Earl of Charm by Maggie Dallen

Author:Maggie Dallen
Language: eng
Format: mobi, epub
Published: 0101-01-01T00:00:00+00:00

CHAPTER FIVE

You are my responsibility now, Clara.

The words were haunting her even as she sat at the writing table in the family’s parlor to read through the letters that had arrived.

A full day had passed but her mind could do little more than replay that kiss and remind her of his words.

It was official. She was obsessed.

She was also stupid. Such an unbearable ninny. Clara was not normally one to reprimand herself—but then, there was rarely such a need.

It wasn’t the kiss that brought about her scorn. No. As much as she might try, she’d meant it when she told Alex she did not regret it. She never would. How could she when it was her first, and likely last, taste of passion and romance?

That thought made her heart heavy. Weariness dragged at her, making her want to lie down and take a nap.

Or perhaps that was just lack of sleep. She’d gotten little more than a couple hours of sleep after they’d returned home from the party. Who could sleep when one had experienced the kiss of a lifetime?

Too brief, she’d decided. But oh so splendid. Sweet and tender, the feel of his firm lips against hers had sent shivers straight through her and wiped her mind clean of all thought.

It seemed her mind had still not recovered. And her heart?

Well, her heart had been lost in the process. She’d been aware of this burgeoning infatuation ever since she’d first met the man, but that kiss had made it impossible to deny the extent to which it had grown.

Silly, foolish girl.

Over the years, she had done countless silly things. Pranks on her sister, flirting with known rakes, and those love poems she’d insisted on writing when she’d fallen for the neighbor boy at the age of twelve.

Oh yes, she was no stranger to foolishness, but she’d never once done something so careless as to develop feelings for a man who so clearly did not return her affections.

Her breath caught in her throat as she remembered the dark passion in his eyes just before he’d kissed her.

Rather, he could not return her affections.

Alex was far too pragmatic to do something so utterly juvenile as form an attachment to someone so unsuitable, and it was no secret that he was intended for another.

Olivia. The poor woman who’d lost her fiancé. Of course he ought to do right by her. It made sense that he make the appropriate choice for his family and hers.

He would honor his brother’s commitments because that was the sort of noble, upstanding gentleman he was.

She would keep her distance, that was all.

Setting the letters in a neat stack next to her stationary, she lifted the top one first. It was from her sister, and she really ought to respond. To her sister, and her aunt, and her cousins, and…that was it, really. All her other friends had disappeared after the scandal. But her family required an update.

They’d worry if they did not hear from her.

But what could she say?

Her mind was a blank.

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