Tempted by a Lady’s Smile Read Online Free PDF Page A

purely masculine.
    He drew back and a little moan of protest bubbled in her throat. “Mayhap not arrogant, then,” he whispered, brushing a kiss to where her pulse pounded hard in her neck. “Not if you’d accept the kiss of a stranger.”
    His damnable calm doused all the delicious butterflies dancing in her belly. In a move shown her by Emery when she’d been a young girl, Gemma jerked her knee up but the gentleman swiftly closed his long fingers about her knee. He caressed her through the fabric of her skirts setting off a delicious fluttering low in her belly. Words, Gemma. Indignant, furious words. Say something. Anything . “D-don’t touch me. Or I shall tell the duke.” She cringed. That was the very boldest retort she had after his bold, if magical, embrace? I am a wanton. Surely there was nothing else to explain this tumult of emotion.
    “Will you?” A challenge laced that question.
    “The marquess won’t a-approve of your k-kissing his guests.” Gemma yanked her knee free of his hold. That abrupt movement sent her tipping back and she tossed her arms out to keep from toppling over in an undignified heap, but he shot a hand out and easily steadied her.
    “Won’t he, love?” He wrapped that last word in a husky, slightly mocking endearment.
    “You wouldn’t understand, sir, because you clearly are not a gentleman.” She settled her hands upon her hips.
    “I imagine he’ll have more questions about why a supposed lady is wandering his property with no proper chaperone.”
    At the unerring truth and accuracy to that charge, a dull flush heated her entire body and she tripped over herself in her bid to get away. And hating that this man was accurate and hating how very damning this seemed to him in his opinion of her attempts at “trapping” the marquess and her scandalous return of his kiss.
    Given his position on the estates, however, there was little need for their paths to again cross. Which was, indeed, good. “If you will excuse me?” she asked stiffly. Not allowing him a chance to respond, she spun on her heel and sprinted down the graveled path, on to the entrance of the Duke of Somerset’s grand home.
    The back of her neck burned from the eyes trained on her by the gruff, mannerless, towering steward. The quality of his attire revealed him to be a member of the duke’s staff and yet he spoke in the cultured tones with the insolent charges of a man of loftier origins. The quality of his horseflesh also revealed him to be a man of some wealth.
    And whoever the stranger had been…he’d discovered her, which would prove calamitous to her intentions for this entire blasted event—to bring Lord Westfield ’round. Being caught alone, with her hair tumbled past her shoulders, and racing in such an indecorous manner would cause nothing less than a scandal. Then, mayhap the stranger didn’t truly find anything of interest in her gallivanting about the grounds—alone. She stole a quick look over her shoulder and even with the distance she’d placed between them, found his eyes burning into the path she now traveled. Gemma hurriedly yanked her stare forward.
    Her breath coming fast from her exertions, Gemma skidded to a halt outside the rear entrance of the palatial estate. She brushed her hands over her flushed cheeks and then stood frozen until she regained a semblance of calm. Shoving aside thoughts of the duke’s steward, she returned her attention to what, rather who, was responsible for her having been traipsing about the lake.
    Her first efforts at locating Lord Westfield had proven wholly dismal. Gemma firmed her jaw. For all Society had to say about her, there was one elemental piece they’d not gleaned—she was a determined young lady.
    And she was determined to capture the Marquess of Westfield’s heart.

Chapter 3
    I n the course of his thirty-three years, Richard had never been one of those gentlemen who’d caroused, wagered, and drank.
    Until just recently, that was. Much