Always a Princess Read Online Free PDF Page A

you do.”
    “Let me show you how much.” She rested her palm against his chest and gave it a good, solid push.
    It was more than enough to send him reeling and tipping backward, and she took the opportunity to turn and head for the doorway. Behind her, he made a very satisfying crash as he fell to the floor. But as she reached the threshold, she caught the sound of his laughter, too.
     
    Philip sat in the cavernous dining room of his family’s townhouse and stared into a large fire he’d lit in the hearth. Though the flames leaped and crackled hotly enough to force him to remove his jacket and loosen the front of his shirt, they nevertheless barely illuminated a corner of the room—the place was that huge. For dinner parties, the staff had to light dozens and dozens of candles to create anything that resembled a cordial atmosphere.
    He should have set up his own household by now, and he would have if he’d planned to stay in London for long stretches. Instead, he’d spent all his time searching for adventure in foreign lands and usually finding it. This house had served well enough as a huge and fully staffed pied à terre for the rare occasions when he found his way back to England. Now that his older brother had died and he’d become his father’s heir and the earl-to-be he’d have to establish himself independently. All that could wait for a bit. For now, the illumination of this fire in this room suited him far better.
    He took a stiff drink of his brandy and let his mind roam free. It came back to where it had been all evening. Who was that woman?
    He could rule out with utter certainty who she was not. She wasn’t a princess from Valdastok or anywhere else. Both her accent and her speech ruled out any type of nobility, domestic or foreign.
    But then she was no common thief, either. A common thief skulked about and took whatever lay available for the taking. This woman’s method was so creative, so audacious it almost cried out for detection—as if she were daring the world to catch her. And yet, if he hadn’t happened on the scene, no one might have detected her fraudulence at all. Incredible.
    Nothing about her was more incredible than the way she’d kissed him, though. He’d only meant the kiss as a ruse to get rid of whoever that was at the door, but the caress had fast taken on a life of its own—to the point where he hadn’t recognized the intruders even though the man had clearly recognized him. He couldn’t say the woman had acted seductively at first. In fact, she’d resisted more than a little. But oh good God, after that she’d ended up kneading his flesh like a cat preparing its bed.
    Before that image could seduce Philip completely, the door swung open, and a tall, gaunt figure appeared in the door.
    “Mobley, it’s late,” Philip said. “What are you doing up?”
    Mobley walked into the room, and even in the dim light Philip could make out the long limbs and hooked nose that made the family butler look like a cross between a bird of prey and a stork.
    “Is there anything you require, my lord?” Mobley asked.
    “At this hour, if I require something I can get it myself, I should think.”
    “As you say, my lord.”
    Philip studied the man. Even at this late hour, he looked starched and perfect in his butler’s uniform of dark suit and white shirt and stiff cravat. Mobley hardly seemed human at times, but more like an automaton with his unbending manner and his tendency to end all his utterances with “my lord.”
    The perfect majordomo, their Mobley—discreet, almost unbearably efficient and perfectly irritating. Still, he’d been with the family since Philip’s father had been in short pants. Little chance now of convincing the fellow to unbend a bit.
    But perhaps for the moment, Mobley’s sense of correctness and the proper social order—oh hell, Mobley’s snobbery—might prove a useful source of information.
    “Tell me something, Mobley.”
    “Of course,