The Bed and the Bachelor by The Bed, the Bachelor Read Free Book Online

perform.
    Leaning her head back as she sat in the housekeeper’s room, she wondered if she had the strength to walk up the four flights of stairs to her bedchamber. Closing her eyes, she let the long, tiring day wash over her, her mind as exhausted as her body.
    She came awake with a start some while later, unsure of the time. Peering at the clock on her desk, she saw that it was a few minutes past two in the morning.
    She cupped a hand over an eye-watering yawn and she tried to shake off her drowsiness. Unless she wanted to spend the rest of the night in this chair and risk waking up stiff in the morning, she supposed she had best go to her bedroom. A scant few hours remained before she would have to begin a new day and start her duties all over again.
    Still, with everyone else slumbering, maybe this would be the perfect time to do a bit of searching?
    Dare I try?
    Taking up a candle, she made her way silently from the room.
    “G ’night, milord,” Morton called quietly from where he sat perched atop the coachbox.
    Lifting a hand, Drake gave a friendly wave, then started up the steps to the front door. He listened to the fading clip-clop of the horses’ hooves on the dark, silent street as he slipped his fingers inside his waistcoat. Digging briefly inside its silk-lined pocket, he located the house key he carried for just such occasions and applied it to the lock.
    He knew the servants would all be abed since he’d long ago dispensed with the practice of keeping a footman stationed at the door until his arrival. What was the point in making one of them stay up half the night when even he didn’t know what time he would return?
    Even Waxman, who was dedicated to a fault, had stopped waiting up for him years ago. Instead, he’d adopted the habit of laying out fresh towels, Drake’s robe and setting a tin of water on the hearth to stay warm for Drake’s use whenever he came in for the evening.
    Smothering a yawn, he went inside, then turned to lock the door behind him. The pleasant quiet wrapped around him like a coverlet, cool and dark, the house peaceful in its stillness.
    It was just what he wanted after the hot, bright gleam of Vanessa’s town house, with its red silk walls, crystal chandeliers and profusion of gilded mirrors. Then there were the large, ornate cages she kept throughout the house, filled with a variety of chirping yellow canaries and the jewel-toned songbirds that she adored with unabashed affection.
    Not that he didn’t enjoy her lush abode, with its comfortable sofas, perfumed sheets and soft feather mattress. Even so, when it came to sleeping, he preferred to do so in his own bed.
    “Are you sure you won’t stay the night?” Vanessa had murmured from where she lay against the rumpled bedclothes, her creamy white arms stretched above her head in a way that emphasized the ripe curve of her full, pink-tipped breasts.
    He shook his head and reached for the shirt he’d tossed to the floor in a passionate haze not long after his arrival. “It’s late and time I went home.”
    “If you prefer.” She stretched like a cat, allowing one of her rounded thighs to shift so that he could easily see everything he was passing up. “Then again, it’s not as if you’ve a wife waiting for you at home. If you let me, I promise I’ll make you glad you stayed.”
    He’d laughed and pressed a languid kiss to her palm. “I’m sure you would, since you’ve already made me glad several times tonight. But I have work.”
    “Yes, your work,” she said in an understanding tone. “I know how important it is to you.”
    “You’re right. It is.” He stepped into his trousers, fastening them before taking up his discarded cravat.
    Long moments passed in silence, Vanessa reaching to pull the sheet over herself before she reclined once more against the pillows. “You know, Drake, I wonder if there will ever be a woman who is more important to you than your work?”
    “Do you?” He raised a considering