Read Online Her Beguiling Butler by Cerise DeLand - Free Book Online Page B

Aunt, then,” he suggested.
    “No. She does not attend funerals. Ever. Not even of her those in her family.”
    He shook his head. “I cannot do this. The ton would be outraged. You’d be banned for ever more.”
    “I doubt I care.”
    He grew frightened she’d destroy her future, her good name. And what if she were awarded the Bentham title? Ancient as it was, that would do nothing to enhance her standing in society if she were ridiculed for cavorting with her manservant. A title would only make her more likely to become a target of gossip. What else could he do but help her? “I’ll hire a traveling coach and leave your coach and coachman here.”
    “Superb idea.” She lifted a shoulder. “You see how indispensible you are, Wallace?”
    His name on her lips had him envisioning her beneath him, calling to him. “I will hang back. You will not introduce me.”
    “If you say so, darling. I cannot drag you to the churchyard.”
    “Churchyard?” He could not have her ruin herself in so many ways. “No lady goes to the burial of anyone. Not even family.”
    “I do. I will for her. You cannot dissuade me.” She gazed at him, coy as a girl. “But I welcome your company in the coach and the inn.”
    Confounded by her willingness to walk rings around him, he put on a scowl. “I do not like this.”
    She merely smiled. “But you’ll do it.”
    Hell, yes. He’d follow her anywhere. “Only because you’ll find yourself a victim of a highwayman or a rioter.”
    She softened in his arms, her lips caressing his. “You’ll love my conversation, dear sir.”
    “Too much, I wager.” He drew away, much as he hated to part from her. “And the second task you would have me do? What is it?”
    She glanced down at the button on his waistcoat and reached out a finger to toy with it.
    “Alicia?” He caught her hand, stilled it. He could barely breathe, hardly speak, his throat was so thick, his heart so aching.
    She struggled from his lap, gained her feet and whirled to gaze upon him. “We know not what tomorrow brings. We have only today. Tomorrow when we climb into my carriage and make the trip to Sevenoaks, you will be beside me. If you do not wish others to see you for what I wish you to be, that is your problem. As for me, I will have you as my lover.”
    He clamped his teeth together. Damn if she wasn’t setting fires along his spine.
    She stood before him, not pouting but insisting. “I want this. I need you. If you will not have me for a permanent companion, so be it. I will have you for one night,” she purred and he was lost to visions of her wearing nothing but her luscious skin. “For one grand affair. Because I care for you, Wallace, far more than I have cared for any man. And for once in my life, I wish to experience rapture in my bed.”
    One grand affair. One love. Precisely what he’d never thought to gain or experience. Precisely what he’d never seen in his own parents. But with her, here it was—here she was. And he could not ignore her lure and his need to possess her. He rose. “Listen to me, Alicia.”
    “No.” She cut him off with a swipe of her hand. “I will hear no objections. You want me.”
    He opened his mouth to refute her claim.
    But she stepped against him, one arm around his neck, and kissed him with all the fervor of a woman who was enchanted. Her lips were silk seduction.
    And he could not push her away.
    He caught her close, pressed her against him and seized her lips. She was heaven and he was in a fabulous hell. “Oh, my darling, you are so delicious.”
    “And you won’t deny me.”
    Though he called himself a fool, an idiot, a foul roué who took her offer too readily, he shook his head once. “I won’t deny you. Or myself.”
    She smiled. Slowly, softly. Like an angel. ““Let’s see then. Have you a pair of fawn breeches? A waistcoat? Hessians? I have a pair of my husband’s and—“
    He laid a finger across her lips. “Darling, I have clothes suitable