A Matter of Sin Read Online Free PDF

probably without even knowing it. The kind that brought a blush to her cheeks whenever he moved closer to her.
    Yes, the lady had been utterly charming, just as she had been charming and beautiful every time his eyes had found her on any ballroom floor they shared over the past decade, but he had never experienced this intense obsession with her after she slipped from view. Those wayward thoughts he’d had upon discovering she would be staying in his home certainly were not lessened by the few moments they had shared after midnight.
    There was a light rap on his door and as Seth turned, Jason let himself in, his eyes heavy.
    “Your mother is a barbarian to plan a fete so early in the day,” he muttered as he threw himself into a chair and poured himself a cup of coffee from the set on the desk.
    Seth laughed. “It is nearly noon; I do not count that as early.”
    “Civilized people do ,” Jason insisted as he made a face when he tasted the bitter brew. “And you don’t seem particularly chipper this morning, either, so do not dare judge me.”
    Seth shrugged as he took his chair. “I admit, I had a late night, though probably not as late as yours.”
    Jason flashed a brief, wicked grin. “Do tell.”
    Seth leaned back and rested his hands behind his head. “Do you recall when I asked about Lady Avenbury yesterday?”
    Jason stopped drinking his coffee and leaned forward with eyes wide. “Great God, you didn’t—”
    When Seth saw his friend’s expression, he waved his hands. “No! Your mind is utterly depraved.”
    His friend actually looked disappointed. “So what about the lady, then?”
    “I found her in my library in the wee hours and we had a very brief conversation.” Seth frowned as he recalled the entire exchange once again.
    “Hmm,” Jason murmured, though Seth could tell that the idea of conversation with a woman held little interest for his libertine of a friend. “I wonder, while you were in the library did the two of you discuss the little present I left for you there?”
    “Whatever are you—” Before Seth could finish the thought, he recalled their conversation from the previous day. “Oh yes, you did say that you left that naughty book there, didn’t you? What is it called again?”
    Jason grinned. “ The Ladies Book of Pleasures , though how you could forget that title I have no idea. It conjures such wicked images. Did you see it? How did Lady Avenbury react to it being there?”
    Seth shook his head. “I realize you rarely put yourself someplace so common as a library, but allow me to enlighten you. There are dozens of shelves in that room and the lighting was dim last night. I’m afraid to say I didn’t see it.”
    Jason’s eyes widened. . “But I left the book on that small table beside the fire. Right out in plain sight where it could shock, amuse and arouse anyone who entered.”
    Folding his arms, Seth thought back to the night before. He had been so interested in Isabel that it was possible he had missed the book…except…except that he had looked directly at the small table beside the fire. That was where Isabel had set her book on farming.
    He recalled the moment perfectly because it had afforded him the chance to get too close to her for propriety. A marvelous thing, since he had been able to feel the warmth of her body when he leaned around her.
    And he was quite certain, in that moment of complete clarity, that there had been no other book on the table. Especially not The Ladies Book of Pleasures , which he certainly would have noticed when inappropriate thoughts had been crowding the corners of his mind.
    “The book wasn’t there,” he said with a shrug. “I’m certain of it.”
    Jason leaned back, his mouth quirking before he let out a laugh. “So someone stole it? How marvelous! In a house full of innocents and one apparently intriguing widow, someone has stolen the most talked about book in a decade.”
    Seth shook his head at the thought. Though he