Their Marriage of Inconvenience by Sophia James

Author:Sophia James
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Harlequin
Published: 2020-02-11T19:45:06+00:00

* * *

Simeon looked at the clock and finished his brandy. His wife would be down soon, he was sure of it, his housekeeper’s assessment of how wonderful she looked highly reassuring.

He hoped that tonight would go well. He hoped that they would seem sufficiently like a happy couple to pull the charade off. He needed Lord Grey’s capital to complete this portion of railway line for without it the whole stack of his other investments could fall into pieces leaving him with a gaping hole in his resources.

He seldom gambled on anything that he had and he did not like the feeling one little bit. Swearing beneath his breath, he placed his empty glass down on the mantel just as Adelia came into the room.

She looked completely different from how he had ever seen her before. She looked regal and majestic and noble, a daughter of high society elegantly on show from the top of her coiffured flower-strewn hair to the heels of her bejewelled satin slippers. She looked untouchable.

He felt like a six-year-old again, sent by his mother to the back doors of the fancy houses to deliver the face creams she had begun to make.

Not belonging. Out of his depth.

‘The colour suits you.’ His hand waved in the general direction of the gown even as he tried to determine what the name of such a hue was. Neither brown nor cream, it sat halfway, the material catching the light and moving in a manner that was fascinating.

‘Thank you.’

Her smile was secretive and her cheeks glowed pink.

‘Would you like a drink before we leave? There is still some time before the carriage will be brought around.’

When she nodded he poured her a brandy, refilling his own glass in the process and holding it up.

‘To tonight.’

A fleeting humour filled her eyes, but then some other emotion crossed her face.

‘I have to warn you that I did leave society under a cloud after my Season.’

‘But you have the umbrella of my money now and wealth speaks with an eloquence duly noted here in London.’

‘A lucky thing, that.’

He was unsure whether the words were exactly as she said them and he swallowed, trying to find his balance. Adelia had knocked him sideways this evening with her beauty, like a butterfly hatched from its cocoon and knowing full well how it now appeared.

She was his wife in name only, though she had once offered to be a lot more. That thought both aroused and annoyed him at one and the same time and this made him frown further. In all truth the promise between them was shaky and false and, looking as she did now, he knew that she was bound to attract the attention of every eligible man in the room. He chased that thought away and concentrated on what he did have. At least she was wearing the earrings. The emeralds matched her eyes, her eyelashes dark against the paleness of her skin.

The bodice was low. He could see the rise of her breasts easily above it.

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