Mistaken for a Cyprian (Runaway Regency Brides Book 3) by Regina Darcy

Author:Regina Darcy [Darcy, Regina]
Language: eng
Format: azw3, epub, mobi
Publisher: Clean and Wholesome Romance
Published: 2019-07-25T16:00:00+00:00

EIGHT

To ruminate upon an evening of abandon after the effects of liquor had worn off was one thing. To consider one’s behaviour when there was no excuse offering by overindulgence was quite another. As Christopher, who had sent the girls home in the carriage alone while he rode back in the Summersby carriage, sat in his study on the day after the ball, he pondered his actions.

What on earth had possessed him to behave in such an overbearing manner? What spirit had claimed him as he watched the Viscount lead Miss Connolly onto the floor the second time? To see his hand clasping hers as they danced, watching as their eyes met, affording the young pup a smile that she had never bestowed upon Christopher—

“Jealousy,” he muttered to himself.

The touches were, he knew, innocent, and the smiles blameless. But they were not for him and those innocent handclasps and smiles were like swords cutting into that part of his mind which understood, all too intensely, the wellspring from which desire could spring.

It did not matter that the Viscount was the very model of propriety or that Miss Connolly had exhibited no mannerisms or artifice which indicated that she was susceptible to seduction. All that Christopher had seen was the welcoming response from Prudence.

Was there no way out of this hell? He, a man who had always had what he wanted in any woman who caught his eye, was now imprisoned by the disdain of a young woman who did not want him and never would.

A woman, moreover, who despised him and omitted no opportunity to tell him so. Never had a woman of his acquaintance, regardless of the level of intimacy in their relationship, been so forthright in dispensing her opinion of his character as this young debutante. The seductive arts were understood to be composed of layers of artifice, where the double entendre was an invitation to violate one’s vows in the expectation of sublime pleasure, however fleeting.

Whether one was an unmarried earl or a married aristocrat, men and women understood those subtle rules under which the beau monde conducted its assignations, fornications, and adulteries. Once a woman was married and had performed her role in providing her husband with an heir, she was free to take her pleasures where she found them.

A bachelor seeking pleasure could not fail to find a disenchanted wife to provide him with amusement. Men knew that the debutantes were off-limits. They were so inexperienced and unworldly that no man of the ton sought them for the blissful delights which the flesh enjoyed.

What was the matter with him?

What possible interest could he have in a debutante who had no knowledge of the world and no awareness of the charade with which men and women conducted their affairs?

She was unfamiliar with the ways of the world; he was an experienced player in the bedrooms of the ton.

She made no effort to entice a man, there was no artful conversation or clever gambits meant to say one thing and mean another.

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