Read Online Led Astray by a Rake by Sara Bennett - Free Book Online Page A

make you.”
    “But if you don’t want Theodore to have me—”
    He groaned softly. “I don’t want anyone to have you. Only me.”
    “Then marry me, and then you can have me.”
    “You don’t know what you’re saying—”
    “I do know!”
    He kissed her, blindly, tasting her lips, and then he kissed her again, deeper this time, delving inside her mouth, as if he couldn’t help himself. “You’re killing me,” he said, coming up for breath. “God, I want you. But if I took you…the consequences for you, for both of us…”
    “Surely that’s my decision to make.” She was growing a little desperate in the face of his determination to reject her. “You’re a rake! What self-respecting rake would refuse such an offer?”
    “But you want more than my body inside yours,” he said bluntly. “Don’t you? You want my honor. You want a marriage of hearts and minds. You want what I cannot give.”
    “Can’t or won’t?”
    He stood up, leaving her cold and alone on the chaise longue. “Good-bye, Olivia.”
    Olivia gazed up at his hard, implacable expression. She could weep and beg, she could shout and sulk, but none of that would work with a man like Nic. So instead she smiled her serene smile, a hint of mischief in her eyes. “I’m glad you came to call, Nic.”
    He hesitated, taken by surprise, and then helaughed and bowed. “My pleasure, Olivia,” he said, a world of suggestion in his voice.
    “Olivia!”
    Mrs. Monteith had returned to the parlor unheard, and now she looked as if she didn’t know whether to shriek or faint. Nic gave Olivia a brief, mischievous look, and then he was gone.
    “Olivia, how could you allow that man to speak to you in that way? Don’t you know what he is? Your reputation—”
    “You didn’t pay much attention to my reputation when Mr. Garsed kissed me after dinner when you invited him for Christmas.”
    “That was different.”
    “Why was it different?”
    “Don’t be obtuse, Olivia. You know why. Mr. Garsed is a gentleman whose intentions toward you are proper—he wants to marry you. Lord Lacey is a—a rake, and his intentions toward you can only be a source of disgust and concern to me and your father. Any respectable person would feel the same. He intends to lead you astray, Olivia. He must never set foot inside this house again.”
    The two women glared at each other, both determined not to agree, and it was only when Mr. Monteith cleared his throat behind them that they became aware of his presence.
    “What on earth is going on?” he demanded irritably. “This shouting can be heard all over the house. My dear? Olivia?”
    Olivia’s father rarely interfered in his wife’sarrangements. He spent his time in his study or else in London, dealing with business. In fact, Olivia often thought that he’d become distant and withdrawn from family life since her sister died, as if now that she was gone, he no longer had an interest.
    “Lord Lacey has just paid a call on Olivia,” her mother explained, her mouth a grim line. “They were alone in the parlor for several moments, and when I returned from farewelling Mr. Garsed, he was leaning toward her in a very intimate manner.”
    “Good God. Lacey? But he is the man who—”
    “Exactly!” said his wife, bursting with triumph.
    “Olivia,” Mr. Monteith said, in his heavy, measured way, “you should never be alone in the company of a man like Lacey.”
    “He’s our neighbor, Father, surely it would be unkind to cut our neighbor?”
    “I don’t mind if you nod to him in passing, but from what your mother has said it was more than that. You were alone with him in the parlor for several moments.”
    Olivia had a strange urge to burst out laughing. Several moments was only long enough for Nic to kiss her, and certainly not enough time for him to do all the things she wished he would. In the end all she could manage was, “Lord Lacey would never hurt me.”
    But her father wasn’t listening. “You may