Married to the Viscount Read Online Free PDF

him.
    “Is she all right?” Evelina asked timidly.
    Lady Brumley’s arch voice answered, “She looks more than all right to me.”
    Spencer groaned. Lady Brumley had intruded into his study, too? Damn, the last thing he needed was that sharp-tongued creature in here, stirring the pot.
    “Really, Lord Ravenswood,” the Galleon of Gossip went on, “you could have waited until your guests were gone to…er…exert your husbandly right.”
    Bloody hell. He hadn’t thought how it might look with his “wife” lying here prone, her gown half undone, her corset unfastened, and him hovering over her like some lecher. He jumped to his feet.
    “His lordship was merely trying to make me comfortable,” Miss Mercer explained.
    “I’m sure he was.” Lady Brumley stooped to pick up the bottle Spencer had left on the floor. “What’s this? Something to enhance your…er…comfort?”
    “It’s smelling salts,” Spencer snapped as Miss Mercer said, “It’s the Mead.”
    Then Mrs. Graham burst into the room. “Oh, my lady, are you all right?” She caught sight of her mistress’s state of undress and cast Spencer a horrified glance. “What has this monster been doing to you?”
    “Out!” He’d had enough of this farce. “All of you, out! I need a moment with Miss…with my…Just get out, will you? And give a man some privacy.”
    “My lord, you must let me explain to them—” Miss Mercer began as she sat up.

    Then her corset fell completely off, revealing a chemise so sheer that the dark buds of her nipples showed through it with startling clarity.
    For a moment they all stood frozen, Spencer included. He couldn’t tear his eyes from the astounding picture of Miss Mercer bursting free of her corset like a bachelor’s erotic fantasy.
    Then Lady Tyndale cried, “My dear, your clothes!” and that snapped him out of his shock.
    Stepping in front of the chaise longue to block Abby from their view, Spencer whirled to face the growing audience crowding into his study. “Get out now! All of you! You, too, Mrs. Graham. I’ll tend to your mistress.”
    Reluctantly, the servant retreated, as did the others, who looked thoroughly scandalized. Even that nosy Lady Brumley, after casting a sly glance at Spencer, pocketed the bottle she’d been examining and walked out.
    A blessed silence descended on his study. Then a small voice behind him broke it. “I-I can’t make it work.”
    He turned to find Miss Mercer sitting up. She’d tossed the corset aside, had wriggled her arms through the sleeves of her gown, and was now futilely attempting to refasten it.
    “Without the corset, I can’t bring the bodice together over my…well…”
    Struggling to keep his eyes off the twin endowments preventing her from fastening her gown, he quickly removed his coat and draped it over the front of her. He got a whiff of that same herbal scent, but this time it came from her—sweet, lilting, sensual…
    Good God, he must stop thinking of her like this.
    “Thank you, my lord,” she murmured. “I was beginning to feel…exposed.”
    “That’s my fault. I shouldn’t have cut up your corset.”
    She cast him a wry smile. “If you hadn’t, I’d have expiredon the spot.” Then her smile faded, and she dropped her head. “I feel very stupid. I’ve never fainted before.”
    With a sigh, he sat down beside her on the settee. “Under the circumstances, it was understandable. My brother has much to answer for.”
    “You mean, because he arranged a marriage to a man who doesn’t want me?” she burst out. Throwing her legs over the edge of the chaise longue, she arranged her skirts. “How stupid I was to believe all his claims. I should have known that men like you do not marry American nobodies, but your brother was so very convincing—”
    “Yes, Nat can be quite convincing when he wants.” He should correct her assumption about her suitability as a wife. But that would mean telling her that he never intended to marry at