Delectably Undone! Read Online Free PDF Page A

ache, and his arms tightened. Her head fell back against his shoulder and one hand rose to cover the tormenting fingers at her breast, pressing them closer, wanting more. The fierce ridge of his erection rode hard against her bottom and she moved her hips, wanton, enticing.
    With a harsh groan he pulled away, stepping back, leaving her bereft, torn apart. Summoning every fading ounce of resolve and courage, she turned to face him, her cheeks scarlet. His eyes blazed into hers, hot and dark.
    “Evelyn?” She held out her hand. Not knowing why, only that she must.
    He flinched, looking down at it. And she saw what he must see: the frayed cuff of her sleeve, smeared with paint, and her hand, roughened and paint-stained, reaching across an unbridgeable gulf; the schoolmaster’s daughter and painter’s sister, and the aristocrat.
    “You still clean his brushes. He’s been home today, then?”
    Her hand fell. Time to step back from the edge. As he had done. “Brushes need to be cleaned, my lord. Or they become useless.”
    He frowned. “So he came home, left you with his brushes, and went out again? Why? Because I was coming?”
    “He had to be…somewhere else.” Crimson scorched her cheeks again at the lie. So far she’d been able to avoid direct lies. Not this time.
    “It used to be something you did for him while he made a cup of tea for both of you and talked about his day, his work. What he had planned for the next day.”
    She turned away to hide the pain. How many times had Evelyn been there while she did just that? Sometimes he’d helped her. A novelty for the viscount’s heir, to play at a dirty manual task.
    “Loveday?” His very gentleness sliced at her. “Did I destroy that, too? Your friendship with Lionel?”
    “No!” Shocked, she spun around. “He was angry, upset, but what you—” She broke off. That was unfair. It had not been just Evelyn. She had known what she was doing. It would have taken only a word, a gesture, to stop him. She had not spoken that word or made the gesture, because she had not wanted him to stop. Any more than she had wanted to stop just now. She ached with the pent-up yearning of six endless years. “What we did,” she corrected herself, “did not cause any falling out between Lionel and myself.” She dragged in a breath. “It’s different for us. It’s not as though I disgraced an ancient name, or anything like that.”
    “Dammit, Loveday!” Evelyn caught her wrist in a fierce grip. “Don’t cheapen yourself like that, as though your innocence was of no account! You’re still his sister, and he was right to be furious with me. And even if you had no brother to be furious, I still should not have taken you.” His voice had gentled and his clasp on her wrist eased. “I don’t want to think that it made a difference between you.”
    Unthinking, she laid her other hand over his. “Evelyn, I promise you, it made no difference.”
    Slowly, he nodded and released her. “Very well. I’ll wait.”
    To her absolute horror, he went and sat down on a chair.
    “Wait?” Her tongue felt frozen.
    He gave her a level look. “You can hardly expect me to leave you here alone at night. I’ll wait until Lionel returns. If he doesn’t wish to speak to me, I’ll go as soon as he’s back.”
    She nearly choked. “But…you can’t!”
    “Yes, I can.”
    Panic fluttered in her throat. “But—” She cast about for a way to be rid of him. “Your dinner. I…I’ve no food here for you. Indeed—” this would shift him “—I must go out to get my own dinner.”
    He stared at her, clearly stunned. “You were planning to go out by yourself? At this hour?” He rose.
    “You’re leaving, then?” She tried not to sound relieved.
    His gaze narrowed. “Not exactly. I’m taking you out for a meal,” he said. “What? No!”
    “And if Lionel isn’t back by then,” he continued, as if she hadn’t spoken, “I’ll wait.”
    “But, you’re going out.” She waved