Read Online To Seduce a Sinner by Elizabeth Hoyt - Free Book Online Page B

lady’s maid, aren’t you?’ in this terribly stuffy voice. And what I want to know is, what business is it of his anyway?’”

    Melisande blinked. She’d never seen Suchlike take offense at anyone or anything before. “Who is this Mr. Pynch?”

    “He’s his lordship’s man,” Suchlike said. She picked up the brush and ran it through Melisande’s hair with vigorous strokes. “A big oaf of a man, no hair at all on top. Cook said he served with Lord Vale in the Colonies.”

    “Then he’s been with Lord Vale for many years.”

    Suchlike braided her hair with quick, sure movements. “Well, I think he’s gotten full of himself. A less likable, stuck-up, nasty man I’ve rarely met.”

    Melisande smiled, but then the smile faded and she looked up at a sound, her breath quickening.

    The door connecting her rooms to the viscount’s opened. Lord Vale stood in the doorway dressed in a scarlet banyan over breeches and a shirt. “Ah. I’ve arrived too early. Come back, shall I?”

    “There’s no need, my lord.” Melisande struggled to keep her voice from quavering. She was having trouble not staring at him. His shirt was unbuttoned at the throat, and that small bit of intimate skin was having a devastating effect on her. “That will be all, Suchlike.”

    The maid bobbed a curtsy, suddenly tongue-tied in the presence of her new master. She trotted to the door and left.

    Lord Vale looked after Suchlike. “I hope I haven’t frightened your little maid.”

    “She’s just nervous in a new house.” Melisande watched him in the mirror as he roamed her room, an exotic male beast. She was his wife . She was hard-pressed not to laugh aloud at the thought.

    He strolled to the little fireplace and peered at a china clock on the mantel. “I really didn’t mean to disturb your evening toilet. I’m terrible about time. I can return in another half hour or so, if you’d prefer.”

    “No. I’m perfectly ready.” She took a breath, stood, and turned.

    He looked at her, his gaze trailing down over her lace-trimmed chemise. It was voluminous but nearly sheer, and she felt her belly tighten at the touch of his eyes.

    Then he blinked and looked away. “Perhaps you would like some wine?”

    A small twinge of disappointment went through her, but she didn’t let it show. She inclined her head. “That would be nice.”

    “Excellent.” He moved to a side table by the fireplace where a decanter stood and poured two glasses.

    She came to the fireplace and was standing near him when he turned back around.

    He held out a glass. “There you are.”

    “Thank you.” She took the glass and sipped. Was he nervous? He was staring into the fire, so she sank into one of the gilt chairs and waved at the other. “Please. Won’t you sit, my lord?”

    “Yes. Quite.” He sat and drained half his glass, then leaned forward suddenly, the glass dangling from his fingers between his legs. “Look here, I’ve been trying to figure out how to say this properly all day, and I’ve yet to find a way, so I’ll just say it. We married rather rapidly, and I was away for most of our engagement, which was my own damned fault, and I’m sorry. But because of all that, we haven’t had a chance to become properly acquainted and I was thinking, ah . . .”

    “Yes?”

    “Perhaps you’d rather wait.” He finally raised his eyes to hers and watched her with something very much like pity. “It’s your decision—I leave it completely up to you.”

    It came to her, in a blinding, terrible flash of light, that perhaps he didn’t find her attractive enough to bed. Why should he, after all? She was tall and rather thin, her figure not particularly shapely. And her face had never been called pretty. He’d flirted with her, but then he flirted with every woman he met, high or low. It didn’t mean anything. She looked at him mutely. What was she to do? What could she do? They’d married just this morning; it wasn’t something