The Scoundrel's Lover by Jess Michaels Read Free Book Online Page A

attitude was so mercenary and yet it was exactly how she was meant to feel if she wanted this exercise to be a success. A title at any cost.
    “And what of you?” her friend asked.
    “I’ve received a plethora of side glances,” Annabelle sighed, putting her misgivings aside. “But not many brave enough to approach a Notorious Flynn to dance. So my dance card is still only occupied by my brother’s name.”
    She looked across the room and found him there, talking with one of his new, titled friends, Lord Aldridge. Rafe was very handsome in his evening clothes and looked every inch the duke. And yet those around him still occasionally scrunched their noses up and whispered behind their fans.
    And why wouldn’t they? After all, this was the man who had, not three years ago, won the old family home of Lord Sternbridge in a scandalous game of cards, and then gleefully had every single room inside painted purple before he returned it—not to Sternbridge, but to his wife. The man who had raced horses through Hyde Park with their brother and damn near killed the future king.
    It seemed this would be more difficult than she had hoped.
    Gossip had destroyed the future of far loftier girls than her. And she hadn’t even begun to consider Crispin. In fact, she’d been trying not to consider him at all since two days before and her journey out to the Donville Masquerade. All she knew was that Crispin had not communicated with her since that night. Rafe had taken Marcus’s opinion that her brother would likely not even remember she had been there with him.
    “You are not smiling,” Georgina hissed.
    Annabelle jolted. Her tangled thoughts betrayed her again. She shrugged. “I’m only considering my circumstances, I fear. And I am worried about my brother.”
    Georgina’s glance circled the room until it settled on Rafe. “He seems fine.”
    “No, my other brother, Crispin.”
    Georgina’s lips thinned and she swung her look back on Annabelle. “Oh yes. Him . Annabelle, may I ask you a question?”
    Annabelle slowly nodded, uncertain if she truly wanted to be asked her friend’s question.
    “Do you want respectability?”
    Annabelle drew back. “How can you ask me that? Of course I do! That is why I’m here in this stuffy hall, standing in the corner like a ninny, waiting for some titled gentleman to decide I’m worthy.”
    When she said the words out loud, they made her flinch. Certainly they didn’t sound like the foundation to a long and happy relationship. But they didn’t seem to faze Georgina at all. She nodded, approval bright on her round face.
    “I didn’t mean to offend, my dear,” she reassured Annabelle. “I only ask because of course everyone knows of your family’s reputation and you must know you are fighting an uphill battle when it comes to acceptance.”
    Annabelle wrinkled her nose. “Thank you?”
    Georgina laughed. “An uphill battle, but one you can win, I think. You are very pretty and very rich, both of which will certainly catch a man’s eye, especially if you act with nothing but decorum.”
    Something deep inside Annabelle, that same something that had been titillated at the masquerade and intrigued by Marcus Rivers, began to scream. She somehow continued to smile and nod at her friend’s words.
    “May I offer a small bit of advice, though?”
    Annabelle drew in a long breath. “Of course. I am happy to hear any advice you may have for me on this subject. I truly appreciate your greater experience in this matter.”
    Georgina initially blushed at the compliment, but immediately she was back to a very businesslike demeanor. “Annabelle, you must not think of your brother. Either brother, really. You must worry only about yourself.”
    Annabelle shifted. Clearly Georgina didn’t have the kind of family connections she did. The idea that she could forget Crispin or Rafe was ludicrous. She adored them both, no matter how wild or humiliating their actions. No matter how