Pursued By The Viscount Read Online Free PDF

lord, but neither am I unaware of its existence in the marriages of my friends. Thea is very lucky in her husband, as is Sally, and now Fliss.” She smiled sadly. “I have no doubt the duke’s temper that day was because he and Thea had not…consummated their attraction for each other.”
    Lucien could not help but hear how formally she spoke of the attraction she had never experienced. As he was aware of how carefully he must proceed with this particular woman. Of the fine line between helping to take down Rachel’s barriers in regard to being touched and causing her to recoil if he went too far, too fast.
    The longer he was alone in her company, the more he wanted to touch her.
    Having been allowed to see behind her mask, Lucien could no longer dismiss Rachel as that tease and social butterfly. And she looked so very beautiful this evening. Her golden tresses were secured at her crown with two diamond pins, with several enticing tendrils at her temples and nape. Her silk gown was the color of the leaves of a copper beech in autumn and perfectly complemented her delicate ivory skin. Its fashionable style revealed the soft swell of her breasts and shoulders, and the slender elegance of her arms above elbow-length cream lace gloves.
    Patience had never been one of Lucien’s virtues, and Rachel’s appearance this evening, along with his new knowledge of her true nature, had raised his physical awareness of her to an almost unbearable degree.
    So much so that if they ever succeeded in dancing the waltz together, Lucien had no doubt she would be made aware of his current—and totally inappropriate—state of arousal.
    He straightened abruptly. “Perhaps you will feel differently about us dancing together once we are at the Walkers’ ball.”
    She looked at him curiously. “You are admitting defeat in our current endeavor?”
    Lucien never admitted defeat. Over anything. Nor would he do so where his newly discovered attraction to Rachel was concerned.
    His physical relationships with women, usually mature and experienced women, were never of more than a few weeks duration, and none of them anything more than the satisfying of a physical itch. For either party. Lucien knew he must marry one day, but for now he had no interest in establishing a long-term relationship. At seven and thirty, there was still plenty of time for him to produce the grandson his father, the Earl of Stonewall, so often hinted at.
    As it happened, Lucien was not currently in one of those relationships, and he had now realized how much he wanted Rachel. Nothing and no one—not even Rachel herself—would make him back down from fulfilling that desire. He fully intended to be the man to introduce this beautiful woman to how enjoyable lovemaking could be with the right man.
    Where Rachel was concerned, he fully intended to be that man.

    “Did I not tell you our being here together would cause gossip?” Rachel could not resist teasing the scowl darkening Brooketon’s brow. Or the way he looked down his haughty nose at any of the ton who dared to glance their way as the two of them stood together in the Walkers’ ballroom.
    “Having an ‘I told you so’ attitude is not an attractive trait,” he answered distractedly as his sharp gaze moved analytically about the room.
    Rachel burst out laughing, which caused even more heads to turn in their direction. Viscount Brooketon was more generally known for his air of disdain than inducing laughter in those around him.
    “They should all attend to their own business,” he added scathingly.
    “For most of these women, gossip is all they have to amuse them.” Rachel sighed. “Do you have any idea how tedious the days can be for a woman, with nothing to occupy her time but approving the following day’s menu, her embroidery, or reading?”
    “Which is why, no doubt, so many of them take a lover?”
    “No doubt,” Rachel confirmed stiffly.
    “I was not referring to you.” Lucien deliberately