Captured by a Gentleman (Regency Unlaced 6) Read Online Free PDF Page B

mean?”
    Darcy wrinkled her nose. “Correct me if I am wrong, but the things you have said this evening… Despite appearances to the contrary on your wedding day, yours does not seem to have been a happy marriage.”
    He gave a dismissive snort. “And on that basis, you have decided I have lacked for physical companionship these past eight months?”
    “I said nothing about— Oh.” She fell silent as she obviously realized he was informing her he had several times enjoyed the “comfort of a warm hug” since the death of his wife.
    His mouth thinned. “If you truly are a member of the Sugdon family, then you must know, as far as your cousin was concerned, our marriage was based on Millicent’s lies and ambitions. Ambitions to inherit Castle Montgomery that in no way matched my own.”
    “I told you, my own family and Lord Sugdon’s did not mix socially.” She shrugged. “My father was Lord David Ambridge. My maternal grandparents the Duke and Duchess of Stowmont.”
    A very decent pedigree, Ranulf acknowledged, having known David Ambridge as a nodding acquaintance at his London club. He had not known the late Duke and Duchess of Stowmont, but there was no doubting—
    Lord, he sounded as if he were assessing horseflesh rather than a young woman!
    A young woman who was constantly causing his cock to rise and harden uncomfortably. And in whose bedchamber he realized he was still standing. “You really know none of the details of my marriage or Millicent’s death?”
    She shook her head. “Not unless you wish to share them with me.”
    His jaw tightened. “If you have no knowledge of them, then I do not intend revealing any of those details to you now.”
    Silky lashes lowered demurely over those dark brown eyes. “I apologize if I seemed overly inquisitive, Cousin Ranulf.”
    “I am not your damned—” He broke off to draw in a deep and controlling breath, hands clenched at his sides. “We are not related, by marriage or anything else,” he insisted in a calmer voice.
    “Then what am I to call you?”
    Ranulf wished he could say she would not be around long enough to call him anything. But if Darcy’s reason for running away from London proved to be the truth—and he had no immediate way of proving it was not—then he could not, in all conscience, send her back to that fate. Perhaps, once he was back in Scotland, Fliss could advise what he was to do with Darcy—
    Good God, he could not seriously be contemplating saddling himself with this hoyden all the way to the Scottish Highlands?
    A young woman who had no maid accompanying her and felt no qualms whatsoever in hiding away in the carriage of a gentleman she barely knew? Or seemed to have no reservations whatsoever in offering to take the place of Ranulf’s valet and not only shave him but also help him with his bath?
    Damn it, his cock had perked up again merely thinking about the possibility of the latter.
    “You may call me Mr. Montgomery. Or simply Ranulf when we are in private,” he amended at her instantly disappointed expression, “if you insist on familiarity.”
    “Oh, I do.” She beamed her pleasure at him. “Ranulf is such a nice name.”
    He gave what he was sure was a pained God-give-me-strength frown. “Go to bed now,” he instructed gruffly.
    “Yes, Ranulf.”
    Ranulf left the bedchamber without saying another word, closing the door firmly behind him and drawing in several deep and steadying breaths before entering the bedchamber next door to this one. Which was when he dared to look down at the bulge tenting the front of his pantaloons.
    Dear God, Darcy Ambridge may just be the death of me. From a permanent lack of blood flowing to my brain. On account of it all being centered in my cock!
     
    Darcy woke to the early morning sun shining through the window of the bedchamber. She felt warm and comfortable in her bed after an untroubled night’s sleep. Something she had not been able to enjoy in the week previous to her