Read Online The Rake by Georgeanne Hayes - Free Book Online Page A

three
minutes. Glancing down at the seat between them, she hadn’t noticed
before that the seat was so narrow that he could not drive without
brushing against her. Surreptitiously, she shifted over to put some
distance between them.
    “ We are the next thing to
wed now,” he said with a complacent smile. “And I am very
accustomed to having my own way, as well, particularly where it
pertains to my wife.”
    Demi returned his smile with a slightly
forced one. “We are barely engaged as yet and many months from
being married.”
    He shrugged. “The settlements are signed.
I’d forgotten you left yesterday before we’d finished up. At any
rate, I see no sense in a prolonged engagement, particularly when I
am anxious to have you in my home. Your aunt and I settled it
between us that we would publish the bans next month and wed the
following month.”
    A jolt of surprise and dismay went through
her. She couldn’t decide what to respond to first, the fact that
Jonathan and her aunt had not only made all the plans, but settled
them, as well, without consulting her or even advising her of them.
Or his statement that the contracts had been signed without her.
“The contracts cannot be signed. I did not sign.”
    “ Your aunt took the liberty
of signing for you since you weren’t feeling well. She is your
legal guardian, after all.”
    It was on the tip of her tongue to inform
him that her aunt could also take the liberty of marrying him and
taking her place in the marriage bed if she was so anxious to do it
all. “Don’t you think announcing the engagement and following it by
a wedding within two months is scandalously precipitous? People are
bound to think the worst. I’d expected we would be engaged a year,
at least, before we began to discuss a wedding.”
    He sent her a look of surprise. “Did you?
But we were discussing the wedding plans when you left yesterday.
Surely you must have realized that we would not be planning it a
year in advance. In any case, I’ve no wish for a prolonged
engagement. We are all in agreement. We have known each other since
you first arrived at Moreland Abbey.”
    “ I was scarcely eight years
old!” Demi exclaimed in outrage.
    “ Exactly my point. I have
known you nigh ten years now. I watched you grow up from a pretty
little girl to a beautiful woman. I am anxious to have you for my
wife.”
    Demi felt a little nauseated. Put that way,
she had to wonder if he’d had his eye on her since that time. She
supposed some women might find that romantic. She might have
herself, for that matter, if she had felt any sort of affection for
him. She didn’t, and she began to wonder if she could manage even
to tolerate him when she was being forced from every direction
without regard to her sensibilities. She thought she might adjust,
if given time. She might even learn acceptance, but every feeling
revolted at being pitched so precipitously into the most extreme
intimacy with a man she felt she already knew better than she
wanted to.
    She surfaced from her introspection just as
the carriage took a fork off of the main road. “Where are we
going?” she asked a little blankly.
    “ I thought perhaps we could
drive down to the lake and have a few moments to ourselves before I
took you home.”
    “ But … we have been gone
all day. Perhaps we could do this another time? I’m really very
tired now.”
    “ We won’t stay
long.”
    A combination of fear and anger washed
through Demi. Her lips tightened, but she didn’t trust herself to
speak. He drew the carriage to a halt at last before the lake. She
folded her arms over her chest and stared angrily at the water
while he set the hand brake and looped he reins around it.
    “ You are angry,” he
observed coolly.
    “ You are observant,” she
snapped.
    He settled back in his seat and stretched
his long legs out, propping them on the dashboard. Demi stared
daggers at the toes of his boots and twisted in the seat, putting
her back to him. He