Her Secret Fantasy Read Online Free PDF Page B

turn your back on your family?”
    Derek flinched and looked away.
    “Father’s old, you know,” Gabriel said. “He won’t be around forever. And what about our sister? Aren’t you the least bit curious about meeting your future niece or nephew when her child is born? And what about Griff’s little boy? Matthew, you know, he adores you.”
    “It’s not as if I’m never coming back!”
    “Well,” Gabriel said slowly, “you might not.”
    Derek looked at him for a long moment, his expression darkening. “I’ve got a score to settle in India, brother. I will not rest until it’s done.”
    “Not for me you don’t,” Gabriel warned him, shaking his head. “Hell, no. Just let it go.”
    “Let it go?” Derek’s face flushed with anger.
    “It was a fair fight. You only want revenge because you blame yourself for what happened to me, but I don’t blame you, Derek. I did it willingly. You’re my brother. Of course I’d give my life for you.”
    “You are so irritatingly noble,” Derek muttered, studying the ceiling as he fought for patience.
    “You’d do the same for me.” With a low laugh, Gabriel leaned back against the couch, beginning to look tired again. “I didn’t save your arse just so you could go back to the battlefield and get yourself blown up. But there, no more. I’ve said my piece. Do what you want.”
    Derek just looked at him. “Has the mail come yet?” he asked, firmly changing the subject.
    “Over there.”
    Derek took another swallow of brandy and strode over to the demi-lune table by the door, where he had buried the mail on its silver tray beneath his files from Horse Guards. He set the files aside and picked up the pile of new invitations and bills and half dozen prettily written notes in fine pastel papers scented with various blends of expensive perfume.
    He frowned, ignoring the lot.
Damn it.
Nothing yet from Colonel Montrose. He wanted word of his men, but news was slow to travel between England and India. He would have to be patient a while longer, it seemed. Well, he could certainly find other ways of amusing himself in the meanwhile.
    Leaving the bills and invitations on the salver, he took the candy-colored letters from all his new lady friends in Town and fanned them out in his grasp like a hand of cards, sauntering back toward his brother and feeling a bit more cheerful again as he inhaled their enticing fragrances with a sardonic smile.
    “What, more of your bloody love letters?” Gabriel asked, arching an eyebrow.
    “Love?” Derek laughed. “Not exactly.”
    He offered the fanned spread of notes to his brother. “Pick one. Go on.”
    “Why?”
    “How else am I going to decide who to sleep with tonight?”
    “You know you are incorrigible, right?”
    “Life is short,” Derek said.
    Gabriel gave him a droll look and made a random selection, pulling a light green letter from the middle. He handed it to him.
    “Ah, an excellent choice,” Derek said mildly, reading the name. “Lady Amherst, then. Good enough.”
    “What about the others?”
    “Oh, I’ll get around to them before I leave Town, trust me.” With an irreverent smile, he tossed the others carelessly aside for now. They fell like pale confetti and he dropped lazily into the chair across from his brother, where he cracked open the short but scandalous letter from the ravishing Lady Amherst.
    He laughed softly at her clever innuendoes as he read, stretching his legs out before him.
    “Oh, damn,” he said after a moment as he reached the last paragraph. “I forgot about that masked ball I said we’d go to. It’s tonight.”
    “We?”
    “Didn’t I mention? You’re coming, too.”
    “The hell I am.”
    “Gabriel, you can’t lock yourself alone in here forever,” he informed him. “Besides, we have to celebrate my victory over the cheese-parers! I’m not talking about going in costume if that’s your worry. It’ll cheer you up.”
    “On the contrary, I’m sure it would annoy me