Read Online Beauty Tempts the Beast by Leslie Dicken - Free Book Online Page B

stained glass window bounce atop the black shimmer of Vivian’s hair. He’d never cared for the sun before, it reminded him of his youth and it shined an ugly brightness upon his scar.
    Standing there, amid the dancing hues, Vivian resembled an Italian mosaic come to life. His chest twinged at the sight.
    Finally, Mrs. Plimpton left the room and pulled the door shut with a firm tug. They were alone.
    He cleared his throat. “What other questions do you have before the Countess arrives?”
    Without hesitation, she said, “Why is she coming to visit you now?”
    If he only knew. Catherine spurned him after the accident, no longer enamored with a disfigured and scandalous viscount. She pulled her affection for him and found another man to latch onto. Pity of it was, Ashworth had thought he loved her. Her shallowness scarred his heart like the mark on his face.
    He could only assume she returned for one thing. His money. And no doubt, Ashworth’s own mother had meddled somewhere in the mess.
    He sensed Vivian’s reservation, her concern. She could easily leave him, walk out the door and force him to face Catherine alone. Ashworth lifted Vivian’s hand and placed a kiss upon the knuckles. “I am unaware of her intent. Her letter did not state a purpose.”
    Vivian’s breathing grew shallow. “Oh?”
    She did not believe him. Ashworth nodded and flipped her hand over, kissing the raised marks of yesterday’s injuries. He should stop. And, yet, he could not seem to let her go. “Any other questions?” he whispered against her palm.
    “Um, when would our wedding take place?”
    “Good question. We will tell her sometime in autumn.”
    She pulled her hand from his mouth. “Where? Here?”
    Reluctantly, Ashworth let her go. “My mother would want to hold it in London or at our other estate near the coast.”
    Vivian turned, her head tilted down to gaze out onto the grounds. “Won’t your mother continue to find brides for you once I’m gone?”
    He stared at her round shoulders, at her straight back with the customary dark braid splitting it down the center. “Yes, perhaps. But eventually she will give up on me.”
    She gasped and glanced over her shoulder. “You want her to give up on you? To forget about you?
    What of family?”
    Ah, so Vivian missed her home, did she? She had yet to reveal who she left behind or why she needed to run.
    She questioned his secrets but would not reveal hers. “Tell me of your family, Vivian.”
    Her eyes lowered and she turned back to the window. “I cannot go back.”
    Ashworth took a step closer, his hand hovering over her shoulder for a moment, an impulse to soothe the pain he heard in her voice. He placed his palm on the window instead, the glass cool and uneven to the touch. “Tell me why you can’t go back. Have you no family left?”
    Her mouth twitched but she did not look up at him. “I-I have family. A mother and a father. But nothing is as it was.”
    His voice lowered. “How was it?”
    Anguish tugged at her lips. “Once I thought we were a happy family. My mother and father seemed in love, my home secure. I thought my father was the most special man in the world for how he treated my mother. It warmed my heart to think of it.”
    “But now?”
    She crossed her arms, as if she could keep the cold memories from invading her soul. “Now I cannot think of it at all. It was all a lie. Everything I believed to be true was not.”
    Intrigued, Ashworth leaned his shoulder against the window, angling for a clearer view of her face.
    “All a lie?”
    Her lips pressed together until her eyes dampened. When her face flushed with color, Ashworth realized he’d gone too far. Some secrets she would not tell.
    Footsteps and voices echoed in the hall then stopped at the closed door.
    Ashworth stared at Vivian’s kissable lips, at her midnight eyes. “Have we concluded our questions, then?”
    She nodded.
    “Then prepare yourself to meet Lady Wainscott.”
    “My