Seductive as Flame Read Online Free PDF Page B

“And all the rest as soon as may be. I’m starved.” Sliding down in his chair as the girl left the room, he looked at Zelda from under his impossibly long lashes and, accomplished at putting women at ease, urbanely said, “I didn’t have time to eat. I had to help get Chris ready. He was so excited at the prospect of his first hunt he couldn’t stand still. Have you ever tried putting a pair of riding boots on a child’s limp foot?”
    “Yes, as a matter of fact. Many times.”
    “You have children?” His urbanity yielded to a soft tone of avid interest.
    “Would it make a difference if I did?”
    “Of course not.”
    His smile was fatally attractive. She felt its warmth clear down to her toes and in other less innocuous places. “Sorry to disappoint you,” she dulcetly said, knowing what he’d been thinking. “I raised my five younger siblings when my mother died. I’m not promiscuous like you. As for one little boy’s limp foot, that’s paltry stuff. Try five pairs of feet and a father outside bawling for us to hurry before the dogs go wild.”
    He laughed. “I’m suitably chastened. Are any of them here with you?”
    She shook her head. “They’re all grown. My only sister is married and the boys are now men, with the exception of Duncan, who’s at school in Edinburgh.”
    “You look too young to have done all that.”
    “You mean I don’t look haggard after raising five children?”
    “I mean you look eighteen,” he said with gallantry and charm.
    “No, I don’t, but thank you.” She inclined her head. “ You look as though you’ve done this once or twice before.”
    He smiled. “How does one look after that?”
    “A certain jaundice in your eyes, an insolence, too. Do women ever refuse you?”
    He hesitated. They didn’t, of course.
    “Ah—there’s my answer.”
    “Does it make a difference?”
    “Not as much as your wife does.”
    His expression changed, the nonchalance stripped away. “Are you looking for a husband then?”
    “Not particularly. I meant she looks dangerous. I’m not sure I wish to take on a woman like that for nothing more than an amorous romp.”
    “She won’t know.”
    Zelda’s smile was sardonic. “Care to make a wager?”
    “Then let me say she won’t care.”
    “You don’t know women as well as you think, my lord.”
    “Unfortunately I know her,” he said, icy and cool.
    “Perhaps we could do this some other time instead.” Zelda accepted her outrageous attraction to him, and wanted, also, strangely, to comfort him from the misery of his marriage. “I don’t mean to be coquettish. It’s just that the circumstances aren’t convenient. My father’s here. Not that he has jurisdiction over my life at my age, but still, he’s here. And seriously, your wife is a real stumbling block.”
    “We could go to my hunting box.” He watched her with a skeptical neutrality, wondering if she wanted something more or what she wanted, because women always did.
    “We’d be missed if we left Groveland Chase.”
    “I don’t care if we are.”
    “Yes, you do. I saw you with your stepson this morning. He’d notice if you went missing.”
    “Jesus,” he softly muttered, sliding lower on his spine. “Are you my bloody conscience?”
    She smiled faintly. “He’s important to you. I could tell. In fact, I had a small sentimental lapse looking at you two together this morning on the drive. I expect I was missing my siblings.”
    “I saw you, too.” A gruff, reluctant admission. “It was all I could do not to ride over and talk to you.”
    It shouldn’t have mattered, but it warmed her heart. “I’m trying to be sensible about this. You interest me. There, I said it. But I’m not interested in making a spectacle of myself this weekend.”
    “When then?”
    “For someone notable for his amorous skills, that was rather crude.”
    “Forgive me, I didn’t mean to be uncivil,” he said, his smile a little lopsided and wholly disarming. “I