An Invitation to Seduction Read Online Free PDF Page B

of the London town house her parents had begun leasing four years earlier, Kitty tried to find comfort in the familiarity, sought to place herself back on an even keel. It had been three days since they’d arrived in London. Her gentleman by the sea should have become a distant memory, seldom thought about. Instead he haunted her every waking moment, frequented her nightly dreams.
    She didn’t know how to purge her memories of him, and yet she knew she must. He wasn’t safe. He made her feel things she didn’t want to feel, caused her to experience sensations forbidden to a decent woman.
    Kitty was certain that only lust had driven her actions by the sea. Hers and his. Entwining themselves around each other without conceivable thought, they’d imitated animals on the verge of mating, with their actions based on instinct, not true love or affection. Nearly bared bodies unable to resist temptation.
    Their deplorable display of impropriety was the very reason people in a civilized society wore as much clothing as they did—to provide a shield against the body’s instinctual inclination to mate. Inherently disgusting behavior when not controlled. Thank goodness, she’d never again see her gentleman from the sea.
    “Are you afraid to get married, Kitty?”
    Turning away from the window, Kitty smiled softly at her ten-year-old sister, who was stretched on her stomach on the bed, raised on her elbows, her latest book spread out before her. She was a voracious reader. “No, of course not. Why ever would you think that?”
    Emily furrowed her dark brow. “Because you look so worried.”
    “I’m not worried. I have no patience when it comes to waiting. It’s worsened by the fact that I haven’t seen Lord Farthingham in weeks.”
    “When do you think you’ll get married?” Emily asked.
    “I’m not sure. Lord Farthingham and Papa are still working out the settlement. Until the lawyers and Papa are happy with everything, we won’t make an official announcement. Then I want to wait an entire year before we actually get married.” She intended to have a leisurely betrothal, to leave no doubt in anyone’s mind that she was chaste. She wanted no scandal associated with herself or her marriage.
    “I wish Nicky would hurry up and get here,” Emily lamented.
    Pursing her lips, Kitty gave Emily a hard stare. Emily simply rolled her eyes and her shoulders. “I know, I know. I’m supposed to call him Lord Farthingham.” She giggled. “But he’s so much fun. He seems more like a Nicky than a Lord Farthingham.”
    Kitty laughed. “Yes, he is fun, isn’t he?”
    “Why didn’t he meet us in Cornwall?”
    “Because he had business he needed to attend to in London. A lot of responsibility comes with his title. Some people don’t realize that.”
    “You’ll help him when you get married.”
    “Of course.” She’d prepared her entire life to take on the role of the wife of a prominent man.
    “You love him, don’t you, Kitty?”
    “Very much so. He makes me feel safe.”
    “So, he’s a hero of sorts.”
    “He’s my hero,” she readily admitted. He had been since the first moment that they’d met.
    She’d been sixteen. Her family had been in London visiting the Earl of Ravenleigh and his family. Longtime friends, her father and the earl had several mutual business ventures. Too young to attend balls, she’d been standing in the garden, looking in on the grandeur, when Lord Farthingham had passed by her, suddenly stopped, looked back at her, and smiled his devil-may-care smile.
    She’d often suspected that he’d been on his way to meet with someone, but whoever it was had been forgotten. He’d danced with her then, there in the garden with her in her plain dress and he in his evening attire, but she’d never felt more beautiful. She’d only recently begun to show an interest in men, and he’d given her a sense of security that had made the strange yearnings fluttering around inside her seem not quite so