Ripe for Scandal Read Online Free PDF

him?”
    “Yes!”
    The venom in that single word took him aback. “My apologies, bantling. Next time I’ll try to do better.”
    He took a deep breath and whipped the cord free with sharp, deliberate movements, trying not to think about the fact that
     Lady Boudicea Vaughn was about to stand before him, one damp layer from naked. Trying not to compare the reality of it to
     the daydreams he so often used to while away the time.
    Damnation. The reality was so much better… and infinitely worse. The cord swung free of the last hole and she ripped her stays
     away from her body, flinging them to the ground as though she despised them as much as she did her abductor.
    Her head was bent forward, exposing the nape of her neck, the visible trail of her spine leading downward into her shift.
     He traced it with his finger, stopping only when he reached the tie that held her petticoats in place.
    Gareth stared at her back, at the sheer linen clinging damply to her skin, at the ties to her petticoats, lying quiescent
     beneath his fingertips.
    Heaven help him.
    She shivered and stepped away, and he told himself firmly that it was just the rain. That shiver hadn’t been for him, because
     of him.
    She retrieved her jacket from where he’d laid it across the saddle and turned to face him, fabric clutched to her chest. “You
     said rescuing me from myself.” Her brow furrowed. “You thought I was eloping?” Anger and annoyance flared in her voice, bringing
     it down an octave.
    “It wouldn’t be the first time.”
    She blinked, drawing a clearly affronted breath. “Leo wouldn’t have told you that. Never.”
    “I was with him when your father came to fetch him. It was impossible not to put the facts together and come to the obvious
     conclusion.”
    She set her mouth in a mulish line and shoved her arms into the sleeves of her jacket. “Well, you put it together as badly
     then as you did just now. I have
never
eloped.”
    Abducted. The flash of rage returned. That any man should presume to touch her, to force her. “You’re right. I should have
     shot the bastard.”
    He stooped to retrieve her stays, his brain clearly picturing the sway of her breasts, the rosy shadow of her nipples, the
     way that the damp fabric clung to every luscious curve.
    It was so clear in his mind that he might as well have looked his fill. Instead, he rolled the stays tightly and bound them
     with their cord and then jammed them into his saddlebag. When he turned back, she was nearly done refastening her jacket,
     though it gapped and pulled across the swell of her unrestrained breasts.
    Chivalry withered in his chest, burnt to a crisp by the flare of desire, of lust and covetousness. He really was no better
     than the men who’d taken her. Or if he was, it was only because her brother was his friend. That singlefact was the only thing allowing him to cling to honor even now.
    “I think you’ve missed a few hooks, but you’ll do.” He remounted and held out his hand. She took it, and using his foot as
     her stirrup, leveraged herself into his lap.
    Gareth unbuttoned his greatcoat and pulled her inside it, warding off as much of the rain as he could. She sat stiffly in
     the circle of his arms, clearly still affronted.
    Rescuer or fellow villain, which was he? Which did he want to be? He’d told himself all these years he was a good man, but
     with every passing second it felt more and more like a lie.

CHAPTER 5
    P adrig Nowlin watched the rump of the highwayman’s gray mount disappear into the rain and the mist with horror and sickening
     disbelief. This couldn’t be happening. They’d planned everything so carefully.
He’d
planned everything so carefully.
    Whoever heard of a highwayman acting as this one had? And what kind of woman threw herself into the arms of an unknown criminal?
     She hadn’t done it because she was scared of him either. Lady Boudicea had proved to be everything he’d been warned she was:
     fickle, fast with