Lessons of Desire Read Online Free PDF Page A

so grateful to you."
    He smiled kindly when she released him. He seemed to understand her excitement and forgive her exuberance. If his gaze had warmed a little from her impulsive embrace, well, he was a man after all.
    He appeared quite magnificent right now in his perfectly tailored, brown frock coat and high boots. His smile did much to soften the severity of the Rothwell face. Unlike his older brothers, Lord Elliot was reputed to smile often, and it appeared that was true.
    He looked around her sitting room. His gaze lit upon her writing desk. "I have interrupted your letter, I fear."
    "An interruption I most welcomed. I was writing to Alexia and pouring out my story of woe, on the chance I could at least throw my letter down to you when you returned here"
    "Why not complete the letter at once and let her know all is well? I will take it to Cornell. He sails in two days for Portsmouth, and will post it to London from there."
    "What a splendid idea, if you will not think me rude to jot a few more lines."
    "Not at all, Miss Blair. Not at all."
    She sat down and quickly added a paragraph telling Alexia that all had been resolved happily, thanks to Alexia's new brother-in-law Lord Elliot. She folded, addressed, and sealed the paper, and stood with it in her hand. Lord Elliot gently plucked it from her fingers. He tucked it into his frock coat.
    He resumed his perusal of the sitting room and its views. "You came to the door yourself, Miss Blair. Where is your abigail?"
    "I have no abigail, Lord Elliot. No servants. Not even in London."
    "Is that due to another philosophical belief?"
    "It is a practical decision. An uncle left me a respectable income, but I would rather spend it in other ways."
    "How sensible. However, your lack of a servant is inconvenient."
    "Not at all." She turned on her toes and the drapes of her black gauze garment and long hair fanned out. "A dress like this does not require a maid to truss me and my hair requires only a brush."
    "I was not thinking of your dressing. I need to speak with you about this development, and with no maid in this apartment ...
    He worried for her reputation should she be with a man alone. How charming.
    "Lord Elliot, it is impossible for you to compromise me because I am above such stupid social rules. Besides, this is a business meeting of sorts, is it not? Our privacy is not only allowed in such situations, but also necessary." She doubted he would accept her reasoning, logical though it was. Men like him never did.
    To her amazement he capitulated immediately. "You are correct. Therefore we shall proceed. Will you not sit? This could take some time."
    He appeared very serious all of a sudden. Serious and stern and ... . hard. His gesture toward the divan carried more command than his polite request implied. The temptation to remain standing nipped at her. She sat but only because he had just procured her freedom.
    He settled into a chair that faced her. He gave her a good look, as if sizing her up. He might have never seen her before and now tried to interpret the peculiar image she presented.
    She could not shake the sense that, in a manner of speaking, she had never seen him before either. There was none of his quiet amusement now, just a long, examining, invasive gaze that made her uneasy. A very feminine response rumbled deeply in her essence.
    That was the damndest thing about handsome men. Their beauty left one at a disadvantage when they directed attention at you. This man was very handsome. He was also very masculine in most ways, and subtly so in the worst ones. Right now he seemed to be deliberately trying to unsettle her. He did not do it for carnal reasons, she was sure. Yet his aura projected that lure too, and her blood reacted to it.
    Protecting, possessing, conquering—they were all facets of the same primitive instinct, weren't they? A man could not follow one inclination without arousing the others in himself, and a woman was easily vanquished if she did