Proper Scoundrel Read Online Free PDF

secret and all. She’d already seen evidence of his integrity, though she had no proof it would last. He was still a man, damn him, and more intoxicatingly male than any she’d come across. Though he could be playing a role, to put her at her ease.
     
    Not to be trusted.
     
    Dangerous.
     
    Except that Marcus was Ivy’s friend, and Ivy was an excellent judge of character. Except that Ivy was a man ... still, when he’d come to condole with her after Gram’s death, and she told him she needed a man of affairs and why, he found Marcus for her.
     
    True, she liked Marcus on sight. Too much. She knew that right off. She fought the sizzling pull the day he arrived, certain he must be bad for her ... until Emily trusted him enough to sleep in his arms—bless him and curse him as well.
     
    Something about Marcus Fitzalan shivered her deep inside, paradoxically making her crave more of the selfsame restiveness. Remaining in his presence reminded her of sitting too near a blaze. You knew it could scorch you, but you moved closer and closer, fascinated, despite all sense to the contrary.
     
    Jade cursed and stood on the chair in an attempt to reach an old account book hanging off the edge of an upper shelf, still too high to grasp.
     
    With a bit of experimentation, she discovered she could nudge it out—and hopefully off the shelf—by smacking its exposed edge with a ledger she could reach. Dust flew in her face with each blow. Jade sneezed once, twice, three quick times.
     
    The door opened and Marcus stepped in. “I followed the thumps. Your sneezes led me the rest of the way. Need help? Damsels in distress are my specialty.”
     
    “I’d have wagered as much, but I am doing fine on my own, thank you very—Oops!”
     
    He swung her down and into his arms before she could protest—though why she should object escaped her at the moment. She had never imagined feeling so light, so protected, so ... feminine?
     
    His bracing arms warmed the backs of her thighs ... nothing compared to the heat radiating from his hand at the side of her breast. She wished she had not spread her arms for balance when he toppled her, else there’d not be a distinct pulsing link between her budding breast and the centre of her womanhood.
     
    Loathe to terminate this new and oddly pleasant sensation, inclined rather to savour it, Jade avoided getting a sore neck by resting her head on Marcus’s wide, sturdy shoulder.
     
    Safe? Secure?
     
    Outwardly ... perhaps. Inwardly, an eruption, or an insurrection, seemed to be taking place. She should move from his embrace, immediately, if not sooner.
     
    Gram would accuse her of hiding. Jade decided she was procrastinating ... wickedly. She had never felt so much a woman. Provocative. Perilous.
     
    She should move.
     
    Just a minute more. Another.
     
    “Put me down,” she said on a sigh, still closely nestled against him, enjoying his spearmint scent that somehow enhanced her body’s unusual reaction. “I have things to do.”
     
    “In a dithering rush, are you?”
     
    She dare not smile outwardly at his wit.
     
    His breath warmed her face, warmed other parts too.
     
    She had never been held by a man. Hard and strong, but surprisingly soft and ... gentle? An enigma that should serve as a warning.
     
    “I am in a hurry. Truly. I have dinner plans.”
     
    “I’m sincerely sorry to hear it.”
     
    Jade gazed at the growth of whiskers shadowing his face, making him look both dangerous and enticing. With her index finger, she touched the indentation on his chin that dimpled when he nearly smiled.
     
    He chuckled and her fingertip fell in.
     
    “It’s deeper than I thought.”
     
    The devil stared down at her with fire in his eyes.
     
    “We have work to do,” she said in token protest. “Put me down.”
     
    He sat on the chair still holding her. “Whatever has to be done, we can, neither of us, remember what it is at this moment; you know that as well as I.” He