The Study of Seduction: Sinful Suitors 2 by Sabrina Jeffries Read Free Book Online Page B

forgotten about me by now.”
    How could anyone forget about Clarissa? She was vibrant, alive. Everything most men wanted in a woman.
    Most men. Not him.
    Liar.
“Clearly he has not.” He gazed steadily at her. “Was he always like this?”
    She shook her head. “Not at first. He simply courted me like any other gentleman. I—I suppose he took my flirtatiousness for encouragement.”
    “No,” he said firmly. The words reminded him too much of his mother’s for comfort. “A gentleman always proceeds with caution until he’s sure of his reception.”
    “He’s French. Perhaps he doesn’t know how to behave.”
    Edwin snorted. “He was born and raised here, was he not? He knows the rules. He simply chooses to ignore them. You cannot possibly think that bribing a footman to lie about your mother being ill and then accosting you alone, with no chaperone, is considered acceptable behavior anywhere, here
or
in France.”
    “No, I suppose not. Though when he proposed and I refused him, he accused me of leading him on.” She lifted her gaze to Edwin. “I swear I did not.”
    “Of course not.” He hesitated before raising a delicate subject. “Why
did
you refuse him, anyway, if he’d behaved honorably up until that point?”
    She worried her lower lip with her teeth. “He kept trying to get me alone, and he sent me private notes. I don’t like that sort of . . . behavior. He always had something, well,
off
about him. Not quite normal, you know?”
    “I do know.” Edwin had known another man like that. The one who had ruined his mother’s life. “Which is why it’s imperative that you not go offalone again for any reason. Take me with you if you must venture out. It’s best to err on the side of caution, since the man is obviously behaving irrationally.”
    An anxious frown crossed her brow as she whirled on him. “True, but you shouldn’t have told him we were engaged. I have no intention of marrying you.”
    He stiffened. “Of course not.”
    As if she realized what she’d said, she winced. “I’m sorry. I didn’t mean that the way it—”
    “It’s fine. I know how you feel about me.” He was grumpy Edwin, the fellow whose company no woman could abide for long. The man who knew love was a lie.
    He would resent the reputation, except that it was all true.
    “It-it’s not you,” she said hastily. “I have no intention of marrying
anyone
. That’s the other reason I didn’t consider accepting Durand’s proposal.”
    “Right.”
    She was merely trying to soothe his pride. The damned woman was too softhearted for her own good.
    “I’m being honest,” she persisted. “It has nothing to do with you or—”
    “I was only trying to get him away from you, devil take it! I didn’t mean anything by it.” He rubbed the back of his neck. “I don’t know why you’re making such a fuss.”
    She swallowed hard. “Because Durand will run off and tell everyone, and then the two of us will be placed in a difficult—”
    “He wouldn’t do that. It wouldn’t suit his plan.”
    Clarissa gaped at him. “What plan?”
    “To win you. If he tells the world that we’re engaged, he lessens his own chances at getting you back.”
    “He has
no
chance of getting me back.”
    “I know, but
he
clearly doesn’t know that. Or acknowledge it. And he has to realize that ending an engagement publicly would be messy for us; he’ll assume that we’d rather marry than cause a scandal. So it’s better for him to keep it secret, too, in hopes that he can end it privately by winning you. That’s the better strategy.”
    “Do you always think in terms of strategies?”
    Edwin shrugged. “I’m a chess player. And in life, as in chess, strategy is everything. Durand knows that. So, as long as we give him enough evidence to believe that we’re telling the truth, while at the same time not alerting the rest of the world to it, we’ll be fine.”
    “You’re suggesting that we—”
    “Pretend to be