Midnight Temptations With a Forbidden Lord Read Online Free PDF Page A

to do exactly as Genny demanded. “Do you generally do what you are told to do?”
    “No, but I do not wish to cross swords with your cousin. I fear she’d dance circles around me and have me disarmed before I could raise any sort of defense.”
    And wasn’t that the truth.
    A night that had suddenly been in her favor was quickly turning to disappointment. Here she stood with the Marquess of Castleigh, society’s biggest rogue, and he trembled in fear at the thought of sparring with Genny.
    Charlotte flicked her fan open and thought out her next move. If the marquess attended dinner at the Carletons’ tomorrow evening, she’d find a way to get him alone, with her cousin far removed from the picture.
    *   *   *
     
    Tristan sat next to Hayden and across from Leo and Jez in the carriage. They’d left the duchess’s ball after Jez had thought it necessary to yell obscenities at Mr. Torrance and disturb everyone in the games room. The impudent man had insulted her, called her insensitive, and then he went on to question how she could enjoy a night out when her husband wasn’t yet cold in his grave. She’d given him many reasons that had ladies running out of the room with their hands over their ears, and gentlemen tsking at her and removing those women too stunned to leave of their own accord. He wished he’d been in the games room to defend Jez.
    It didn’t matter to Tristan that their group had been forced to leave the ball after only being there for a mere hour. The lady they intended to finagle away from Mr. Warren had left fifteen minutes prior to them, and the rest of the company at the ball was overly dull. Tristan rested his head on the back of the seat and stretched his legs out, his right shin pressed against Jez’s skirts.
    The Ponsley chit had trouble written all over her. He’d have to handle her with kid gloves so he didn’t well and truly ruin her. He didn’t think it was his imagination that she was determined to have him ruin her good name. There was a moment as they danced when he’d sensed her desire to sequester him in the darkness of the gardens.
    He was too practiced with the fairer sex to fall for such a ruse, and instead he had maneuvered her in another, much safer direction. While he was considered a man of loose morals, he did not simply indulge at the first presented opportunity, especially where women were concerned. Women should be seduced over time so that they were savored to the fullest.
    It was also odd that a debutante would specifically seek him out, and he had to know why Lady Charlotte had done so. Was she already engaged to Mr. Warren and perhaps enlightened to the man’s true character? Not possible, since a debutante wouldn’t be privy to the same information he was.
    Jez had given Tristan the impression that their nuptials hadn’t been announced and wouldn’t be for some time. Perhaps the young lady just liked to live dangerously. His own name was printed often enough in the scandal sheets for doing precisely that … Still, he was determined to know what deviousness Lady Charlotte had planned and why.
    Turning his head to the side, he noted that Hayden’s expression was dour, concerned even. Leo’s gaze seemed contemplative as he stared out at the passing scenery, which Tristan thought had more to do with one devil-tongued chaperone than Jez’s current predicament.
    “The night is still young, and midnight not yet rung.” Jez leaned her head back on the leather seat, mimicking his position. Despite her request to keep going tonight, her eyes were at half-mast from exhaustion. “Whatever will we do to occupy ourselves?”
    “Anything you like,” Tristan said, not sure why he had agreed to any such commitment when Jez clearly needed to sleep.
    Maybe she didn’t want to be alone tonight? Or maybe she needed the comfort and support of her friends a while longer. Though she did not grieve for her dead husband—the man had been a vile prick—she obviously