An Extraordinary Flirtation Read Online Free PDF

forget you, Miss Loversall. You know that I am yours to command.”
    She dimpled. “Fiddle! I know that you’re no such thing. Which is very odd in you, since everyone else admires me excessively.” She glanced again at her cousin, deep in a conversation now—rather, Baron Fitzrichard was conversing—about the principles of female dress, which apparently had much to do with hostile colors and subordinate compounds. “Although Ianthe would scold dreadfully if she heard me say so! My cousin is positively Gothick. And so is Beau—he doesn’t like me to call him ‘Papa,’ you see, because it makes him feel quite old. I’m never allowed to go anywhere. It’s all a horrid bore.”
    Lord Mannering didn’t make the mistake of taking these complaints to heart. This lamentably mistreated young woman was not only currently at Gunter’s enjoying an ice, but also frequently to be seen at fashionable gatherings everywhere. The sensation that Zoe had created upon her first appearance in Society showed no sign of abating yet. So charming was her manner, so irrepressible her spirits, that only the most coldhearted of critics whispered that she was fast, or recalled with anticipatory relish that her family tended to take things to excess. “How could I not admire the most beautiful damsel in London, if not all England? I await your pleasure, milady. Shall I slay a dragon for you? Or perhaps, if I may presume— “ With a handkerchief, he wiped an errant drop of sorbet from the edge of her luscious mouth.
    Her little tongue darted out to lick her lips. “You’re teasing me,” she said. “And I don’t really want anyone slain, not even Cousin Ianthe, although I think she should be more understanding. After all, she suffered a romantic disappointment in her youth, and would have gone into a decline if it weren’t for me. Is it true that older men like younger women because younger women rekindle their sense of romance, Lord Mannering?”
    Cousin Ianthe was looking none too robust at the moment, and it wasn’t difficult to imagine why. “I assume you are asking my opinion because of my advanced age. Alas, ‘tis true that elderly gentlemen such as myself demonstrate their admiration differently than the young sprigs to whom you are accustomed. Rheumatism prevents us from getting down on our knees and spouting poetry to your eyebrows, although of course I long to do so.” A slow smile curved the edges of his mouth. “Don’t be so anxious to grow up, little one. You’ll tumble violently in love ten times before you’re twenty, mark my words.”
    Was Lord Mannering ravishing her with his eyes? No, he looked amused instead. Zoe couldn’t help but admire his high cheekbones and chiseled jaw.
    Not to mention the strong muscles of his thighs. She tilted her pretty head. “You make me sound a horrid flirt.”
    “The most hardened flirt in London,” Nick said gravely. “Look at how you’re flirting with me now, even though I am ancient enough to be your papa.”
    Zoe abandoned her posturing to giggle. “My papa is hardly ancient! And of course I’m flirting with you. Though I don’t lack for admirers, or poetry, or all that, it’s very dull stuff. I don’t think you could be dull, milord, even if you tried.”
    Lord Mannering was far too fly to the time of day to make the mistake of paying any one young lady particular attentions, entice him as she might. Entertaining though this conversation might be, it had gone on long enough. “There are those who wouldn’t agree with you,” he murmured, and glanced at the annoyed gentlemen hovering about them, several of whom looked like they thirsted for his blood. “I must monopolize you no more.”
    “Wait!” The marquess was Zoe’s latest conquest, or would be as soon as the stubborn creature could be made aware of his own mind. “Do you go to Lady Miller’s rout?”
    Nick could think of few things more insipid. However, the little imp looked absurdly hopeful.