Games of Pleasure Read Online Free PDF Page B

don’t know,” she said. “I’m overwhelmed by so much gallantry. Have you ever fought a duel, my lord?”
    â€œI’m perfectly confident of my ability with a pistol.”
    â€œThat’s not what I asked. No doubt your daily life is a dreary round of obligation that leaves you little time to fight duels.”
    He looked uncomfortable. “I have responsibilities, certainly.”
    â€œAnd can you afford to renounce all that weight of duty to risk your life for a stranger?”
    â€œThere’s no need to assume that my life would be risked. There are other paths.”
    â€œAh, so you would solve all my problems through the courts! Wouldn’t that be a considerable burden on your time, my lord?”
    He smiled at her, but it was the smile of the sun-touched clouds that ran ahead of a storm. “Any legal issues you need settled—divorce, annulment—could be delegated to my secretaries. Whatever your problem, I can solve it with negligible cost to myself. Why reject that?”
    â€œPerhaps I don’t wish to be any more deeply in your debt, my lord.”
    â€œAny such debt is irrelevant and freely forgiven. What can it matter?”
    She bit her lip. “It matters to me.”
    â€œThere’s no debt that counts in this,” he insisted, “except what’s owed to honor. Whether either of us likes it or not, you’re my responsibility. I insist that you not leave here without either allowing me to help you, or clearly explaining why I should not. You will agree to that?”
    She wrapped his cloak more tightly about her shoulders. “It seems that I must.”
    He stepped closer, splendid in his masculine intensity. “You give me your word on it?”
    Miracle glanced up into his eyes. Beneath the natural arrogance that came with so much power lay a very genuine concern. He probably wasn’t aware of what else that intense green gaze betrayed. But she was.
    â€œYes, I promise, Lord Ryderbourne. I won’t leave this room without either telling you the truth or letting you help me.”
    â€œThen we have a bargain,” he said. “I will hold you to it.”
    â€œAnd tonight? Your family isn’t expecting you?”
    â€œThe weather’s turned foul. I’ve sent a message to Wyldshay that I’ve been delayed.”
    Miracle turned her back. She allowed the cloak to slip just a little from her shoulders. “You intend to spend the night here?”
    Lord Ryderbourne sucked in a long breath and strode away. She heard the shutters clang shut. “I certainly intend to have supper.”
    Her pulse leaped with the hot thunder of awareness, tinged just a little with an oddly wry disappointment. So he was no different from any other man, after all?
    â€œThen if you’ll allow me a few moments to get dressed, my lord, I would be honored to join you for a meal. Then by morning you may have either truth or challenge—or perhaps both.”
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    RICH and thick and lustrous—colored like starlings, like blackbirds, like iridescent rooks—her hair spun dark skeins over her white skin. The cloak slipped a little more. Such tender, fascinating bones and flesh, the curve of a woman’s neck and spine and shoulder blade!
    His heart hammering, Ryder turned his back and locked the shutters in place with their iron bar.
    His mystery swooped up the clothes and stepped behind a screen that stood in a corner of the room.
    She had been naked beneath the cloak! Her every movement had offered shadowed glimpses of smooth legs, elegant ankles and feet. And perhaps a breast? A curved thigh? He had tried, a little too desperately, not to look.
    I’m not such a cad!
    Not by conscious intent, perhaps! Yet her movements behind the screen mocked his composure. He stared at his fingers—spread on the shutters like starfish—as his mind arrowed in on the sounds. The shush of silk petticoat. The slide