The Stanhope Challenge - Regency Quartet - Four Regency Romances Read Online Free PDF Page A

compliment with radiant joy. “I chose it especially for this evening.”
    Did you now? Adam was going to extract her from this assembly and show her just what he had chosen for this evening. A good spanking. A chance to lock her up and throw away the key, that’s what!
    “Well done, Mrs. Stanhope.” The old man made a gesture to dismiss himself. “I want your opinion on the funding for the Spanish Campaign. Your husband,” Ulmsly addressed Felice with a solicitous voice, “is becoming the foremost expert on the Army’s preparedness.”
    “Indeed, Sir Henry,” she replied to Adam’s surprise. “His calculations on regularity of transport of foodstuffs and ammunition are ones you should take heed of.”
    Ulmsly laughed. “Know them, do you?”
    She nodded. “My business is to understand my husband’s positions.”
    “I think you are right, madam! And so we shall heed them, too. See you next Wednesday, Adam. Mrs. Stanhope. Pray, excuse me. Wonderful to talk with you.”
    He was no sooner gone than Adam stared into Felice’s golden eyes and demanded an explanation. “How do you know about my views of supply?”
    She lifted one elegant, creamy and nearly bare shoulder. “I read the papers.”
    He was gratified she cared about such things. “Come with me to the garden.”
    “And if I do not wish to come?”
    “I shall throw you over my shoulder and carry you there.”
    “You would not dare!”
    He made a move to pick her up, and she yelped.
    “I’m coming,” she told him between tight lips. “Take my arm.”

Chapter Four
    Her perfume swirled around him. Lilacs? Lilies? Who the hell knew? Whatever it was, he inhaled it and understood his sanity had not survived the assault. As they traversed the terrace and navigated the maze of boxwoods, his temper rose.
    With the moonlight brilliant and the breeze bustling through the evergreens, he drew Felice through the lanes of the complex maze and found a stone bench.
    “Please sit down, Fee.” He was going to try to be more than civil. After all, he had rehearsed this so many times, he knew the speech by heart. But the way Fee looked, the way she had changed her appearance unnerved him. Her hair made him wonder about the texture as her curls ruffled in the wind. Her smile made him question if he had truly tasted those lips on their wedding day. Her gown made him ponder what it would be like to take it off her, measure those marvelous breasts in his hands and suck her huge silken nipples again. And if he once more did that, would not he want to insert his very hard and heavy cock inside that wet warm chat of hers?
    He cleared his throat.
    “I am fortunate to have found you,” he declared, “and only by chance. You’ve done a good job of sequestering yourself. Why the hell have you been with my aunt Amaryllis?”
    She lifted a shoulder. “She invited me.”
    “How? When?”
    “The day after I returned from Dover,” she said in a voice he could barely hear. “A friend of hers saw me engage a room in a small lodging house in Jermyn Street and told her. She came to call on me and insisted I be her guest.”
    “I am grateful to her,” he declared. “She kept you safe and secure.”
    “And was discreet about it, too.”
    “Damnably so! I could not find you!”
    “You looked?” she asked, her luminous eyes wide and quite stunned.
    “Of course, I did. I worried.”
    “Sweet of you. But there was no need. Aunt was kind.”
    “For that, too, I owe her great thanks. Did she inspire you to buy the new wardrobe?”
    “To change my hair, as well. Do you like it?” Fee patted the curls at her cheeks.
    “I do,” he admitted. “I suppose she also told you to send me your bills?”
    She threw him a merry smile. “That she did.”
    “I do not begrudge you paper or books or even a new wardrobe. You are my wife. But to come out in public now, with Miss Proper mocking me—”
    She bristled and turned her face up to his. “I will not be a prisoner of your