Lady Eve's Indiscretion Read Online Free PDF Page B

neck and made a sound of longing and pleasure in the back of her throat, and that—more than the rum, more than the holidays, more than too many months of celibacy—had him diving right back into the kiss.
    Burgeoning lust alone had made him step back.
    It was no better now. She sat across from him, eating daintily, as if all the fire and wonder shared a few moments before had never happened.
    â€œYou two are hiding.” Lady Genevieve Windham smiled as she advanced down the gallery, her expression confirming that she was teasing more than accusing. Lady Louisa’s—Lady Kesmore’s—expression was far less congenial.
    Which, in fairness, was not unusual for the fair Louisa.
    Deene rose. “Ladies, welcome. Shall I fetch more chairs?”
    â€œNo need for that.” Louisa still did not smile. “We’ve come to retrieve Evie. Mama has a breakfast to attend tomorrow, and we’re taking our leave.”
    Eve rose, looking neither relieved nor upset to be going. When had the little hoyden he’d known turned into such a composed woman?
    â€œDeene, good evening.” She cocked her head to meet his gaze. “My thanks for a lovely waltz, and for… everything.” She smiled slightly, a very different smile from any he’d seen her give out previously. This smile was sweet and a trifle mysterious. “I hope the rest of your evening is as pleasant as mine has been.”
    She linked arms with her sisters and departed, a petite blond bookended by taller siblings, and yet Deene had the sense Eve was the one establishing the direction of their progress.
    He did not dare linger here alone in the shadows, not with the likes of Lady Staines ready to unleash their daughters on him in any unguarded moment. He picked up his plate and headed directly for the card room.
    ***
    â€œI fear I’m going to be next.”
    Eve waited to make this prediction until the footmen had left and the tea trays were on the low table before the sofa.
    Louisa looked up from her book—Louisa’s nose was always in a book—and frowned. “Next? Next as in what? We’re supposed to divine the context without any further clues, Evie?” She set the book aside and leaned forward in her chair. “Food is next, and about time too.”
    â€œWhat did you mean, dearest?” Jenny was sitting at the other end of the sofa, slippers off, back resting against the arm and her knees drawn up before her.
    â€œNext to get married.”
    Eve’s sisters were silent for a few moments, but they exchanged the most maddening of older-sister looks before Jenny leapt into the breach.
    â€œIs Mr. Trottenham your choice then? He’s a very pleasant fellow, I must agree.”
    â€œNot Trit-Trot,” Louisa said, picking up a chocolate tea cake. “He’s a ninnyhammer.”
    â€œHe is a ninnyhammer.” Eve’s best decoys were always ninnyhammers. “I don’t know who. I just have a feeling I’d better choose someone, or Her Grace and His Grace will start nosing about, and then all is lost.”
    â€œLost how?” Louisa put three more cakes on her plate. “If being married means all is lost, then I’m finding it a rather agreeable end.”
    â€œLouisa, you’re supposed to eat some sandwiches first,” Eve observed.
    â€œAnd hope there are some cakes left by then, when you two will have had at them first? I intend to eat a deal of sandwiches. What do you mean, all is lost?”
    Jenny swung her feet off the sofa and set aside her copy of La Belle Assemblée . “Their Graces want only to see us happy. Maggie had offer after offer, and Papa turned every one of them down.”
    â€œMaggie’s situation is different,” Eve said. “She made it to thirty. She was safe. Sophie has gone and married her baron too, though, and Louisa’s led Joseph up the aisle. We two are all our parents have to focus