Good Earl Hunting Read Online Free PDF

all the things she’d thought about him, about his arrogance or his handsome looks, the idea that he might actually be interesting had never occurred to her. Had she been too annoyed, or too embarrassed at being sent out as the Meacham family ambassador, to notice? “Then I’m studying you, I suppose,” Theodora admitted.
    “For what purpose?” This time dark blue eyes briefly met hers before he looked away again.
    To comprehend why you claim to prefer me to Belle, she thought to herself, but she’d already played that tune and hadn’t received a satisfactory answer. “How many women have been catapulted in your direction over the past year?” she asked instead. Clearly she needed to decipher him before anything else could make sense.
    “I lost count. A great many, and everywhere between the ages of fourteen and sixty.”
    Theodora wrinkled her nose. “Sixty?”
    He nodded. “I won’t give you the lady’s name, but she assured me that she had learned all the secrets of the bed chamber and that while she could not give me an heir, she could give me endless nights of passion.”
    Theodora snorted. “It was Lady Eloisa Hinstead, wasn’t it?”
    His lips twitched. “And how did you come to that conclusion?”
    “She is quite adamant about wearing the most scandalous gowns, and I’ve heard her say several times that she has remained unmarried because she has never met a man wealthy enough to tempt her. And you are quite wealthy.”
    “So I am. And while I certainly have nothing against endless nights of passion, I do require a wife who can bear me an heir, and I would prefer a lady with whom I share both a similar number of decades and an interesting conversation.”
    “Then you’ve come here looking for interesting conversation and child-bearing hips.”
    Lord Vashton laughed, then stopped to face her. “I’ve come here to see if the spark I noticed in your eyes two months ago was simple anger, or something more.”
    “What if it was only reflected candleligh–“
    He cupped her right cheek with his left hand, leaned down, and touched his mouth to hers. Theodora stopped breathing at the slow, gentle brush, at the warmth of his breath against her cheek. As he slowly pulled away she found herself leaning forward, and just barely caught herself before she could topple over. Oh, my.
    “And so I would like us to have a genuine conversation,” he continued, his gaze still on her mouth, “without either of us digging for chinks in the other’s armor or questioning the rules of attraction.”
    “But I have to question them, because–“
    ”If someone told you that you must prefer a chicken because it came before the egg – or vice versa – would you? For that reason only?”
    “That still makes you the fox in this equation, you realize,” she said dryly, then squared her shoulders. “It’s a stupid argument.”
    “My point exactly.” A smile touched his mouth, and for a moment she couldn’t even remember what they were talking about.
    “But the chicken’s feelings will be hurt,” she finally managed, determined not to be carried off somewhere with her head in the clouds. “And the chicken is important to me.”
    “I refuse to stay away from poultry simply because the egg won’t accept that it is at least as significant to this fox as any chicken might be.” The earl made a face. “Perhaps we should stop with the analogies.”
    Theodora nodded. “Definitely, my lord. I’m not terribly excited by the notion of being either chicken or egg.”
    “In the analogy,” he pressed, looking at her intently. “Not in actuality.”
    And there it was, that unsettling, breath-speeding expression deep in his blue eyes that made her feel...naughty and pretty and desirable all at the same time. Was that look truly just for her? “Not in actuality,” she repeated.
    “Good. And call me Geoffrey.” Visibly shaking himself, the earl took her hand and placed it back over his arm as they continued along