Vanza 01. With This Ring by Amanda Quick

Author:Amanda Quick
Language: eng
Format: mobi
Tags: General, Fiction
ISBN: 9780749939113
Publisher: Piatkus
Published: 2008-06-04T23:00:00+00:00

BEATRICE WAS EXHAUSTED by the time she finally tumbled into bed. She could hardly believe that it was only three-thirty in the morning. Winifred and Arabella were not even home yet.

She folded her arms behind her head, gazed at the shadows on the ceiling, and smiled to herself. She was not quite the same woman she had been when she had set out for the theater that evening. How could her entire life have undergone such a monumental change in such a short period of time?

The journey home had been remarkably swift and uneventful. Three streets over from Cunning Lane she and Leo had encountered a hackney that had just deposited a group of rowdy young rakes at the door of a gaming hall. The coachman’s knowing wink and sly comments told Beatrice that she had successfully carried off her role as a bawd.

Leo’s reaction to her successful deception amused her no end. She saw the mingled relief and seething annoyance in his eyes when he climbed into the coach and sat down across from her. She had to muffle her laughter with a cupped hand.

Leo scowled. “You’re enjoying this, aren’t you?”

“I have never done any playacting. It is rather entertaining.”

He watched her for a moment longer, his eyes enigmatic, and then he gave her an odd smile. “You are a most unusual female, Mrs. Poole.”

“I am in excellent company, my lord. When it comes to the unusual, I believe we are well matched.”

“Yes.”

He said nothing else for the duration of the drive. At her door he left her with a brief, glancing kiss and a brusque farewell.

“I will call upon you tomorrow afternoon,” he said as he turned to go down the steps to the waiting hackney.

“A moment, my lord,” she said in equally crisp tones.

He paused and looked back at her over his shoulder. “What is it?”

“I trust you will not attempt to deal with that Ginwilly Jack person on your own. It would be extremely dangerous.”

“I would not think of taking any risks.” He went on down the steps and got into the coach.

He was lying through his teeth, she thought as she climbed the stairs. But there was not a thing she could do about it. He was as fiercely independent as herself. She could not hope to chain him with the bonds of her concern for him. She could only pray that he would be careful.

As she prepared for sleep, she listened to the sound of carriages in the street and thought about the glorious excitement she had experienced in Leo’s arms. His desire had been unmistakable and overwhelming. For better or worse, he had made her shatteringly aware of her own capacity for passion.

But she must not read too much into what had happened tonight, she told herself. It was highly doubtful that Leo had been as transfixed by the love-making as herself. He was a man in his prime who had no doubt had a great deal more experience of physical passion than herself.

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