Mad Bad Duke by Jennifer Ashley

Author:Jennifer Ashley [Ashley, Jennifer]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Historical Romance, Adult
ISBN: 9780843956078
Google: BFtpU2GC17YC
Amazon: 0843956070
Barnesnoble: 0843956070
Goodreads: 768525
Publisher: Leisure
Published: 2005-12-31T11:00:00+00:00

he did not like it, and he decided to be very, very careful.

"I have a busy afternoon ahead," he said. "Many appointments that wil not wait."

"A pity," von Hohenzahl answered. "I would have liked to have a long conversation. But no matter. We wil proceed more quickly if we switch into a language we both know?" He said the last in Nvengarian. Alexander's senses came even more alert. "Not many Austrians know Nvengarian."

"Except the fair Lady Anastasia, eh? I envy you her, my friend. But I am puzzled—you say you married for love, and yet Lady Anastasia, she too you love, if rumor is correct?" He smiled suddenly. "Ah, but you Nvengarians, you never let that stop you. You love a wife, you love a mistress, why not have them both? And if the two ladies like each other—wel , al the better." A growl rose in Alexander's throat. The man was correct that Nvengarians did not have the same restrictions on their beds that the English put on theirs, but what a Nvengarian did with his paramours or his wife was his own business. To make rude hints or to mock him or his ladies was grounds for a duel, usual y a deadly one involving knives or swords. No clean twenty paces and one shot each.

Duels in Nvengaria were fast, bloody, and permanent.

Von Hohenzahl seated himself and removed a cheroot from a box on an octagonal table. "I admit to curiosity about the practice. While one is busy with the first lady, what does the other do? Or do you have one on each side? Or perhaps the ladies entertain each other while you are in audience?"

For an instant, Alexander wanted nothing more than to take his knife and decorate von Hohenzahl's elegant ivory waistcoat in his own blood. Alexander's fingers moved to his pocket where a fine steel knife with an ornamented blade rested, a pretty thing but deadly. He took a few steps toward the man, red flickering on the edges of his vision.

He imagined himself very clearly cutting deep creases in the man's chest, the glee he'd feel doing it, the taste of the man's blood on his fingers. It was so real that he heard von Hohenzahl's screams and his own animal-like snarls. Then the vision fel away, and he was standing in the middle of the carpet, his hands in tight fists, the only sounds in the room the clock ticking on the mantel and a slight sucking sound as von Hohenzahl tipped a candle toward himself to light his cheroot. Alexander deliberately moved back, legs stiff and shaking, to the nearest sofa and made himself sit down. Von Hohenzahl glanced at him through a cloud of smoke, and Alexander swore he saw a gleam of satisfaction in the man's eyes.

Von Hohenzahl had been goading him, wanting Alexander to lose control. The realization that von Hohenzahl knew he was logosh jolted more anger through him. Someone had betrayed him—no one knew what he was except Myn, Nikolai, and Dominic.

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