Read Online Sara Bennett by Lessons in Seduction - Free Book Online Page A

moment Vivianna refused to meet Lil’s eyes, but Lil was better at this than she. “You told me nothing ’appened,” she said, and pinned the final piece of Vivianna’s hair in place. “I can see that’s not true, miss. You’re on fire, you are. What did that beast do to you?”
    “He’s not a beast,” Vivianna retorted primly. “At least, not the ravening kind of beast. More a smiling, charming, very handsome kind of beast. He kissed me, that’s all. I didn’t struggle. It was nice, and I had never been kissed before, at least not by someone like Lord Montegomery.”
    Lil shook her head. “You’re going to get hurt.”
    “No, I’m not. I know what I’m doing, Lil. Believe me, if for one moment I thought I was going to fall in love with the man, then I would have a long look at Uncle Toby and Aunt Helen—that would cool my passion.”
    Lil’s wry smile was agreement enough. “Do you want me to come down with you, just for company?”
    “No, I will be perfectly all right. He can hardly ravish me in my aunt’s sitting room, can he?”
    Lil’s look was ambivalent, but Vivianna laughed and, checking her appearance once more, made her way downstairs. Her steps slowed. She began to wonder what he wanted. They had parted as enemies last night. Had he come to apologize? To beg her pardon and tell her he would be only too pleased to cede to her request?
    Somehow she did not think so. There had been nothing of capitulation in his face when she closed the door behind her last night, only that irritating and victorious smile.
    Well, there was only one way to find out.
    Vivianna smoothed her skirts, took a breath, and went into the sitting room.
    He was standing with his back to her, peering out of the window. The second time she had come upon him in that stance—evidently it was habitual for him.
    “My lord?”
    He turned, a smile on his lips, and bowed in a negligent and yet elegant manner that Vivianna was certain could only be achieved if you were from one of the oldest aristocratic families in England.
    She had thought that she must have imagined the effect he had had upon her, but now, seeing him again, she knew that she had exaggerated nothing. It was the strangest thing, but she could feel her blood slowing,like a warm, languid river, gliding through her body and under her skin. And yet her heart was racing like a railway carriage down a long, straight track. Most peculiar. Oliver Montegomery might be the type of man she had always sworn to stay clear of, but her body had plans of its own.
    “I came to make certain you had reached your home safely—” Oliver began.
    “How…how kind of you,” she said.
    “—and to wish you safe journey back to Yorkshire.”
    Vivianna’s eyes narrowed. “I am not returning to Yorkshire just yet.”
    “Pity,” he retorted.
    “In fact, I am planning on an extended stay.”
    “Best stay away from me, then,” he said, his eyes fixed meaningfully on hers, “or you’ll spend it in places a lady usually avoids—for instance, on your back.”
    Vivianna straightened her already straight spine. “I know you think to intimidate me by speaking in this caddish manner, my lord, but you can’t, so you may as well desist. Besides, I believe that lying upon one’s back is only one of the ways in which…Well, I am sure you don’t need instruction from me.”
    No hysterics, no fainting, no cries of maidenly distress, and certainly no promises to leave London and never return. Vivianna Greentree simply reminded him that there were other ways of making love than on one’s back. Oliver laughed—he couldn’t help it.
    He must have been insane, coming here. There she was, staring him down with those brilliant hazel eyes, shining a light into his soul. He felt like he should shield himself from her, protect himself with bell, book, and candle, and at the same time he recklessly didn’t want to.
    “You’re wasting your time,” he managed, and propped himself against the