hand—something he did often—and with a slight pinch on her arm,
tucked it in his. "Midwood is walking my horses, but I don't like to leave
them idle for too long."
    "Indeed not." Susanna found her voice, and
matched her tread to his. "Prime cattle have to take first thoughts. Mere
women are far down the list." He stumbled and she realized how terrible her
pronouncement sounded.
    "Argh, my lord, that sounds old catty, and I
didn't mean it like that."
    Tony stopped walking and stared at her. "Did
you not?" he stroked her cheek. Then under the watchful eye of two footmen
and a maid, he pinched her earlobe, before he sent the tiny pearl on a gold
thread that hung from it spinning.
    Susanna bit her lip, as the pearl danced near her
skin. It seemed such a personal thing to do. Damn him. Now half the household will have us bedded by midnight, and
the other half betrothed. It will not happen like this.
    "Stop that…the servants are taking bets on what
we're about to do." How could she sound so sharp-tongued? "No, my
lord, I didn't mean to be so spiteful. I have had a session with my Mama
earlier. It's enough to make anyone sound shrewish."
    He nodded to the doorman, and ushered her down the
steps