Enticing the Earl Read Online Free PDF Page A

panic in her eyes had eased, and she had unclenched her hands.
    She blinked at him. “You mean you will? Employ me?”
    â€œYes, at least, I have decided to give you a trial engagement,” he told her, keeping his expression bland. “We’ll say two weeks, and if both sides are amenable, and all is satisfactory, two weeks more, and then we shall be open for possible extensions.”
    He had a sudden vision of the horrible scene that had ended his last affair, and he said quickly, “But keep in mind, this is a purely business arrangement. There will be no talk of love or lasting commitment, no suggestion of anything more between us than mutual pleasure and physical enjoyment.”
    She nodded slowly. “Of course. I would expect nothing more.”
    He added, speaking more gently, as he remembered her first stipulation, “I’m planning to leave London tomorrow, so we’d better make our plans quickly, don’t you think? If you will wait in the small room just down the hall, I will send for my valet, whose name is Boxel. He will accompany you to a good dressmaker to have your measurements taken.”
    She stared at him.
    â€œFor new gowns,” he reminded her.
    His newly acquired paramour dropped her bedraggled bonnet on the floor as she impulsively clasped her hands together, then she blushed again, even more deeply than before. “Oh,” she said. “I mean, yes, of course. Thank you, my lord.”
    He nodded.
    Retrieving her bonnet, she left the room with a bemused expression on her face, and Sutton told the footman to ask his valet to come down to speak to him, wondering what on earth the man would say when he was told his errand. Boxel had been with his master since long before Sutton had achieved his title, and he never hesitated to speak his mind.
    Nor did he now.
    â€œShe don’t look like no light o’love to me, yer lordship,” the servant told him. “I took a peek at ’er in the anteroom. Yer sure ye know what yer doing? This is likely to end up costing ye dear, and I don’t mean just in coin.”
    â€œIt is not your place to suggest to me that I might be an idiot, Boxel,” the earl said, his tone stern, thinking that none of the other staff would dare to intimate such a thing.
    Sadly, the stout servant with the balding head looked unimpressed.
    The earl’s frown deepened. “Just see to it that she orders a reasonable amount of clothing and have it sent on to the country. I plan to leave town tomorrow.”
    The servant rolled his eyes, but he turned toward the hall. “Don’t say as ’ow I didn’t warn ye,” he muttered, going out the hall door, although his expression showed only the proper mixture of respectful obedience.
    Sutton grimaced at his back. If this woman turned out to be trouble, Boxel would never let him hear the end of it. He should probably just send her away and be done with it. What did he care about the squire’s pitiful estate, anyhow?
    But the earl pictured the way that fine-textured gold hair curled at the base of her long neck, where a strand or two came loose from her severe updo at the back of her head, and he thought of how it would be to shake free the whole contraption and release the mane of hair, free it from all restraint and let it fall in silken waves down her back, lying easily on her smooth skin—upon a naked body free of any corset or shift or other “proper” cover-up that would prevent him from seeing every inch of that enticing ivory skinned body…
    Just thinking of the possibilities made him ache.
    He had been relieved to see, when she had slipped out of her dowdy black dress and he had observed her more closely, that she was not a girl in her first season. Somehow that made it more likely that she was not being pushed into offering herself at someone else’s bidding. He had noted the subtle signs of maturity around her eyes and mouth, the