Read Online Wicked Earl Seeks Proper Heiress by Sara Bennett - Free Book Online

Earl was seeking you out. I have only to smile at a woman and she is cast out.”
    Averil gave an impatient sigh. “Don’t be silly,” she declared. “You are not as hazardous as you think you are, my lord. Your reputation may be a little shadowy but it isn’t so very bad. Is it?”
    Mockery filled his face. “You underestimate the power of public opinion, Lady Averil.”
    “Oh, but surely—”
    “Please, no pity. I am happy being an outcast. I can no longer imagine putting up with the excruciating boredom of conforming to society’s rules.”
    Her gray eyes sparked a challenge at him. “And yet you have conformed enough to come here tonight.”
    He noticed that her cheeks were colored a faint, delicious pink, and surprised himself by wondering whether her blush went below the neckline of her silk gown as well as above it. He could see the swell of her breasts over the top of her dress, the way the rose silk nipped into her small waist, and he found that his imagination was perfectly good enough to visualize what she looked like without her clothing.
    Could he marry Lady Averil Martindale for her fortune? Always assuming she would take someone who was an outcast from society! For a moment he allowed himself to imagine pursuing her, wooing her, making her fall in love with him, wedding her and bedding her in that order. Or maybe the wedding and bedding could be interchanged, if it became necessary.
    And afterward?
    Damned and blasted misery for them both, more than likely.
    No, it would not do and he must stop thinking that it would. Lady Averil was no solution to his troubles, no matter what James might think.
    “Lady Averil,” he said, bending his head to be closer to her. “I visited St. Thomas’s for you last week, aware as I was that you were incapacitated. I hoped you would be glad of my help.”
    “Hush!” She put her hand upon his arm to stop him, evidently innocent of the fact that it was unseemly to touch a man such as he. “This is a private matter, as I said before.”
    There were tears in her eyes.
    Something in his heart gave a little tremor, but he ignored it and continued on.
    “Lady Averil, I can help you in this matter. Indeed you would be doing me a favor if you allowed me to help; I need a distraction right now. And I know those streets well. At one time I worked for the government. I was the man who delved into the dark places of London for all the missing people no one else could find. I promise you that I will find your sister.”
    She put a gloved fingertip to her cheek and quickly wiped away a tear that had escaped her long lashes. “I don’t know what to say.”
    “I am offering you my help,” he said and his voice was utterly sincere. “Say yes.”

 
C HAPTER S IX
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    A veril was having difficulty seeing into Lord Southbrook’s heart. At least, she was having no difficulty at all, and that was what was puzzling her. Because what was a man like him doing, helping her find her sister? What possible reason could he have, apart from using her as a distraction, as he claimed? Averil was inclined to trust people and her intuition was telling her to trust him, but she was no fool, and she knew the earl was someone beyond her usual experience.
    He was the sort of man women fantasized about, herself included, but in real life, up close, he was so much more . . . more of everything. The way his hair fell about his lean, masculine face, and his hooded eyes, staring down into hers, not to mention his scar. She imagined herself reaching out and touching that savage line of destruction, as if her fingers could somehow heal him.
    Was this how her mother had felt, before she bolted with her mystery lover? Was Averil going to be as poor a judge of the opposite sex as Anastasia?
    The thought sobered her. She would not make a fool of herself by imagining there was more to this than appeared. He was offering to help her, and for Rose’s sake she couldn’t afford to reject any offers of