A Perfect Husband Read Online Free PDF

to precede him. Lilah stepped into a sitting room decorated in the spare Medinian way, with cream-washed wal s, dark furniture and jewel-bright rugs scattered on a flagstone floor. A series of rich oils, no doubt depicting various Atraeus ancestors, decorated the wal s. French doors opened out on to one of the many stone terraces that rimmed the castel o, affording expansive views of a moonlit Mediterranean sea.
    Zane splashed what looked like brandy into a glass.
    “When did you realize about Lucas and Carla?”
    She loosened her death grip on her clutch. “When we arrived at the castel o and Carla flung herself into Lucas’s arms.”
    “Then why go to Lucas’s room when you had to know what you would find?”
    The question, along with the piercing gaze that went with it, was unsettling. She was once again struck by the notion that beneath the urbane exterior Zane was quietly, coldly angry. “I’d had enough of feeling uncomfortable and out of place. Dinner was over and I was tired. I wanted to go back to the hotel.”
    He pressed the glass into her hands. “With Lucas.”
    The brush of his fingers sent another zing of awareness through her. “No. Alone.”
    She sipped brandy and tensed as it burned her throat.
    She was not about to explain to Zane that she had not gotten as far as thinking about the physical realities of a relationship with his brother. She had assumed al of that would fal into place as they went along. “I put a higher price on myself than that.”
    “Marriage.”

    She almost choked on another swal ow of brandy. “That’s the general idea.”
    Fingers tightening on the glass, she strol ed closer to the paintings, as always drawn by color and composition, the nuances of technique. Jewelry design was her trade, but painting had always been her first love.
    She paused beneath an oil of a fierce, medieval warrior, an onyx seal ring on one finger, a scimitar strapped to his back. The straight blade of a nose, tough jaw and magnetic dark gaze were a mirror of Zane’s.
    Seated beside the warrior was his lady, wearing a parchment silk gown, her exotic gaze square on to the viewer, giving the impression of quiet, steely strength. Lilah was guessing that being married to the brigand beside her, she would need it. An exquisite diamond and emerald ring graced one slim finger; around her neck was a matching pendant.
    She felt the heat from Zane’s body al down one side as he came to stand beside her. The intangible electrical current that hummed through her whenever he was near grew perceptibly stronger.
    Lilah swal owed another mouthful of brandy and tried to ignore the disruptive sensations. The warmth in the pit of her stomach extended to a faint dizziness in her head, reminding her that she had barely eaten at dinner and had already sipped too much wine. She stepped closer to study the jewelry the woman was wearing.
    “The Il ium jewels.”
    Lilah frowned, frustrated by the lack of fine detail in the painting. “From Troy? I thought they were a myth.”
    “They got sold off at the turn of last century when the family went broke. My father managed to buy them back from a private col ector.”
    Lilah noticed the detail of a ship in the background of the painting. “A pirate?”
    “A privateer,” Zane corrected. “During the eighteen hundreds his seafaring exploits were a major source of wealth for the Atraeus family.”
    Lilah ignored Zane’s smooth explanation. After a brief foray into Medinian history, she had gleaned enough information about the Atraeus family to know that the dark and dangerous ancestor had been a pirate by any other name.
    She stepped back from the oil painting in order to appreciate its rich colors. The play of light over the warrior’s dark features suddenly made him seem breathtakingly familiar. Exchange the robes, soft boots and a scimitar for a suit and an expensive black shirt and it was Zane. “What was his name?”
    “Zander Atraeus, my namesake, near enough.