Tempting Bella (Entangled Scandalous) Read Online Free PDF Page B

mastery of his craft.”
    “A woman gifted with uncommon beauty and a keen mind. Are you a student of art?”
    She laughed again, her golden-brown eyes sparkling. “Hardly. I appreciate beautiful things.” Her eyes returned to the painting. “And am fortunate enough to be able to indulge myself on occasion.”
    “You’re a collector.”
    She kept her gaze on the painting. “I have not collected any of Will Stanhope’s works as of yet, but he truly is a forward thinking artist.”
    Will ? Sebastian thought his brother’s nickname rolled too easily off the woman’s pillowed lips. “Have you made the artist’s acquaintance?”
    She perked a perfectly arched brow and seemed to consider the question. “I suppose you could say that. In a manner of speaking.”
    His brother knew this woman? His gut twisted a little. Just how well acquainted were they? She was obviously enamored of Will’s work. Sebastian had witnessed firsthand the number of women who threw themselves at artistic types like his brother.
    “There you are, Stan—” Pen popped his head into the study, stopping abruptly after catching sight of the woman. He cast an inquiring appreciative look in her direction. “Oh, do excuse my interruption. Dinner is being served,” he announced without taking his frankly admiring eyes off the woman. “Adelaide says you promised to escort her to dinner.”
    The last thing Sebastian wanted to do was leave. What he really desired was to slam the study door in Pen’s face, hopefully blackening at least one of those impudent eyes. Instead, he merely bowed in her direction. After all, he already had a wife and couldn’t even offer to escort this woman to dinner since they’d not been formally introduced. Longing to thrash Will for being late, he resolved to waylay his brother as soon as he arrived to ensure the proper introductions were made.
    “Pray do go on. I will make my way in a few minutes. My escort is to meet me here.”
    Her escort? Sebastian noticed she did not refer to her husband. The ignorant oaf apparently allowed this remarkable woman to flit about the metropolis escorted by other men.
    Later, after supper, when Will still had not made an appearance, Sebastian decided to depart. Taking leave of his hostess, he turned into an empty hallway off the main public rooms.
    “Why, Sebastian Stanhope,” chirped a breathy female voice, “you are not trying to sneak away, are you?”
    Masking his annoyance, he turned and executed a cordial bow before Jacintha Belfield’s modest, but overexposed, bosom. “Lady Hawke,” he uttered with cool civility. “How exceptional you look this evening.”
    The stunning blonde flicked her fan open in a practiced flirtation. “Exceptional enough to tempt a saint?”
    “I trust Lord Hawke is well?”
    “Well enough.” Irritation sparked in her pale blue eyes at the mention of her current husband, an aging marquess forty years her senior. “But his lordship is most unsatisfactory in some areas, as you are aware.”
    He ignored the insinuation, and its unspoken invitation. “Do give him my regards.”
    She drew closer on a husky laugh. “You would do better to give them to me.”
    The once-familiar scent of her perfume reached him, recalling lust-soaked hours of mindless pleasure and startlingly inventive bed play. “As always, it is kind of you to offer, Jacintha, but I must decline.”
    Coming even nearer, she brushed her hand between his legs. To Sebastian’s disgust, his body responded even as he stepped away. “I am married, Jacintha.”
    “As am I.”
    “All the more reason for restraint.”
    “One is hardly married if his wife stays abroad for years and never warms his bed.” Her fingertips teased along his forearm. “She’s a fool, that wife of yours, to leave you unattended. It wasn’t so long ago that you allowed me to satisfy your needs.”
    “Our circumstances were different then. You were between marriages and I had yet to take a