One Naughty Night2 Read Online Free PDF Page A

be in?
    Aidan turned back toward his errand, but his path was blocked by a woman just emerging from the music shop next door. A large, jostling, laughing group passed by and knocked against her. She tottered on the uneven cobblestones, her bonnet knocked askew over her eyes.
    Aidan caught her before she could fall, his armscoming around her waist before he could even think. She landed against his chest, soft and warm.
    “Oh!” she said, laughing. Her gloved hands curled into his waistcoat to hold herself steady. “I do beg your pardon, sir. So clumsy of me.”
    “Not at all,” Aidan said. He was rather intrigued by the bundle that had so suddenly tumbled into his arms. He held on to her as she found her balance. She wasn’t very tall, her bonnet coming only to his shoulder, and her body felt slender and delicate under that softness. And she smelled like violets, as cool and sweet as a rainy spring day.
    Intrigued by two women in one day—he
was
becoming a romantic.
    But then she pushed her bonnet back into place and peeked up at him, and he saw it was only one woman after all. She was the same as his mystery lady in the window, and she had fallen right into his arms.
    Her laughter faded away and her eyes, a sherry brown under thick black lashes, narrowed as she studied his face, and her brow furrowed a bit. A tiny dimple appeared in one pink-flushed cheek, and Aidan had the overwhelming urge to touch it. To kiss her just there and see if she tasted of sweet violets and an English springtime.
    “It’s very crowded here today. Collisions seem inevitable,” he said near her ear. Dark ringlets curled there, soft against her skin.
    “Indeed it is,” she said uncertainly. “I was fortunate you were there to catch me.”
    “Not at all. The good fortune seems to be all mine today.”
    Her frown deepened, and she let go of his coat quickly,as if she only just realized she held on to him. She took a step back, and Aidan felt cold where she had pressed against him.
    He almost never felt this way about a woman, so very intrigued by just a glance, a touch. Who was she? What was it about her that drew him in like that? He couldn’t let her go, not yet.
    “Please, let me make amends for nearly knocking you over,” he said.
    Her frown flickered. “Amends?”
    Aidan laughed, trying to put her at ease, making her stay with him. “Nothing too nefarious, I assure you. A cup of tea? This cafe is most respectable, I promise.”
    She glanced back over her shoulder, and for a moment, Aidan was afraid she might run from him. But then she gave him a little smile. A mere ghost of a smile over her pretty pink lips, but for the moment it was enough.
    “Perhaps if you add a scone to that tea, I might be persuaded,” she said.
    “As many scones as you like,” Aidan answered, and held out his arm to her. “And maybe emeralds or pearls? A fine carriage? A castle?”
    She laughed out loud, a silvery, sweet sound Aidan feared he would do anything to hear again. She slid her gloved hand into the crook of his arm.
    “Just the tea for now,” she said as he led her into the cafe. “We’ll see about the castle later.”

Chapter Three
    L ily settled herself at the tiny table in the corner and watched Aidan Huntington as he made his way to the counter to order.
Aidan Huntington—
she could hardly believe she was here with him after their long-ago encounter at the theater docks.
    What was she thinking? She had vowed to harden her heart to him, to forget the memory of their kiss. She was just getting her life in order again; he was a distraction she did not need. He was a Huntington, for pity’s sake.
    But when he smiled at her, flirted with her, when she felt the hard strength of his body under her hand—somehow she simply could not turn away from him. She wanted him to smile at her again.
    She was not the only woman who felt that way. Lily watched the crowd as he threaded his way through it, and every lady between the ages of five and