To Bed a Beaty

Roslyn couldn’t help but smile. “Yet I hardly deserve all the blame, your grace. You were the one who propositioned me, I seem to recall. I did not seek your attention.”

“You should have stopped me before I kissed you.”

“I was too startled at being assaulted.”

“Assaulted?” he repeated, his eyebrow arching.

“Perhaps ‘assaulted’ is an exaggeration, but you could have taken me at my word when I declined your offer to become your paramour.”

His lips twitched. “I suppose I should beg your pardon for that.”

Her own smile turned rueful. “Well, I suppose you were justified in thinking I was that sort of female.”

“Indeed,” Arden said dryly. “Particularly since the annual Cyprians’ ball is held precisely for the purpose of conducting such transactions, and since I first saw you in Fanny Irwin’s company. The last thing I expected to find there was a virginal innocent. Believe me, I’m not in the habit of seducing genteel young ladies. In fact, I avoid them like the plague.”

“Well, thankfully nothing came of it, so you may congratulate yourself on your narrow escape. You are quite safe.”

He cocked his head. “Did you never consider that I might be concerned for your safety?”

“No,” Roslyn said curiously. “Why should you be?”

“You put your reputation at risk, and possibly yourself. You could have been truly assaulted that night. Had I been a man who wouldn’t take no for an answer, it would have ruined you.”

“I assure you I have learned my lesson, your grace. From now on I will be entirely satisfied with secondhand knowledge.”

“Secondhand?”

Roslyn considered him for a long moment. Judging by his current tone, the duke was prepared to be reasonable. If he understood why she had attended the ball…She took a slow breath, deciding to give him a frank explanation.

“If you must know, I asked Fanny to invite me that night so I could observe her success with her patrons. She has a remarkable talent for making men fall in love with her, and I hoped to learn her secrets.”

When Roslyn saw his eyebrow lift in surprise and skepticism, she plowed ahead, even though embarrassment stained her cheeks at having to confess her plan to a nobleman as imperious and arrogant as Arden. “You see, I want to make my own future husband fall in love with me, and observing courtesans at work seemed the best way to accomplish it.”

“I’m afraid I don’t see,” the duke said slowly.

“Well, you must admit that gentlemen fall in love with their mistresses far more often than with their wives.”

“I won’t dispute that, but what of it?”

“I wonder why that is. How do women like Fanny arouse a gentleman’s ardor? They must have some significant knowledge that genteel ladies do not. Knowledge that Fanny has promised to teach me.”

Arden simply stared at her. “So you are scheming to find a husband,” he finally said.

Roslyn was rather taken aback by his derisive tone. “I wish to find love in marriage, not merely a husband.”

“And I presume Haviland is the husband you have in mind?”

“Well…yes,” Roslyn admitted.

“And you intend to entrap him? Rather cold-blooded of you, is it not, sweeting? And to think I had decided you were an innocent, not a designing female.”

“I am not a ‘designing female,’ as you put it,” Roslyn replied stiffly. “Nor am I cold-blooded in the least. I hope to make Haviland fall in love, not entrap him.”

“Isn’t it the same thing?”

“I don’t believe so, your grace.” Roslyn’s own gaze narrowed. “But perhaps you wouldn’t understand, since Fanny tells me you are reputed to have no heart.”

Arden took a step closer, studying her intently, before finally shaking his head. “Of course I have a heart.” Surprisingly, his tone turned more amused than caustic. “I am kind to children, animals, the elderly. I just don’t believe in love.”

“Your cynical view is not surprising, I suppose, considering how often you have been targeted for matrimony.”

“So you see why I might feel sympathy for Haviland? I would no doubt be doing him a favor if I warned him of your scheme.”

Dismayed to think Arden might spoil all her plans, Roslyn searched his face. His eyes contained a gleam of mockery that made her suspect he was teasing her. “Please…you cannot tell him.”

“Oh, I won’t. That wouldn’t be gentlemanly of me.”

“And you won’t tell Marcus either about what I was doing that night? I don’t want to worry him when he is preparing to leave for his wedding trip with my sister.”

“I don’t want to worry him, either,” Arden agreed dryly. “I have no desire for him to discover that I tried to seduce his ward, however unwittingly.”

“I am not technically his ward any longer. He drew up a contract, granting us our legal independence.”

“So he told me, but he still would not be happy to learn of our prior encounter. I might end up facing him over pistols at dawn, God forbid. So you may count on me to keep your indiscretion a secret. I suppose your crime was not so terribly egregious, after all. And the danger is over now.”

Roslyn breathed a sigh of relief. “Thank you. I know I acted foolishly. And I promise I won’t be attending any more notorious functions like that again.”

“I will let it pass if you will.”

“Agreed, your grace. Indeed, I would prefer to forget that night ever happened.”

“Oh?” An odd little smile touched his lips. “Do you think you can forget?”

“I suppose not. No one has ever…”

“Ever what? Tried to seduce you?”

Roslyn wrinkled her nose in amusement. “Oh, several have tried, but they never succeeded. I have never allowed any man to…to kiss me as you did.” Or touch me like that, she couldn’t help thinking.

“I am gratified,” he said in that dry-as-dust tone.

When a silence fell between them, Roslyn suddenly became aware that dusk had fallen during the time they’d been talking on the terrace. She could hear the strains of music spilling through the doors from the ballroom, could smell the sweet scent of roses from the gardens below. With his face in shadow, though, she had trouble making out the duke’s expression.

Then he took a step closer, and she recalled the last time she had encountered him alone…what had happened between them.

He was gazing down at her mouth, and Roslyn found herself staring back at his, remembering how those sensual lips had kissed her breasts, suckled them.

A hot, biting arc of awareness flared between them.

As if he was remembering, too, his voice lowered to a husky murmur. “You shouldn’t make a practice of being alone with a gentleman after dark.”

“I know.” Her own voice was unsteady-and that was before he reached up to lightly touch her jaw, stroking with a fingertip.

Roslyn knew she should pull away, yet she couldn’t move. She stared up into his unforgettable eyes, wondering if he intended to kiss her again. The very air seemed to crackle all around them. She moistened her lips, half in dread, half in anticipation.

Then suddenly the duke dropped his hand. “You had best return to your ball.”

Roslyn curled her hands into fists and struggled to breathe evenly. “Y-yes, your grace.” Shaking herself, she started to move past him but then stopped. “Thank you for being so reasonable,” she said, her tone conciliatory.