To Charm a Naughty Countess Read Online Free PDF Page A

the order of precedence. However, a widowed countess has freedoms that even a married duchess does not.” She raised her chin. “Have you any other arguments, Wyverne?”
    “This is not an argument,” Wyverne said in a clipped voice. “It is a proposal.” At last, he looked her in the eye.
    Her skin felt overheated under the cool caress of the night breeze, and her throat caught on something painful.
    Drat. She clearly wasn’t as prepared for Wyverne as she’d thought. How could she build a defense against him when there was no one like him on whom to practice?
    But this was hardly a reason to toss away everything she had worked to gain for herself. If her youthful fascination—if Wyverne himself—could be mastered, then nothing and no one would have a hold on her.
    “As I have already told you, Wyverne, I do not accept your proposal,” Caroline said. “Instead, I offer you one of my own.”
    His brows lifted. “An investment? I had not thought of making a financial bargain.”
    “That is exactly what you did think of when you deigned to offer me your hand in exchange for my money. But I am not interested in marriage, especially for financial reasons.”
    “What do you propose, then, if money is of no interest to you?”
    “Money is of great interest to me, but not in relation to you.”
    “Then we have nothing more to talk about.”
    “But we do, Wyverne.” She was blurting the words almost before she knew what she intended to say, knowing only that she could not let Wyverne dismiss her again. “I could help you with a more personal arrangement. If a fortune is what you desire, I can put you in the way of a few wealthy fools with whom you might gamble.”
    A hint of a smile; just a slight dent at the corner of his firm mouth. “Fortunately for those fools, I cannot afford the time or risk of gaming tables. No, it must be a sure thing.”
    She cast about for another idea. “Names, then. The names of a few women you might court. I’m certain I can think of someone who would serve your purpose better than I.”
    “You are certain of that, are you?” Evergreen eyes caught hers. That was all he said, and as she looked at him, the air seemed to lay sultry over her, like a satin shawl.
    “I’m certain, yes. I am not the same woman you knew, Wyverne. And I know more than you realize.”
    There was something coiled and intense in his stance. Caroline saw his gaze float down her body, then back up to her face, and he swallowed. His fingers began a jittery dance on the balustrade. “I must marry,” he said in a strangled voice, “and soon, and for money. I can pursue nothing else.”
    “I know that too.” Some sweet edge within her began to crumble.
    He was as unyielding as she remembered. Though awkward, he was completely certain of his own rightness. He was difficult to be around, and perhaps that was why he was so difficult to forget.
    As swiftly as Wyverne shook off her touch, slanted a reluctant glance over her face, Caroline’s old fascination had bloomed again. She wanted to caress away those fine lines, tease his troubles off his soul, feel his skin sliding under hers, hot and tight with desire. She wanted to shake up his sense of honor, unsettle him, enchant him.
    She had always wanted that.
    But she would not let him know. If he cared only for a fortune, any woman with plump pockets might do.
    “Names,” he said at last, “will do me no good. All the names you might suggest, unless they be yours or Lady Applewood’s, belong to people who think me mad and will not speak to me.”
    “Dear me. And neither of us is available for matrimony at present.”
    He turned away from her, leaning on his elbows and looking out over the garden.
    “Wyverne, this is ridiculous. You’re no more mad than…”
    “The king?” His voice dropped low, like stones into water.
    “Certainly not.” The poor king raved and frothed. Wyverne, as Caroline remembered him, simply didn’t fit into a neat corner of