Read Online Miranda's Dilemma by Natasha Blackthorne - Free Book Online Page B

for your party,” she said, drawing a hand over her velvet bodice. He allowed a slight smile. “Now, Miss Garret, you know that I must focus my attention on my game.”
    She made an exaggerated pout. “I don’t see why you can’t play at more than one type of game at your party.”
    A deep, husky laugh sounded.
    He glanced to his other side.
    Miss Garret’s sister-in-trade, Miss Caster, a pretty girl with honey blonde hair, smiled broadly, showing her dimples. “Now you know that Lord Danvers has no use for feminine companionship, not when there is a chance at winning at cards.”
    “But he is always so lucky at cards. He could play with half his mind on the game and half on something more pleasurable.”
    “Lucky at cards but what about love?” Miss Caster asked, as she stroked his cheek, brushing her barely clad breast against his arm.
    “Please, ladies, you are quite disruptive to the game,” Adrian said, then waved his hand towards the men seated at his table. “Please have a little more consideration for the gentlemen.”
    “I suppose…” Miss Garret pouted again. “But I am bored.”
    “Bored?” the man next to Adrian, Lord Benton, asked.
    “There’s nothing but boys and old men here,” she said, dropping her voice.
    “Boys?” Benton said.
    “University boys. They are nearly bare-cheeked and look as though they wouldn’t have two pence to rub together unless their papa approved it.” Miss Garret sighed.
    “Why don’t you and Miss Caster take a chair and sit here and watch us play?” Benton suggested.
    She arched a well-cultivated brow. “Watch you play?”
    “You might learn something.”
    She laughed. “I might be able to teach you something better.”
    “Just take a seat,” Adrian said, trying not to snap, so impatient had he grown to refocus his attention on the game. Tolerance had its limits.
    Cards were important. He must attend to the small details, every change of expression. He must listen to the bodily cues that told him those things that only intuition could.
    He must win, again and again.
    Then he took his winnings and invested them in the markets. This was how he worked to rebuild his family fortune. This was how he would build a legacy worth leaving to his sons.
    Yet tonight, he couldn’t concentrate.
    He kept seeing Miranda’s face. Shining with joy as she played with the puppies.
    Such an image clashed mightily with his former image of a woman of her ilk.
    Was there really still something of the innocent country girl beneath her icy, haughty façade?
    He recalled how Froster had looked at her, much like a puppy himself, so soft and fond bad been his expression.
    What right had Adrian to  insert himself into that situation and suggest that Froster issue an ultimatum?
    And it hadn’t been about protecting Froster for Dorothy’s sake or any other such nonsense.
    Adrian had been driven by jealousy, such jealousy as he’d never before known. He hadn’t been able to abide the thought that Froster might actually be successful at attaining Miranda as a mistress.
    Envy still gnawed at his innards like a starving rat. He couldn’t help picturing Froster helping Miranda unfasten her gown. Helping her out of her undergarments, helping her into a steaming tub.
    God, what manner of intimacies were they sharing, up there together in one of Adrian’s guest chambers?
    Why the devil had he relented and allowed Miranda to attend this party? All he had apparently done had been to facilitate her connection to Froster!
    Froster was never going to have the courage to issue any such ultimatum to the beautiful, overly proud girl.
    Yet, was a girl who would kneel in a stranger’s withdrawing chamber and allow a puppy to piddle all over her skirts and not make a dramatic scene over it, truly an overly proud miss?
    Damn.
    What was going on up there in Miranda’s guest chamber?
    Why hadn’t they joined the party by now?
    “My lord.”
    He looked up.
    His servant leaned forward and spoke