A Most Delicate Pursuit Read Online Free PDF Page B

an interesting diversion, and you well know it.”
    “You poor boy,” she said in the tone that would always end with them wrapped in each other’s arms and the thin sheets of his bed.
    “No”—he held up his hand—“I won’t do this again.”
    Her expression changed. No longer the demure, desirable siren, she became something else. Someone dark. Someone unforgiving. Her eyes darkened, their green turning opaque with fury.
    “You’d turn me away?” she gasped. “What a stubborn, willful boy you’ve always been. Even when your young wife visited the beds of half the town, you were still faithful to your vows.”
    “I beg you, don’t speak of these things. That was in the past. Let’s leave it there.”
    She leaned closer, so much so that he felt her hot, moist breath on his face. “I did hear that you are still in need of an heir. With your father gone and you childless, your family’s title will revert to the crown. Is that what you really want?”
    Michael shrugged. “It doesn’t matter what I want. I had one unsuccessful union. I’m not in the market for another one.”
    She pulled back from him, narrowing her eyes and setting her jaw. “So, that’s it then? You’ll dismiss me? I’m not good enough for your lordship? That’s rich, Michael. Even for you.”
    “It’s not my intention to hurt you, Connie.” Despite the fact that that was exactly what he was doing. “Please, let’s just part as friends.”
    “Friends? You cast me off so cruelly and you think that we could still be friends?” She laughed, a dry, brittle sound. “What a fool you are.”
    “I’m sorry you feel that way,” he said at last.
    Once Constance let it be known that he’d cast her aside, half of the gentry would hate and despise him, she would certainly see to that.
    There might be some who would rally behind him. At least until they’d learned that he’d included the innocent Beatrice Hawkins in his lies. Surely he’d be cast out of proper society once and for all.
    As it was, Michael desired neither friends nor enemies. Or, for that matter, a wife.
    “You’re making a mistake, Michael. A terrible, unforgivable mistake.”
    “Despite what you think, while I don’t regret our time together, I know that we would fast tire of each other.”
    Before Michael could answer, an urgent knocking sounded at the parlor’s door.
    “Come in,” he said, his gaze at his former lover never wavering. He knew that she was about to let loose a torrent of fury, and while he felt bad about her situation, he could not let it affect his own survival.
    “I beg your pardon, my lord,” Bentley said, “but His Grace requests your presence in the library immediately. An emergency, is how he termed it.”
    If his friend was speaking in such terms, it meant that disaster was near upon them. Without another thought to his own entanglement, Michael bowed to Constance. “My apologies for my abrupt departure, but I must go.”
    Without waiting for her to speak, Michael followed the servant out of the room, though he felt her stare burning a hole right through him. Pushing back the veil of guilt that hung over him, he hoped that she might find her own happiness one day and see that he had saved her from a future of heartache.

Chapter 3
    Michael arrived at the duke’s study to find his friend bent over his desk, practically buried beneath a stack of papers.
    “Ash?” he asked, rushing into the room. “What’s this about?”
    “Good. You’re here. A situation has arisen with Caroline and Beatrice’s cousin, Alfred Danbury. The cur has gone beyond decency and has practically sold Beatrice to the highest bidder.”
    “Who?”
    He watched Ash let out a long, slow breath. “Sir Richard Bainbridge, very savvy businessman who has a habit of manipulating the aristocracy. Barely six months ago, he managed to acquire a knighthood thanks to his aid during the war effort. Quite the coup, as I hear it.”
    Michael nodded. “I’ve heard of