The Perfect Lover (Cyn 11) by Stephanie Laurens

Author:Stephanie Laurens [Laurens, Stephanie]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Published: 2009-12-20T09:00:00+00:00

She blinked, then stared. “What did you say?”

Her voice was oddly weak.

He set his jaw. “You heard me.” When she continued to stare, dumbfounded, he repeated, “I want to marry you.”

Her eyes only grew rounder. “When did you decide this? And why, for heaven’s sake?”

He hesitated, trying to see ahead. “Kitty. She almost said something over the luncheon table. At some point, she will—she won’t be able to resist. I was already thinking of marriage and didn’t want you imagining, if I waited to speak until after she caused a ruckus, that I was offering because of that.”

With any other lady, letting Kitty create a scandal and then offering ostensibly because of it might have been a reasonable way forward, but not with Portia. She’d never accept an offer made out of social necessity.

“You were already thinking of marriage? To me?” The stunned look in her eyes hadn’t faded. “Why?”

He frowned at her. “I would have thought that was obvious.”

“Not to me. What, precisely, are you talking about?”

“I’m sure you haven’t forgotten you spent last night in my bed.”

“You’re perfectly right—I haven’t. I also haven’t forgotten that I specifically explained that my interest in such proceedings was academic.”

He held her gaze. “That was then. This is now. Things have changed.” An instant passed. Eyes locked on hers, he asked, “Can you deny it?”

Portia couldn’t, but his sudden talk of marriage—as if the subject had always been there, an unstated element between them—left her feeling like a deer suddenly facing a hunter. Paralyzed, unsure which way to turn, shocked, astonished, her wits literally reeling.

When she didn’t immediately reply, he went on, “Aside from all else, your involvement in last night’s proceedings was anything but academic.”

She blushed, lifted her head. Why on earth was he taking this tack? She tried to harry her whirling wits into order. “Regardless, that’s no reason to imagine we should wed.”

It was his turn to stare. “What?”

He uttered the word with such force, she jumped. He took a prowling, menacing step closer.

“You came to my bed—gave yourself to me—and you didn’t expect we would wed?”

Their faces were no more than six inches apart; he really was stunned. Eyes wide, she held his gaze. “No. I didn’t.” She hadn’t got that far in her deliberations.

He didn’t immediately answer, but something changed behind his mask. Then his eyes grew darker, his features harder; a muscle flexed along his jaw.

“You didn’t . . . just what sort of man do you think I am?”

His voice was a low growl—a very angry growl. He shifted fractionally nearer; she nearly took a step back, only just stopped herself. Spine rigid, she held his gaze, struggled to understand why he was suddenly so furious . . . wondered if he was pretending . . . felt her own temper rise.

“You’re a rake.” She said the word clearly, distinctly. “You seduce ladies—it’s the primary characteristic in the occupational description. If you’d married every lady you’d seduced, you’d have to go and live in Arabia because you’d have a harem.

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.