A Scandalous Wager by Cassandra Samuels

Author:Cassandra Samuels [Samuels, Cassandra]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9780857992017
Publisher: Escape Publishing
Published: 2014-11-08T08:00:00+00:00

Chapter 11

Oliver rolled over and tried to smother himself with his pillow. It didn’t work. Then he kicked off his blankets and lay there letting his body cool. Why could he not stop thinking about Lisbeth?

Her lips, they were so soft and plump, like a feast for a starving man. Her magnetic blue eyes could burn a man’s soul and he would gladly die in the inferno. Her breasts…yes, her breasts could burst a man’s blood vessels, and still he would smile while bleeding.

Lisbeth, Beth, Lizzy. He chuckled. She’d hate being called Lizzy—he should try it on her sometime.

He was asking for trouble.

He was doomed!

He was ten types of a fool to feel like this about her. Ashton could probably come up with fifty but that was because he would find perverse pleasure in reciting them to him one by one, probably for days on end—without a breath.

He had to keep Lisbeth on a shorter rein. Huh! Add, naive fool to the list, if you please, Ashton.

If he had learnt anything in the last couple of weeks, it was the Countess of Blackhurst was a determined little baggage.

He got up, washed, and dressed for the day, but his mind was full of the woman with the incredible eyes. Eyes that could make one suffer both pain and desire.

He was so confused, especially after yesterday. Now he knew there was so much more to her story and damn if he didn’t want to read the whole book. She infuriated as much as she intrigued. Her cold beauty masked a woman who had endured more than her share of ugliness. He understood masks. He wore one too, but now he felt like his reasons were far more trivial than hers.

He took on the façade of one who was in control, who cared little for financial matters, like he did not have a huge debt and potential failure looming above him. He wanted to make Henry proud, make his parents proud. He wanted to prove he could come rising out of the ashes of this financial debacle like a phoenix—wings spread wide and ready to fly once more.

Oliver was determined he would not put his aunt through the scandal of having his pecuniary state exposed to all and sundry. If he could just pay back the bank and show that he was capable of repaying his debts, he may have some hope to rebuild his legacy. He was under no illusion; it would take years to gain any real profit from his estates. He would just fade into the shadows of the ton and reside in the country until he felt he was worthy to take a wife.

A wife! Where had that come from?

Oliver moved from the window overlooking the road below and sat behind his brother’s large desk. Lord, he missed his old life. Gaining his title had lost him more than just his brother. He’d lost his sense of being something useful, his sense of control. It was a sad state of affairs.

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