Read Online Love With the Proper Husband by Victoria Alexander - Free Book Online Page A

you?” she said rather more sharply than she wished.
    “It bothers me that any gentleman would force his attention upon an unwilling female. I can only hope you were not harmed.” Sincerity sounded in his voice, and she realized he was a rather nice man, all things considered. Still, he was not, nor would be ever be, her betrothed.
    “Not at all. I learned precisely how to deal with unwanted attention.” She placed her palm squarely in the center of his chest and firmly pushed him away.
    He grinned and stepped aside. “Surely there was more to it than that?”
    “Of course.” She swept past him and crossed the room, putting a safe distance between them. Gwen marveled that he didn’t realize how very close she came to allowing him to kiss her, and worse, to kissing him back. She had never known such an impulse before and was not entirely sure how to deal with it now.
    She reached the fireplace, then turned back to him. “However, it did not seem necessary at the moment. You strike me as the kind of gentleman who accepts that when a lady says no, no is what she means. You would be surprised how many gentlemen, who consider themselves honorable, have few qualms about disregarding that when it comes to women in their employ.”
    “Men are disgusting beasts,” he said firmly.
    She ignored the amusement in his eye. “Indeed they are.”
    “However, there are those of us, exceptions to the disgusting beast rule, who would never force our attentions on an unwilling female.”
    “Good.”
    “In addition, there are those of us, again not in the disgusting beast category, who have yet to meet an unwilling female.”
    She snorted in disdain. “Come now, my lord, you have never met a woman who did not particularly wish to kiss you?
    “Never.” He shrugged casually.
    “You are as arrogant as I thought when we first met.”
    “And as charming, I hope.” He wagged his brows rakishly, and she choked back a laugh.
    “However, you are mistaken in one thing, Miss Townsend.” He folded his arms over his chest. “In the matter of our marriage, you have said no over and over today, yet I do not, nor will I ever, accept it.”
    “Why not?” She heaved a frustrated sigh. “You are as annoying as any child I’ve ever met and just as difficult to understand.”
    She turned on her heel and stepped to the window, trying to sort out the contradictions that made up this man before her.
    “I have given you a most graceful way out of this. No one could hold you at fault for not honoring your father’s promise. Lord knows you’ve tried. Admirably too, I might add. And it’s not as if you have anything to gain save honor and my dowry, although that’s scarcely worth mentioning to a man of your means.”
    He cleared his throat. “Miss Townsend, there is something—”
    She waved him silent. “I, on the other hand, would derive great benefit from this match. I would acquire a tidy personal fortune, not to mention sharing in your wealth.” An odd thought struck her, and she turned back to him. “Your finances are substantial, are they not?”
    “They are,” he said carefully, “for the moment.”
    “For the moment?” At once the truth slammed into her. “Good God, you’re penniless, aren’t you?
    You need this marriage. My dowry and my pathetic little income.”
    “A minute ago it was a tidy personal fortune.”
    “A minute ago it didn’t matter.”
    “Regardless, I am not broke.” He huffed and refused to meet her gaze. His voice was low. “Yet.”
    “Yet?” For a long moment she stared at him. The truth was obvious, and she was appalled she hadn’t seen it before now. She chose her words with care. “I stand to inherit a fortune if we wed. How much do you get?”
    The look on his face was confirmation. He resembled any one of her charges when caught doing something he shouldn’t. “I would not have put it so bluntly—”
    “How much, my lord?”
    “In truth, I don’t get anything besides a wife, of