Days of Rakes and Roses Read Online Free PDF Page B

to him now, put him in his place. To his sorrow, he recognized that his place, in her mind, was far away from her.
    He’d loved how the girlish Lydia had adored him with her eyes. But there was a snap and a challenge about this more mature, prickly woman that he found breathtakingly exciting.
    And this gloriously sensual creature intended to waste herself on that self-satisfied bore Sir Grenville Berwick? It didn’t bear thinking about.
    Simon sighed heavily and stared into the flickering flames. How her sherry-brown eyes had flashed when she’d told him to take his cheap flirtation and stow it. How her delicate, high-bred face had flushed into vivacity when she’d denied his right to meddle in her life.
    Ten years ago, he’d tasted her passion too briefly. Meeting her again, he was eager to take up where he’d left off. Except this time, he was a man with a man’s experience and in return, Lydia offered the promise of a woman’s ripe desire. She’d turn his nights to flame.
    Good God, what was he doing? These were hardly thoughts a man should entertain while he drank her brother’s brandy.
    Cam’s stare was unwavering. “Don’t tell me Simon Metcalf is suffering a crisis of confidence? I’d never have credited it.”
    Simon’s mouth stretched in a bitter smile, even as he hoped his friend caught no hint of the graphic scenes heating his imagination. “Given her choice, Lydia wouldn’t spare me the time of day.” He paused. “What makes you so sure she still wants me? Has she told you she loves me?”
    Cam’s laugh was as sour as Simon’s smile. He rose to refill their glasses. “Don’t be absurd. Of course she hasn’t told me. In the Rothermere family, we don’t discuss our emotions. We’re too busy behaving with perfect correctness.”
    Simon understood Cam’s acerbity. As a boy living near the ducal estate, he’d witnessed firsthand the glacial chill at the heart of the Rothermere household. “You know that if she throws the blackguard over in my favor, there will be a scandal.”
    “Surely by now my credit is strong enough to weather a bit of tattle. I want Lydia to be happy. She deserves better than a cold marriage. The members of this family have enjoyed little enough happiness. At least happiness within wedlock.”
    As Cam leaned down to stoke the fire, flaring flame illuminated the sadness weighing his expression. Restoring the family name was Cam’s unfailing purpose. Simon had always admired how he’d devoted his considerable energy and intelligence to overcoming the previous generation’s notoriety. He guessed now that Cam dwelled upon the fact that while the duke’s sister might marry purely for affection, the quest to clear the slate afforded the duke no such luxury in choosing his future bride.
    “I appreciate your efforts on my behalf. And your sister’s,” Simon said quietly. “But you know they come too late. In our youth, Lydia and I were in love, but we’ve both become different people since.”
    Except, damn it, that wasn’t how he felt. He’d seen Lydia tonight and it was like they’d never been apart. In his heart, she was his, she’d always be his. The problem was he had a strong suspicion that, while she may once have felt the same, she felt the same no longer. Again he cursed evil fate, in the guise of that bull-headed old villain her father, for separating them. “She seems set on marrying Berwick.”
    Cam continued to brood into the fire, his expression pensive. “She’s stopped hoping for anything better.”
    Simon winced. Hell, he knew what that was like. Desperately as he’d struggled to forget Lydia—and he’d struggled like the devil—he’d long ago given up on ever falling in love with anyone else. Ten years and five continents hadn’t banished her from his heart. Seeing her tonight had only confirmed that he’d pledged himself to her eternally.
    First he’d gone to France, then Germany, then two years in Italy. Then he’d ventured into