Tempting Miss Allender (Regency Rakes 3) by Wendy Vella Read Free Book Online Page A

hers simply flared higher.
    “He must not be something that hovers over you, but something that offers warmth in your heart!”
    “Stop!” he roared. “For the love of God, just leave it alone, Patience.”
    The emotion drained from her face, and once again she was composed.
    “Forgive me if I have spoken out of turn, but Anthony was very dear to me.” She pulled from his arms. “And for a brief moment I forgot...” She fell silent, not finishing the sentence.
    Mathew grabbed her arm as she began to walk away and spun her to face him. “Forgot what? That we are not friends, and that although you say you have forgiven me for my behavior seven years ago, in fact you have not, and possibly never will?”
    She clamped her lips together, looking like the child he’d once known; however, it did not make him smile. “It is childish to ignore someone when they ask you a question.”
    She tried to pull away from him, but he stepped closer to her, cupping one of her cheeks in his hand.
    “Release me, my lord.”
    “Admit the truth and I will.”
    “I must admit this, yet you will not admit that the pain of Anthony’s death is haunting you.”
    She had never backed down from him, he remembered, looking at the defiant tilt of her jaw.
    “Impatience,” he whispered, lowering his head, he brushed his lips over the seam of hers. Her gasp allowed him in, and he deepened the kiss, taking her mouth with his in a slow, heated kiss. He wanted this woman, and feeling the lush curves of her body pressed to his was only building the fire inside him.
    Her fists came up to his chest, but instead of pushing him away, she grabbed the lapels of his jacket. God, she has a beautiful mouth , he thought, holding her closer. Her breasts were crushed to his chest, making his hands ache to travel upwards and caress their curves. Cupping the back of her head, he deepened the kiss again, exploring the delicate contours of her mouth. The soft scent of honeysuckle wrapped around his senses and he felt off-balance suddenly, as if the world had tilted slightly while he was not looking.
    “No!” She wrenched free, stumbling backwards.
    “Patience.”
    He tried to follow, but she turned and ran from him, across the room, her heels flicking the hem of her skirt, until she reached the doorway. Once there, she turned to look at him once more.
    “Please don’t do that again…please.”
    Before he could answer, she’d left the room.
    Mathew stood looking up at his ancestors, letting his body cool down after the inferno Patience had created inside him. She asked too much of him, asking him to stay away from her—especially now, when for the first time in a long while he was interested in a woman. And not just any woman. The woman who had been his childhood friend.
    He made himself walk slowly across the room and back as he marshaled his scattered thoughts.
    His memories of Patience Allender had always been warm and sunny, and many had included both her and Anthony, all wrapped up in a warm, painful bow. She had been a part of Mathew’s life that did not hold responsibility, but fun and laughter and the carefree days of childhood. It saddened him that he had allowed those memories to become twisted with his grief, yet he had no way of separating them.
    She had challenged him about Anthony and her belief that he had not grieved, but Mathew did not think he would ever be ready to acknowledge what was inside him. He couldn’t, because he feared it would destroy him.
    He knew that getting close to her was going to open a floodgate of emotions inside him, he realized as he made his way back to their families—emotions that had been dormant for so long, yet the thought of walking away from her again was no longer an option.
     
    Simon and Louis had arrived, he saw when he returned, and he found Patience across the room, greeting his brother-in-law. She did not look his way, but gave Simon a polite curtsey as if she had not a care in the world, and as if