When His Kiss Is Wicked by Kaitlin O'Riley Read Free Book Online

hold of Colette’s arm. “If you would excuse us, please.”
    Pulling his niece aside rather forcefully, he moved her behind a large and leafy potted plant, but Lucien could still hear their conversation due to her uncle’s harsh tone of voice.
    “I have been looking for you for the last twenty minutes. Where is Juliette?” he demanded impatiently, his anger evident in his manner.
    “She’s dancing.”
    “With whom?”
    Colette hesitated before answering. “With Lord Eddington.”
    “Good God! I should have expected something like that from her. Not only is Eddington a bastard, but he also has a notorious reputation. Did I not give you both explicit instructions that you were only to dance with gentlemen I approved of first? Did I not?”
    “Yes, Uncle Randall.”
    “And yet here I find you with Lord Waverly, whose reputation is only slightly better than that of Eddington’s.”
    Lucien cringed at that comment. He was not completely innocent of all the feats ascribed to him, but the talk about him was highly overexaggerated. For the first time, the idea that he was someone a young woman might be warned away from left him feeling slightly unsettled. Would this hinder his search for a prospective bride?
    “If you expect to marry well, you must be extremely careful. Lord Eddington and Lord Waverly may flirt with you, but they will never marry you.”
    The uncle continued to berate Colette, yet maddeningly his voiced lowered into a fierce whisper so that Lucien could no longer make out what he was saying.
    He fought an impulse to intervene and protect Colette from her pompous uncle, yet he knew that with his reputation, to have him defending her would do little to help her cause. And though he was loathe to admit it, he agreed with Randall Hamilton, for he was absolutely correct. If he wanted his nieces married, then Colette and her sister should not be seen flirting with the likes of Eddington and himself. Lucien felt some relief that there was a male relative looking after the pretty Hamilton sisters after all. Colette was managing a bookshop on her own, which in itself was problematic. She needed her uncle to watch over her. And Lord knew that the reckless Juliette desperately needed someone to take her in hand.
    No, Lucien did not care for the way Colette’s uncle treated her, but had the Hamilton sisters been in his charge, he would be giving them similar orders.
    He glanced toward the potted plant and watched as Randall Hamilton marched off with Colette firmly in his grip. Ignoring the niggling sense of unease in his chest when he thought of her, Lucien forced his attention back to the quiet ladies sitting along the wall.
    He had a job to do. He needed to find a wife. And he knew without a doubt that his search for a woman who met his list of requirements would not involve love at first sight.
    In fact, it would not have anything to do with love at all.

Chapter Four
     

Business or Pleasure?
     
    “I don’t even care for Jeffrey Eddington in a romantic way,” Juliette declared hotly in her defense. “I just wanted a bit of fun. I thought balls were supposed to be fun. None of the other gaseous windbags I met last evening were any fun at all. And I just wanted to show Uncle Randall that I don’t have to do everything he says.”
    Colette fought the urge to snap at her sister and instead slammed the small stack of books she had been holding onto the table in front of her.
    She had spent the entire evening at the Hayvenhursts’ ball being lectured by her bombastic uncle, while Juliette flirted outrageously with or scorned any male that came within distance of her. Colette had been so angry by the time they got home, she didn’t trust herself to speak civilly. Here it was the next day, and she was still having a difficult time of it.
    “But right now we do have to do everything he says, Juliette!”
    “I know that,” Juliette conceded ruefully, “but I just cannot bear all his orders and