Always a Princess by Alice Gaines

Author:Alice Gaines [Gaines, Alice]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Romance, Historical
Publisher: Carina Press
Published: 2011-05-31T04:00:00+00:00

Chapter Ten

Eve’s hunt through the library halted abruptly when the front door opened. She glanced at the clock on the mantel—well after midnight. Mobley had locked up some time earlier, and the family should all be in bed. She hadn’t seen Lord Wesley since that rather intimate encounter in her bedroom. She’d assumed that he’d come home and gone to bed long ago.

Now, what? She certainly didn’t want to confront him now, all alone and late at night and with evidence of her hunt stacked here and there.

At least she’d replaced most of the books as she’d looked behind them. And thank heaven she hadn’t had the courage to begin her quest for stolen jewelry in his bedroom. If she had, she’d be confronting him there now.

Maybe if she was very, very quiet, he’d go to bed and she wouldn’t have to confront him at all. She turned down the lamp and held her breath, waiting for Wesley to climb the stairs toward the bedrooms. He didn’t, though. Instead, his footsteps approached the library where she stood. The tread was none too steady, but it was distinctly masculine—she could almost hear his swagger in the cadence—and it kept getting closer.

After a moment, his figure appeared at the doorway. He entered the room—almost lurched into it—and leaned against the doorjamb.

“What are you doing up at this hour, Miss Stanhope?” he asked. “And in the library, of all places.”

“I couldn’t sleep.” She gestured toward the books around her. “I came looking for something to read.”

He looked at the scattered volumes, but his eyes didn’t focus completely, so who knew what number of books registered in his brain? “You wanted something to read?”

Maybe he believed her, and maybe he didn’t, but sticking by her story seemed her only choice. “You have so many wonderful books, I couldn’t make up my mind.”

“Ah-hah. Well,” he said. “No matter. I won’t have to wake you.”

“You’ve been drinking,” she stated.

“How perceptive of you,” he replied. “But I’m not drunk. At least not drunk enough.”

“Drunk enough for what?”

He got a silly smile on his face and placed a forefinger against the side of his nose. “I’ll leave that for you to puzzle out.”

Eve stood and stared at him. She’d never seen him drunk before. In fact, she’d never seen him in any state but complete control of himself. Ruffled and unkempt like this, with his hair in disarray and his collar open, he looked even more handsome than usual. Even more dangerous.

Heaven knew she’d had a hard enough time resisting him that afternoon. But then, she went a little bit mad every time the man touched her. What sort of power did he have over her to make her respond that way? Certainly, no man had ever tempted her in the slightest before—what she’d seen and heard her mother endure was enough to put anyone off sexual congress forever. And if she’d had any inclination in that direction left after her childhood, Arthur had dampened it thoroughly.

And yet,

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