Earl of Darling (Wicked Earls' Club) by Maggie Dallen & Katherine Ann Madison

Author:Maggie Dallen & Katherine Ann Madison [Dallen, Maggie & Madison, Katherine Ann]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Published: 0101-01-01T00:00:00+00:00

Chapter Seven

For one heartbeat, all Evelyn could do was gape as Darius moved in front of her and Stallworth came toward them with murderous intent written all over his features.

“You,” he hissed as he reached Darius.

Evelyn he ignored completely.

She straightened, her mouth pressing into a firm line. That, somehow, rankled more than anything this horrible cad had said or done to her in the past. He didn’t even notice that she was out here after he’d publicly humiliated her by sharing an intimate moment with another woman.

He jabbed a finger in Darius’s direction, not seeming to realize that he was roughly half the earl’s size in height and width. Standing there before Darling, with his features all scrunched up in disgust and his clothes covered in dirt and foliage, he looked like nothing so much as an irritating rodent.

“I know what you did in there,” Stallworth said. “Everyone saw the way you attacked me.”

“He attacked you?” Evelyn’s brows arched in surprise.

Stallworth’s gaze shot to her, finally spotting her there, clearly under Darius’s protection. His frown made her smirk. It was rather delightful to see Stallworth so thrown. In fact, she was rather enjoying herself as she stepped out from behind Darius. “From where I was standing, it looked as though you were accosted by a fern.”

She did her best to feign concern...and failed, no doubt. Truly, for the first time since she’d had the misfortune of meeting Stallworth, she was finally not afraid of him.

Perhaps it was having Darius at her side, or maybe it was because the weight of scandal had fallen on Stallworth for once, but either way she found herself facing her fiancé with a straight back and squared shoulders. “We all saw what was going on, Stallworth. It was hardly Darling’s fault that you were caught with another woman.”

Stallworth’s eyes narrowed but his voice kept that syrupy sweet quality that irritated her ears. “We were merely talking, love. Nothing for you to fret about.”

Her lips thinned as she bit back a decidedly unladylike oath. Making it sound as though she were jealous. She huffed. Really? “Everyone saw you with the countess, Stallworth. You cannot lie your way out of this one.”

Stallworth moved back a step, and everything in his demeanor shifted as well. Gone was the furious knave and in his place was the sweet-talking manipulative charlatan she knew far too well. “Is that what everyone saw, Evie, my dear? Because I made it quite clear that she and I were merely having a private word about the party she was planning for her husband. She required my help to obtain champagne, you see.” His smirk made her stomach turn. “The party was meant to be a secret, of course. She’d intended to surprise him.” He threw his hands up in a gesture that seemed to say, such is life.

“Liar.” Darius’s growl beside her made her shiver with all the cold hard edge it held. She glanced up and gasped at the granite mask that transformed his kind, handsome features into something.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.