The Seducer by Madeline Hunter Read Free Book Online Page B

artist into a submissive servant.
    No one had ever asked Diane’s own opinion of the garments.
    She walked over to a long mirror and peered at herself. The dark violet set off her pale arms and neck. The square neckline’s low cut revealed more body than she had ever left uncovered. The cream lace made her skin even whiter, and the high waist emphasized the swell of her breasts.
    Dark eyes looked out from a delicate, almost childish face. Those eyes appeared too large and a little frightened, and revealed that the stranger was hardly a worldly woman, despite the sophisticated finery.
    The mirror faced the window. A reflected movement caught her eye. Daniel no longer looked out at the city, but at her. Since he stood off to one side, he did not realize that she could see him doing so.
    His expression stunned her. Something had entered his eyes and veiled his features. Something vaguely dangerous and utterly mesmerizing. It both hardened him and softened him at the same time.
    Her heart rose to her throat. She could not look away, even though something inside her warned her to run as fast as she could.
    She smoothed at the silk, to hide her reaction. In the reflection, his gaze slowly drifted down to the forbidden lace at the hem, then up again. It reached her hair, piled artfully in an evening style appropriate to this silk. Her hand instinctively reached for it.
    Jeanette must have seen her gesture. “There is too much of it. While attractive like that, the fashion now is closer to the head. We will have it cut.”
    “No.” The command, and it was definitely a command, came from the only man in the chamber.
    Diane turned. “I think that I prefer the lace on the hem. I would like to keep it.”
    Jeanette cocked an eyebrow in the direction of her brother. The modiste began explaining how the lace had been a mistake.
    Those devil eyes flashed awareness that he had just been challenged. “If it is what you prefer, of course it can stay. It is your gown, after all. You can have anything you want.”
    Diane returned to the back chamber to don the next extravagance. She really did not care about the lace. Nor would this garment truly be hers. This fitting was making that clear in ways that she could not define very clearly.
    She thought of the various items that would start pouring into her wardrobe. Outfits for morning and afternoon, for calling on friends that she did not have, and for attending dinners for which she did not receive invitations.
    She suspected that the friends and invitations would be arranged and chosen as carefully as the gowns themselves. Soon she would be wearing this wonderful wardrobe. From morning until night, she would be the stranger in the looking glass.
    Someone’s doll.
    She remembered Daniel’s expression in the looking glass, and how magnetic it had made him. If he had lifted his hand and beckoned her, she might have been incapable of not obeying whatever he requested. She had no evidence that he required anything at all from her, but still . . .
    He will seduce you with luxury. . . .
    She gazed at the pile of gowns. She should march out there and refuse them all. She should leave that house. She should . . .
    The modiste’s assistants held out a yellow muslin walking dress. The buttery fabric was more lovely than silk. They began to slide its narrow length onto her body.
    Daniel would like this one. Its simplicity would please him.
    Those thoughts popped into her head, evoking a smile.
    Her reaction dismayed her.

chapter
5

    T he day after the visit to the dress shop, Jeanette took to her bed with a headache and Diane found herself with nothing to do. It was a fair, brisk day, but not very cold, so she borrowed a book from the library and went out to the garden to read.
    She had only turned two pages when she sensed an intrusion in the garden’s peace. Looking up, she found Daniel watching her. He stood in front of a row of dormant rose bushes, their bare branches creating a frame of