Read Online An Accidental Seduction by Lois Greiman - Free Book Online

breath leave her lungs. Felt his lips touch hers. Felt a thousand titillating sensations explode in her suddenly overheated body.
    His hand moved up her back, pulling her against him as his thigh, as hard as chiseled granite, settled between hers.
    She moaned. But whether she was a shameless baroness or a lusty Gypsy, she would never know, because in that instant he stepped abruptly away, shoving her into the empty stall behind her.

Chapter 5
    F ifty years later Sean would never be certain why he did what he did.
    True, he heard Emily coming even before she opened her mouth to call for her mistress. And yes, he realized the scandal that would ensue if they were found in such a compromising situation. But wasn’t that why he had come here in the first place? To cause scandal? To ruin her marriage? To ruin her life ?
    But in that fractured second when he heard the maid coming, he found he couldn’t do it. Maybe, in the end, he was trying to protect the baroness despite everything he knew of her. But maybe it was something far more sinister; perhaps it was not enough to have her found in his embrace. Perhaps even then, with her lips soft and warm against his, he wanted to see her completely crushed. Or maybe he simply wanted the opportunity to bed her before the charade ended.
    Whatever the reason, he shoved her, without a moment’s hesitation, into the deepest shadows of the nearbystall just as Emily bustled in. A loose-knit shawl covered her head and shoulders. She’d dragged the edge forward to shield her eyes from the glare of the lantern.
    “My…Oh…if it ain’t the ’andsome Sean Gallagher ’isself. I didn’t see you there,” she said, and dropped the wrap from her strawberry curls.
    With feigned nonchalance, Sean lifted a wooden bucket from a nearby peg and stepped more fully into the light. “I was just about to be finishing up chores. Is something amiss, lass?”
    “Amiss? No. But something is a’missing,” she said, and laughed at her own wit, plump cheeks dimpling. She was a pretty girl, but he had always preferred more worldly wise women, experienced ladies who had every intention of using him and tossing him aside. He didn’t mind loving and leaving. Indeed, he was an expert at leaving, but quite ill-equipped at becoming jealous of his liaisons’ rich husbands or subsequent lovers. Indeed, as far as he knew, he was entirely incapable of jealousy.
    “You’ve lost something, then?” he asked.
    “The lady of the ’ouse has gone roving again.”
    “You’ve misplaced the baroness?”
    “’Twas not I who done the misplacing,” she said, and lowering her voice, leaned closer to be heard. “And just betwixt you, me, and the slop bucket, I say ’tis no great loss if she don’t never come toddling back.”
    Sean resisted a smile, refrained from skimming hisgaze to the stall behind him, and hoped to hell the object of their discussion wouldn’t come barging out like a bull on a rampage at the maid’s waspish slurs. The baroness didn’t seem the type to suffer insults in silence.
    “I take it you don’t care for her,” he said, and found that it gave him a certain amount of pleasure to know the woman who had ruined his family was just within hearing.
    “I don’t, and I’d tell ’er that to ’er face, given the chance. She ain’t ’ad a good word to say since coming to Knollcrest.”
    “And how long ago was that?”
    “Ten and a half days,” said the maid, and sniffed.
    “You’re counting?”
    She canted her head at him in a sassy manner. “And not many more remaining, to my way of thinking.”
    “Oh?”
    She shrugged, glanced outside as if to make sure they weren’t overheard, then stepped closer and lowered her voice. “I ’eard she made a deal with the master.”
    “The baron?” he asked, sotto voce and honestly intrigued.
    “Nay,” she hissed, and catching his hand in an intimate grip, leaned closer still, the upper reaches of her round breasts just visible above her