By Judith McNaught. Mass Market Paperback eBook. Table of Contents Excerpt Rave and Reviews. About The Book. Chapter 1Propped upon a mountain of satin pillows amid rumpled bed linens, Helene Devernay surveyed his bronzed, muscular torso with an appreciative smile as Stephen David Elliott Westmoreland, Earl of Langford, Baron of Ellingwood, Fifth Viscount Hargrove, Viscount Ashbourne, shrugged into the frilled shirt he'd tossed over the foot of the bed last night.
Stephen glanced at her in surprise as he picked up his neckcloth. I heard it from my dressmaker, who is also hers.
With a sigh, Helene rolled onto her side and leaned on an elbow, her tone regretful but frank. Helene noted the unspoken reprimand and the warning it carried, but she took advantage of what had been a remarkably open -- and highly pleasurable -- affair for both of them for several years.
He shoved his arms into the sleeves, then he walked over to the side of the bed and finally directed all his attention to the woman in it. Standing there, looking down at her, he felt his annoyance diminish considerably. Propped up on her elbow, with her golden hair spilling over her naked back and breasts, Helene Devernay was a delectable sight.
She was also intelligent, direct, and sophisticated, all of which made her a thoroughly delightful mistress both in and out of bed. He knew she was too practical to nurture any secret hopes of a marriage offer from him, which was absolutely out of the question for a woman in her circumstances, and she was too independent to have any real desire to tie herself to someone for life -- traits that further solidified their relationship.
Or so he had thought. Helene gave him a warm, seductive smile that normally made his body respond. You have a fondness for her, but not a great love nor even a great passion. All she has to offer you is her beauty, her bloodlines, and the prospect of an heir.
She hasn't your strength of will, nor your intelligence, and although she may care for you, she will never understand you. She will bore you in bed and out of it, and you will intimidate, hurt, and anger her.
I must count myself fortunate that you take such an interest in my personal life and that you are so willing to share your expertise on how I ought to live it. When this failed, she dropped her hand, but not the issue, and widened her smile to soothe his temper. In fact, the more annoyed you are, the more 'civil' you become -- until you are so very civil, so very precise and correct, that the effect is actually quite alarming. One might even say It was nearly five o'clock in the morning when he was dressed again.
No confessions, no recriminations, no promises. That was the way we both wanted it. He simply regarded her with raised brows. Someone shrewish too. A shrew with a slightly crooked nose or small eyes would suit me very well.
I've no doubtshe knows of our relationship and she would not try to interfere, even if she thought she could. Furthermore, I have no intention of adhering to custom, now or in future, by shackling myself to a wife for the sole purpose of begetting a legal heir of my own body.
ISBN: Languge: English. Users who have this book I have the Ebook I have the Paperbook. Users who want this book I want the Ebook I want the Paperbook. User: Umaymah Rating: 1 Thanks! What readers are saying What do you think? Write your own comment on this book! What do you think? Write your own comment on this book Please Login or Register to write comments or use smm accounts Log in Log in Log in. Write a comment. The Marriage Bargain by Jennifer Probst 3.
Never Deceive a Duke by Liz Carlyle 2. On Dublin Street by Samantha Young 3. Paradise by Judith McNaught 3. She was doubly shocked when she heard his news.
Lord Burleton, a drunkard and a wastrel, had been killed the night before. At which point fate took over. Sheridan was knocked unconscious on the quayside, and recovered to find herself in the handsome stranger's care, not knowing who she was. It was to be the beginning of a dazzling, witty, dramatic, and romantic sequence of events in which every possible confusion was to take place.
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