Gareth: Lord of Rakes by Grace Burrowes

Author:Grace Burrowes [Burrowes, Grace]
Language: eng
Format: epub, mobi
Tags: Literature & Fiction, United States, Romance, Historical, Regency, Historical Romance
Amazon: B00ENQEMCO
Publisher: Sourcebooks Casablanca
Published: 2013-11-05T08:00:00+00:00

Eleven

Gareth stole down the dark hallway to his bedroom about an hour before dawn. He sat on the enormous bed for a long time, listening to rain patter against the windows. If the rain kept up like this, there would be no attempting a return to Town today. One washed-out bridge, one strained tendon on a coach horse, and they would be stranded on the road, prey to whatever harm pursued them.

Because the traveling coach had been followed out here. The spies Gareth had set had reported after dinner, and even now, even in this downpour, somebody might be watching his house.

His world had become complicated. Concern for Felicity’s safety consumed him every bit as much as lust for her body. For a man who valued his own comfort highly, he’d arrived to a miserable state of affairs.

He would never forget the way she’d clung to him in bed only hours earlier, pushing him into mindless ecstasy with an instinctive use of her mouth—a trick he’d not shown her, because it worked especially well with him.

Felicity was lovely, and worse than that, she was becoming dear. The longer he dealt with her, the angrier he became over his role in her life, over the dirty trick Callista had played on her.

And for what? Was Callista striking a posthumous blow at the family that had turned her out? It wasn’t Felicity’s fault Callista had been indiscreet with a heartless cad. And it didn’t feel to Gareth as true to Callista’s nature to exact a vengeance so cruel on an innocent party.

Andrew had made the same observation: this scheme did not comport with Callista’s nature. Callista would have been the last person to victimize another woman, much less a woman left without male relatives to intervene on her behalf.

It didn’t make sense, and not for the first time, Gareth drifted off to sleep with the conviction he was missing a piece of the puzzle, a set of facts that would put the whole situation in a more understandable perspective.

***

When Gareth rose a few hours later, the sense of niggling frustration still haunted him, but for all that, he also looked forward to the day. He made his way downstairs to break his fast, hoping to catch Felicity at the table.

To his pleasure, she was there, and there alone. She looked up and smiled when he joined her. The room being otherwise empty, he responded by kissing her cheek lingeringly—lavender was a lovely scent on a damp morning—and taking a seat beside her.

“Good morning, my lord,” she said, pouring him a cup of tea.

“So it’s to be like that?” Gareth replied, serving himself eggs, bacon, toast, and an orange.

“Like what?” Felicity asked, and Gareth realized he liked her this way. Tentative, off-balance, blushing, and… Fetching as hell.

“You’re milording me again, Felicity. Am I such a stranger to you?” he asked, accepting the tea from her.

“You are less of a stranger than ever.” Her delicate little pink and white Sevres teacup apparently fascinated her, perhaps because the pink nearly matched her blush.

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