When His Kiss Is Wicked Read Online Free PDF Page B

few people in Lucien’s life whom he trusted implicitly. Lucien did not have a brother, but he felt that Jeffrey Eddington was as close to having a brother as he was ever going to get.
    “I’d like to meet the lady who cut you down,” Lucien remarked with a laugh.
    “I’ve only just been introduced to her myself. A Miss Juliette Hamilton. You know I never go after the debutantes on the marriage mart, Lucien, but this one is a stunner—”
    “What name did you say?” The words sounded eerily familiar to Lucien’s ears. Hamilton with a French name. It could not possibly be the same name of the beautiful girl in the bookshop he had just met. Could it?
    “Juliette Hamilton. Do you know her?” Jeffrey asked in surprise.
    Lucien shook his head in wonder at the coincidence. “No, but I’ve heard the name before. Where is she now?” His eyes narrowed and scanned the room searching for a luscious brunette with stunning blue eyes.
    “She was dancing with Lord Sudbury a short time ago. But I don’t see her any longer. She must be in the dining room.” Jeffrey shrugged carelessly.
    “Who is she here with?” Lucien could not help asking, still searching the faces in the crowd.
    “An uncle, I think.”
    Interesting. Lucien believed she must be the sister of the bookshop girl, for how many Juliette Hamiltons could there be? At the possibility of seeing Colette Hamilton again, he felt his pulse quicken.
    Jeffrey resumed his story. “As soon as I laid eyes on her, I wrangled an introduction through Lady Hayvenhurst, who made me promise not to tempt the girl. I don’t wish to marry the chit, for heaven’s sake, I just wanted to meet her. Being the bastard son of a duke has its perks.”
    Jeffrey gave him a rueful smile, but Lucien knew his illegitimacy was a sore spot with him, for all that he was raised as Rathmore’s own son.
    “Just as I got to her side,” Jeffrey continued his tale of heartbreak, “I heard that stuffy prig George Bickford ask her to dance and she answered, ‘I am honored, but I am not interested.’ Can you believe that? Well, her honest remark made me only like her all the more! Bickford went off in a huff and I winked at her. And by God, she winked right back at me! She didn’t stammer and blush, like all the others would have. Greatly impressed, I told her that I thought she had discriminating tastes. She said that she certainly did. Then the uncle came marching over, to scold her, I would imagine. As he was dragging her off, she turned her head back, and I swear, Lucien, she poked her tongue out at me! Unbelievable! And a lovely little tongue it was, too.”
    Lucien laughed at the idea of the girl acting so audaciously. Well-bred ladies did not behave that way. And if they did, they certainly did not do so in public. This one must be a firebrand, all right. “She sounds like a bit of trouble to me.”
    “She more than likely is, which is what intrigues me. You know I like a woman who can stir things up a bit. But enough of her.” Jeffrey turned and leaned back against the wall in a careless manner. “Now you, my friend, you are here tonight on a matter of serious business.”
    Lucien nodded reluctantly. Indeed he was.
    “And you’re still determined to go through with this godawful idea before the Season is over?”
    “I owe it to my father. He’s dying, Jeffrey. I cannot deny him this. He’s had too much sadness in his life as it is. I can at least let him see me married before he dies. He deserves to know the family line will continue.”
    The image of his father, Simon Sinclair, the Marquis of Stancliff, lying frail and weak in his darkened bedchamber, chilled him. The weakened muscles, the pallid complexion, and the dull, lifeless eyes haunted him. He owed his father more than he had given him over the last few years. His father needed him desperately now. And Lucien had vowed to himself to be there for him.
    From the moment his father had been stricken with the strange