A Lady Dares Read Online Free PDF

start. Hart also wanted to get his hands on the plans to Sutton’s last yacht just as badly for the future of his more private, less legitimate side of business with Tyne. Tyne could have the yacht. He wanted the plans. The keyto any business venture was the ability to reproduce success.
    ‘I’m thinking,’ Damien drawled, his dark eyebrows looking particularly satanic in the coffee house’s uneven lighting, ‘our Miss Sutton is not going quietly. Nothing she’s done in the last months has suggested she is closing up the business as we’d hoped.’
    ‘She has to, there’s no money, no workers,’ Charles protested. Young and smitten with Miss Sutton, he was also a bit obtuse, a literal fellow who saw only the obvious. ‘I should know. My father was a former investor. We were at the funeral.’
    Damien smiled patiently at the young cub. ‘We know that, but does she? Maybe there’s something she knows that we don’t, which seems likely.’ He nodded towards Maxwell. ‘She’s held on to the two things that matter most right now: the property and the last yacht. It seems to me that she means to try something before the end.’
    ‘Impossible. The yacht isn’t finished,’ Charles argued sceptically. ‘There’s nothing
to
try.’
    ‘Unless she has a builder,’ Maxwell put in bitterly. That would drag things out. He hadno doubt Miss Sutton would fail in the end, but prolonging that end didn’t help his cause. The group had wanted to be in position by the time yachting season opened in May. Back in October when the opportunity had first presented itself, the objective to take over the shipyard had seemed perfectly reasonable. Now, with a month to go, it seemed far more unlikely.
    Maxwell pushed a hand through his hair and sighed. ‘We have to be certain. Charles, of all of us here, you are closest to the family. Perhaps it’s time to pay a friendly visit to see how the daughter of your father’s friend is coping with her grief?’ He winked at the young man. Everyone in the group knew Elise Sutton had set aside mourning weeks ago, but the subtle sarcasm had flown right over Charles.
    Maxwell hoped Charles’s decent good looks and refined manners would encourage Miss Sutton to disclose her plans. Even beyond that, he hoped Charles would be able to give Miss Sutton a gentle nudge in the right direction through whatever means of persuasion possible.
    Maxwell preferred to accomplish his goalssubtly and without any overt force. He was happy to play nice until it was time not to, and that time was rapidly approaching. He and Tyne had money, time and pride wrapped up in this venture the others knew nothing about. He meant to see it succeed. Failure meant he’d lose a lot more than his shirt.

Chapter Four
    H is shirt was off! It was the first thing Elise noticed when she arrived at the yard late in the morning. For the first time since her father’s death, she’d actually slept late. And look what happened. Her master builder was running around without his shirt on. Her mother would have shrieked it wasn’t ladylike to notice, but how could she not? The sight was just so riveting.
    Elise knew she was staring, but she could hardly look away. His chest was nothing like the average Englishman’s. Gone was the pasty skin and skeletal lankiness, replaced by a smooth,
tanned
expanse of torso. It was quite possibly the most perfect chest she’d ever seen. Not that she was a connoisseur ofmen’s chests, but working around the shipyard, she’d caught accidental glimpses on rare occasions.
    She might have been able to pull her gaze away if that had been all, but it wasn’t simply his chest. There were arms and shoulders to consider, perfectly moulded with muscle, to say nothing of his lean hips where his culottes hung tantalisingly low on his waist, revealing the secret aspects of male musculature and hinting at even more. All this masculinity had been pressed against her yesterday. It was somewhat shocking to see