Three Weddings and a Murder by Courtney Milan, Tessa Dare, Carey Baldwin, Leigh LaValle Read Free Book Online Page B

she didn’t yet see herself.
    He rubbed his thumb over her lips. Pink as petals, and just as soft as he remembered. God, he wanted to taste her.
    But he didn’t want to steal that taste. He wanted an invitation.
    He watched for the slightest signal of assent. If she only moistened her lips, or swayed toward him a fraction… He would even accept a gentle tilt of the head.
    She touched his lapel.
    Hallelujah . That would do.
    His pounding blood rejoiced as he drew her close. He forced himself to go slowly despite the mad, juvenile frolic in his loins. He’d waited too long to rush this now.
    “Mr. Wright, I…” Her brows pulled together in a slight frown, and he found it adorable. “I can’t call you Mr. Wright. Everything about you—everything about this —is so very wrong.”
    “Then call me Harry,” he suggested, tilting her face to receive his kiss. “Like my lovers do.”
    “Harry!”
    Harry froze, his lips mere inches from pink-petal paradise. Eliza went rigid in his arms.
    From some distance away, the female voice floated over the garden hedges. “Harry, are you out here?”
    Damn.
    Damn and deuce and blast.
    “Again?” Eliza pushed out of his embrace, her eyes narrowing to slits. “You scoundrel. What’s the matter? Doesn’t Alderfield Lodge have a morning room? You’ve expanded to trysts in the garden now?”
    “It’s not like that,” he told her, inwardly cursing. “Not this time. I swear it.”
    “Go.” She shoved at him. “Go to her, before she finds us here.”
    He stood, pushing both hands through his hair as he stepped out from the shadows. “Yes, Lady Alderfield?”
    The lady in question halted in the path. “You wanted to know if Brentley made his way to the card room. Well, he has.”
    Damn it. He’d been hoping to avoid this tonight. There went the evening.
    Harry muttered his thanks.
    Lady Alderfield glanced about the garden, then gave him a slow, seductive smile. “You’re in no hurry, then?”
    He sighed. He wasn’t the least bit tempted by her. Hadn’t been in years.
    “I’ll be along in a moment.” He staggered purposely and let his voice lengthen into a slurred drawl. “Just walking off my drink.”
    He dropped one hand to his breeches falls, giving the impression that he meant to relieve himself in the hedges. That did the trick. When he checked over his shoulder, Lady Alderfield had gone.
    Eliza emerged from the shadowed nook.
    She gathered her shawl and drew it tight about her lovely shoulders. “You’re not drunk,” she said. “Why do you pretend to be drunk?”
    “Why do you pretend to be good?” He scratched the back of his neck and cast a wistful glance at the marble bench, shrouded in darkness. “I don’t suppose we could return to that moment, even if I made the attempt.”
    She fair hooted with laughter, like some pale, long-necked bird of the night. “No. I don’t suppose we could.”
    Just as well. He needed to get inside, and quickly.
    “I’ll take my leave of you, then. Fare thee well, Miss Eliza. I wish you safe journeys and much happiness. Will you wish me the same?”
    She turned her gaze to the path.
    “Well, at least promise to hate me for all eternity,” he teased. “I so enjoy collecting those impassioned vows from young women.”
    Harry knew he was being an ass, but he couldn’t help it. Perhaps it would be easier this way.
    “Don’t fret, my dear,” he said, more kindly. “You’ll have the better of me someday. We’re bound to cross paths again, and I’m invariably provoking.”
    With a bow, he turned his back on her, striding toward the house. He could feel her watching him go.
    “Wait,” she called.
    Harry stopped dead in his tracks. Because when she called to him like that, he couldn’t do anything else.
    A flurry of light footsteps on slate brought her to his side. When she reached for him with both arms, he went weightless in his boots.
    She didn’t embrace him. Nor kiss him, in some fumbling, innocent way. No,