Waking Up With a Rake Read Online Free PDF Page B

but then he’d have to stand as well. He dominated the room while merely sitting. How much more commanding would he be if she had to crane her neck to peer up at his handsome face? “You’ve made this favor sound rather wicked, my lord.”
    “Not at all. It’s just that when you call me ‘my lord’ it seems so stuffy, especially since I don’t truly deserve it,” he said. “I was wondering if you’d consider calling me Rhys instead.”
    Olivia couldn’t remain seated after that. She rose and wandered toward the window to put a bit more distance between them. “That’s a rather unusual request.”
    The sharp clack of his boots on marble announced that he had followed her. She plopped down in the center of the window seat, trying to claim all the space.
    “And here I thought you were a rather unusual girl.” His knowing look dared her to flout convention.
    Agreeing to such familiarity was the sort of thing that would turn her mother’s complexion an unhealthy shade of puce.
    Of course, that only made the notion harder to resist.
    “We would have to make a pact. It could only be when we are alone, you understand,” she said, considering the idea so seriously she wasn’t immediately aware of when he sat down beside her. “And I suppose to be fair I would have to give you leave to call me Olivia as well. But there could be no slips in public.”
    “Perhaps we should wager on it in order to insure that we keep the pact,” Lord Rhys said. He wasn’t touching her at all. There was a good inch separating them, but his heat radiated toward her, sending a tingle up her thigh. “The one who uses a Christian name in public owes the other…what?”
    “Not money,” she said, forgetting for the moment that she held wagers of any kind to be morally wrong. Besides, she wasn’t likely to call him Rhys unless she was absolutely certain no one was about. If she couldn’t lose, surely it wasn’t really gambling. “My family has buckets of it, and you support yourself by the turn of a card, so wagering money doesn’t seem particularly fair.”
    “Very well, let us leave it that the offending party would owe one as yet undetermined favor, which we would be honor-bound to fulfill, whatever it is.” He cocked his head slightly. “Do we have an accord?”
    “We do.” She nodded, wondering what an undetermined favor from a confessed libertine and incurable rake might entail. If the roiling in her belly was any indication, it promised to be wildly diverting and probably more than a little sinful.
    A secret part of her burned with curiosity.
    “Well, this has been most enjoyable, Olivia ,” he said, caressing her name with his silky baritone. Then he consulted his pocket watch. “I fear I’ve monopolized far too much of your time this afternoon, and a friend shouldn’t impose. I must be going now, but I wonder if I might return on the morrow to continue our discussion.” He closed the pocket watch face with a snap and stowed it away. “Perhaps at that time you might show me your orchids.”
    Unlike the duke’s previous representative, this man had made Olivia sorry to see him go, even if he had made her choke on her tea and was sitting too close for her comfort. “Of course, my lo—I mean, Rhys. But my plants aren’t much to see at present, it being wintertime. My work now amounts to merely laying the groundwork for blossoms in the spring.”
    “I understand. I’m undertaking a project of a similar nature. One that requires careful planning and strategy so the going may seem slow at first. But one must walk before one runs.” He stood. “Then perhaps instead you might show me over the grounds. The estate here at Barrowdell has many lovely features, I’m told. Do you ride?”
    Olivia nodded and rose to her feet. She felt far more at home on the back of a horse than in a parlor exchanging niceties. Especially slightly wicked niceties with a man who didn’t realize the window seat should have only