How to Woo a Widow by Manda Collins

Author:Manda Collins [Collins, Manda]
Language: eng
Format: epub, mobi
Publisher: Manda Collins
Published: 2016-03-15T04:00:00+00:00

Chapter Five

“It is not hypothetical!” Tony snapped.

“Of course it is,” Portia said heatedly. “I’m old enough to be your—”

“Sister?” he asked brusquely. “Cousin? Don’t be absurd Portia. There are only six years between us. And unless you were the most precocious child in history there is no way you could possibly be my mother. Which is what you were about to say, is it not?”

She had the good grace to color. And dammit it made her even lovelier.

“Perhaps, I was going to say mother,” she conceded. “But Tony, you must know how people would talk if we two were to make a match of it.”

“Let them talk. I gave up on trying to make the ton see reason years ago. There is nothing so very scandalous about a lady and a gentleman of the same social strata marrying.”

“There is if the lady is several years older than the gentleman and he happens to have been the boon companion of her deceased brother. For pity’s sake Tony, just seeing our names together will dredge up all that old talk about James’s death. Surely you can see what that would do to our parents.”

“It would be a nine days wonder and then polite society would move on to the next scandal. You can say many things about the ton but that they have a long attention span is not one of them.”

She looked as if she would argue the point, so he did what he’d wanted to do since he spied her here in this deserted part of the park. He dismounted and stepped over to offer his assistance for her to dismount as well.

The look she gave him was mulish.

“What are you doing?” she asked a little breathlessly.

“I am assisting you from your horse, as a gentleman ought.”

“But perhaps I do not care to get down.”

An upraised brow was his only response. Seeing that he would not brook a refusal, Portia gave a little sigh of pique then allowed herself to be lifted down. Though she tried to steel herself not to react, it was delicious to feel his lean hard body brush against hers as he lowered her to her feet.

She said nothing as she watched him loop the reins of both their horses over an obligingly low branch. And when he turned back to her there was no mistaking the vibration of attraction that shimmered on the air between them.

Taking his offered arm, she followed him into the little clearing tucked away into this distant corner of the park. To her surprise there was a bench there within the shelter of the elms and the copper beeches.

“You will not move me from my point,” Portia said, once they were seated. “I will not expose my family to that sort of scandal again. They suffered enough when I married William for heaven’s sake.”

“Is scandal all you can think about?” Tony asked, taking her hand in his. Portia felt the warmth even through the fine kid of her gloves. She felt a flush suffuse her as she though about how warm his bare skin might feel pressed against hers.

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