Harlequin Presents--September 2020--Box Set 1 of 2 by Maisey Yates

Author:Maisey Yates
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Harlequin
Published: 2020-12-15T00:00:00+00:00

CHAPTER THREE

ANNA BENT OVER her suitcase and dug through the limited items of clothing she’d brought with her, though what she was looking for she didn’t know. She hadn’t packed much, since she didn’t have much and clothing had never been important to her, so why she wished she had something more than a couple of plain dresses in her suitcase, she couldn’t fathom.

Tonight was her first meeting with the king to give her report on Ione and she wanted to wear something…different. For inexplicable reasons.

Perhaps it was nerves. She desperately hadn’t wanted to return to England and him granting her two weeks to make some difference to Ione’s behaviour had been a concession she hadn’t been expecting. She’d argued for it, of course, but he’d been so adamant it had felt like hurling herself at a stone wall and expecting it to break.

Snapping at him had been a mistake, but all that seduction talk had irritated her.

It wasn’t irritation you were feeling.

Anna scowled at the contents of her suitcase, not liking that thought one bit. She’d tried to ignore her own physical reaction to him, to ignore that he was half-naked, but then he’d started talking about how the Reverend Mother was meddling in his affairs—affairs apparently including her being sent to seduce him.

‘You’re round and soft and sweet. Just the kind of woman who would appeal to me.’

Heat crept through her, the way it had done all day whenever she’d thought of him saying those words, which she’d tried very hard not to do. Because they made her feel…strange.

He’d called her round, but it was obvious he hadn’t meant it in a bad way. In fact, the opposite. Just the kind of woman who would appeal to me…

She felt even stranger when she thought about that; appealing to him had never occurred to her. In fact, appealing to anyone at all had never occurred to her. The sisters always discouraged such vanity. Some of the younger ones had giggled a bit over one of the better-looking priests, but Anna herself had never thought about men or her own desirability. Once or twice she’d wondered whether she might like a husband and a family, but then had dismissed the idea. Romantic relationships had seemed fraught and dangerous to her, while the relationships she had with the sisters at the convent were much less complicated. There were clear rules for behaviour and you didn’t have to fit yourself around another person’s needs and wants.

It was less exciting maybe, but at least life at the convent was a known quantity. At least, she fitted there better than she fitted anywhere else.

You still liked the fact that you appealed to him.

Anna scowled and pulled a dress out from the depths of her case. It was fancier than her other dresses, in a silky ice-blue fabric with a demure scooped neckline and capped sleeves. The colour was pretty on her—or at least that was what Sister Mary Alice had told her, and Sister Mary Alice was known to have good taste.

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