Wicked Seduction by Jade Lee Read Free Book Online Page B

by you. You have my word on it.”
    She shook her head. “No, Uncle. No .”
    He pursed his lips, staring hard at her. “I approached you too early. I can see that now. You’ll see the right of it at the end of the Season.”
    She pushed up to her feet, not knowing where she meant to go, but she couldn’t simply sit there anymore. “I’ll meet someone this Season,” she said suddenly, the words like a vow. “I’ll be married before Rose!”
    He pushed himself to his feet, his eyes calm and rather kind. It was the kindness that brought tears to her eyes. He really did think she had no other possibilities.
    “You’re a sensible girl, Maddy. Too smart to marry the first rake that offers in his cups and too used to the comforts that I give you to marry a footman. You’ll see soon enough that I have the right of it. I just approached you too soon, is all.”
    She pressed her hand to her chest as if she could hold in the pain there. It ached beneath her palm. In truth, her entire soul hurt. “I’ll meet someone.”
    “Maybe,” he said with a shrug. “Maybe not.”
    Then he caught her chin in the barest caress. It was brief because she pulled away, but she felt it with a clear sense of revulsion.
    “Don’t pull away too quick, Maddy,” he said softly. “I’m an excellent lover. I can show you a great many things.” And with that, he sketched her a brief bow and left.

Chapter 3
    Kit grimaced as he listened to the conversation outside his door. He didn’t want to hear it. He wanted to be left alone to give Alex the dressing down the boy deserved. The boy had attacked an earl! Yes, Michael had richly deserved a beating and more, but it wasn’t Alex’s place to deliver it. And worse, Kit knew that the fury hadn’t come from any sense of justice, but from a raw place of pain that simply struck out whenever the boy lost control. The pain was understandable. The lack of control, however, could not be tolerated. And so he had to tell the boy. But not if they sat there listening to yet another earl’s evil manipulations.
    Kit tried to shut out the sound, but no thin scrap of a door could silence the conversation on the other side. What did he care if some girl was forced into becoming her uncle’s mistress? It happened all the time, even to the angel with the beautiful voice.
    He didn’t care. And yet, despite everything, he sat on the bed and listened. He heard everything, from Uncle Frank’s solicitation to his implied threat. He caught—or his imagination filled in—his angel’s soft gasp of shock when she finally understood her choices. And he even listened to her soft sobs after the bastard left her alone.
    He heard it, but he didn’t move. And neither did Alex, though the boy was like a taut bow string ready to snap. And damn if Kit weren’t considering the same thing. Another rescue, another lost lamb.
    He forced himself to lean back on the bed, trying to ease the agony in his leg as he closed his eyes. It was a cruel world, and Kit already had a charge in Alex. He couldn’t afford another.
    “Sir—” Alex said, but Kit cut him off before the boy could say more.
    “Mistress to an earl is a fine place for a woman and better than most marriages. Neither of us can offer her anything better.”
    Alex hesitated, clearly thinking it through. Then he sat back down with a heavy sigh. And in time—an eternity of time—the angel’s sobs quieted. Kit released his breath, stunned by the amount of tension her tiny gasps had created in his body. He heard her move from the salon. Did he imagine the quiet determination he heard in her footsteps? Or did he merely pray that it was true? That somehow, the angel would find a way to rescue herself?
    Either way, he reminded himself, he had enough to worry about without her. An entire crew waited at the dock for new orders. Alex needed discipline, and Kit needed money. What did he care about one lost angel? Nothing, he told himself. Nothing at all.
     
     
    He was