Read Online A Little More Scandal by Carrie Lofty - Free Book Online Page A

company with those soldiers? Intimate company?”
    A sudden chill in that overly warm room did more to encourage her to dress than did modesty. She had given him something unique among her experiences, just as she had taken so very much. He assumed this amazing moment was commonplace? It was the sort of insult against which she had believed herself immune. She had heard such accusations before. Only this time, it stung like the searing heat of cannon burst. Because it came from William.
    She should have known better. In opening to him physically, she had opened other vulnerable places, too.
    “Are you asking if I supplemented my nursing income?”
    “Yes, that’s what I’m asking.”
    She shoved his chest. “Get off of me.”
    “Not yet.”
    “Would you rather behave as Lady Julia believes of you?”
    He scowled and let loose a guttural curse. “What would that be?”
    “That you’re a barbarian in a suit. A mockery to good gentlemen everywhere.”
    “Is that what she said?”
    He pushed off the desk and assisted Catrin to her feet. Her whole body was stiff, wrenched into painful angles. Arranging her undergarments as he refastened his trousers put a blush on her cheeks. She should find it amusing to feel embarrassment now, after the deed was done. Instead she banked a surprising wave of sadness.
    “That was her warning,” she said tightly. “A beastly Celt, she called you.”
    “You wanted this.”
    “I did. I still do. But I asked for none of your assumptions.”
    “No, but you practically asked for my hand in marriage. There’s bold, my dear, and then there’s ridiculous.”
    “So is giving myself to a man who doesn’t deserve such a gift.”
    William visibly blanched.
    Catrin dropped her skirts into place. A curious numbness eased through her limbs, from her belly outward to her fingers and toes. She welcomed it. “But this remains a matter of mutual best interests. You could have a story to Mr. Lymon by the end of the day, and I would work to make a pleasant home for you. How is this wrong thinking?”
    For a moment, William had no answer. None at all. His expression softened. And she could see the wheels turning behind his luminous hazel eyes. He enjoyed her company. She knew it. Even her exasperating baiting must hold some appeal, because he gave as good as he got. Their sexual appetites certainly suited.
    Yet her insult had slapped him sideways. Amazing to believe such an intimidating, carnal man had any weaknesses. Her negative opinion seemed to be one of them.
    “I have a son,” he said bluntly.
    Catrin blinked. Not because that was new information. In fact, she had tacitly discovered as much as she could. Her conduct spoke of questionable morals, but she was not entirely rash in having chosen William. No, her surprise emanated from the sudden change of subject.
    “A son?”
    “Yes. His name is Alexander. He’s not yet two and lives with my late wife’s parents.”
    His hair was a mess of golden snarls, yet he spoke of a child. She could not align the two thoughts. Scratches angled up from his unfastened collar, the little streaks of pink left by her nails. Coupled with her rumpled undergarments and ruined coiffure, she likely appeared just as debauched. Yet she would let him take her upstairs and start anew.
    If he proposed.
    And wasn’t that the clearest example of shutting the barn door after the cow had escaped? She preferred to think of it as tempting him in ways no other woman had dared try.
    “Do you think having a son would change the soundness of this negotiation?”
    “Negotiation,” he spat. “You don’t know anything about the word. You stride ahead like some wild heathen. What makes you think life works that way?”
    She picked up her bonnet. Numbness had been replaced by another welcome sensation: forged steel. With no weaker backbone, she had nursed hundreds of soldiers and sailors across the span of five years. “Fifty-nine men and four women died when the Honoria