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“I cannot allow you to—”
“Besides,” he added, catching her hand and placing it firmly in the crook of his arm, “it will leave you more money to squander on your charity work.”
Her eyes narrowed with suspicion. “You said we had several errands, not just this one. Where do we go from here?”
“Milliner, mantua maker, and then last, the jeweler.”
She stared at him. “I don’t think jewelry is necessary. My mother gave me her garnets. That should suffice.”
“If you appear in something as trumpery as garnets, people will think I’m a nip-farthing or worse. You have no choice in this matter.”
“It is a waste of money,” she said flatly.
He scowled. Would she resist him at every turn? “Damn it! I will buy you jewelry and you will wear it.”
Julia met his statement with silence, merely fixing him with a serious stare. Alec tried to glare her down, but she never so much as flinched.
After an unconscionable time, she sighed, though a smile quirked at the corner of her generous mouth. “You are a stubborn man, Alec MacLean.”
“So they tell me.”
“Very well. I will accept your gifts. However, once this charade is done, we will sell whatever items we purchase.”
He choked. “Sell?”
“And donate the proceeds to the Society for Wayward Women.” She patted his arm. “That way you’ll have the satisfaction of knowing your money has gone for a truly worthy cause.” Having settled everything, she gave him a blinding smile and entered Madame Moulin’s.
Alec watched her disappear through the door and wondered if any other woman of his acquaintance would have balked at his offer. Certainly none of them would have wished to sell any of her possessions for charity.
Sighing, he took off his hat and tucked it under his arm. He was coming to realize that having Julia for a wife was going to be a unique experience. Unlike life with the predictable Therese, life with Julia would be an adventure. Unfortunately, he was only now beginning to realize just how blasted uncomfortable adventures could be.
Chapter 6
“I said I do not wish to see any visitors,” Therese snapped when the door opened. Damn the new footman. He was the seventh in as many weeks and as poorly trained as the rest.
“Oh, I think you’ll want to see me,” said a cultured masculine voice.
“Nick!” she cried, rising from the settee. “I was just about to send for you. Something has happened.”
He closed the door and walked toward her with a casual, elegant grace. As always, she was struck by his golden beauty. Whereas Alec had inherited the acclaimed dark allure of the Bridgeton family, Nick had taken his fair looks from his mother, a notorious French beauty who had reputedly killed herself in a fit of rage.
Therese had heard it whispered the woman’s family possessed a long history of madness and depraved behavior. Looking at Nick, she couldn’t help but wonder. Surely someone so beautiful must have some hint of madness in his nature.
“You don’t look well,” Nick said calmly, setting his hat on a side table. “Perhaps you should lie down.”
She flushed at the mocking tone. “I do not wish to lie down. Nick, we have lost the fortune.”
He merely removed a piece of lint from his sleeve.
“Did you hear me?” she asked sharply. “We have lost the fortune!”
After a studied pause, he raised his gaze. His beautiful blue eyes, surrounded by long, sooty lashes, had more than once caused Therese an uncomfortable flutter of envy.
“I heard you the first time, my dear,” he said. “That is why I came. Wexford and that fool Edmund Valmont dropped into White’s this morning. They were spreading a most interesting tale about Alec and your cousin.”
“Alec eloped with Julia last night.”
Nick regarded her silently.
Therese allowed her lips to tremble ever so slightly. Normally such a move would have fixed the interest of any man on the fullness of her mouth, one of her best traits. But Nick’s gaze never wavered. His expression was curiously dead, almost as if he’d sampled all the sins of the earth and found them wanting.
A delicious shiver stole through her. “I did everything just as we planned.”
“Everything?” The gently spoken word hung in the room. “I beg to differ, my dear. You forgot one crucial thing.”
She swallowed. There was something fearful in his very stillness. She allowed her eyes to fill with tears. “I don’t know how you can say such a thing. I did what you asked. I risked it all for you.”
“Such pretty tears,” he murmured. “But I have no pity to give. Your efforts are wasted.”
His indifference stung. “It is not my fault. I did everything we agreed upon.”
He lifted a brow. “Oh? Is it possible you forgot to mention the dowdy Miss Julia was also a daughter of a late earl of Covington?”
Though spoken in a deceptively soft tone, the words cut like a whip. Therese eyed Nick carefully. She was never sure how he would react. It was one of the things she found fascinating about him. “In a manner of speaking, I suppose she is.”
His blue gaze narrowed as he closed the short distance between them. “Explain.”
Therese subsided once again on the settee. “Her father held the title once.” She caught a glimpse of fury and hurried to add, “But I did not think it would matter. He died almost immediately.”
Nick’s face hardened. “You stupid fool. You should have told me.”
“I didn’t think it important. I would never have thought Julia capable of such deception. Good God, it is the most ridiculous thing in the world!”
A hint of cruel amusement curved his mouth. “Do you know what Wexford and Valmont are saying?”
She shook her head.
“They say it is a love match.”
“No one would believe such drivel. Alec has been dangling after me for the last two months and everyone knows it.”
“Not after Lucien and his babbling friend finish entertaining the entire ton. It really is a most romantic tale. Apparently Alec didn’t care if the executors approved the match or not; he was determined to have her.”
Therese’s stomach tightened. “I told everyone at the musicale last night that I had refused to elope with him. Now they will think me jealous.”
His eyes blazed. “I don’t give a damn about you. The money is all that matters.”
Heat flooded through her at his sneer. “I should have eloped with Alec when I had the chance. Why I let you talk me into such a preposterous plan I will never know.”
“As I remember, you were the one panting to become a countess,” he said, favoring her with a glance that made her wonder if her expensive morning gown of pale blue muslin had suddenly turned into sackcloth.
Her hand clenched the arm of the settee. Nick must have seen the gesture, for he favored her with a singularly sweet smile. “You know, my dear, if anyone comes off the worse for this incident, it will not be me. I may have lost a fortune, but I will still be an earl. While you….” He gestured with a pale hand. “Once the laughter dies, perhaps some country squire will take you.”
Without thinking, she stood to strike him. Nick caught her hand. For one long, endless second, he stared at her before capturing her against his chest. A brutal hand twisted into her hair, yanking her head back. She writhed against him, striking him with her free fist.
He covered her mouth with his. For an instant, Therese fought even harder. But his brutal strength, the rude, sensual thrust of his tongue inside her mouth, ignited the lust that coursed through her every time he was near.
She melted against him, passionately returning his kiss. She had longed for this, yearned for it. Twining her arms about his neck, she pressed her breasts against his chest. His hands left her hair and roamed over her body, cupping her roughly.
Therese grasped desperately at his lapels, rubbing herself against him. How she desired this man. More than any oth
er, even Alec, whose dark good looks had more than once caused her mouth to go dry. There was something intrinsically forbidden about Nick, something untouchable that made her crazy with lust. She moaned into his mouth, and reached for the juncture between his legs.
Nick let her go, dropping her roughly onto the settee. Therese sprawled against the pillows, fighting to regain her breath. Her body throbbed with unfulfilled heat; her breasts ached for the touch of his hands.
He smoothed his jacket. “You really should do something about your unfortunate tendency to act like a bitch in heat. It is most unattractive.”
Humiliation raged through her like a fire. “Damn you,” she spat.
“Don’t worry, my dear. I plan on taking you…eventually. I will need an heir, you know.”
Therese swallowed a retort, knowing it would be wasted. She wasn’t accustomed to being the one who wanted more, needed more. Everyone knew she was beautiful. It was reflected in the faces of the men who desired her, the women who feared her. There was something dizzying about the knowledge that one could, with a pout or a sidelong glance, get whatever one wanted. She had never failed.
Until now. But there was a reason for that, after all. Rumors were rife about the too-beautiful Earl of Bridgeton. “I suppose I deserved that,” she said with a sly smile. “I keep forgetting you aren’t a real man.” She waited for his inevitable reaction.
His cold, serpent gaze lit to a vivid azure. “Oh, I’m a man, sweet Therese. Never forget that.”
Some demon whispered her on. “But Alec—”
He yanked her up from the settee, his hands bruising the tender flesh above her elbows. “Don’t,” he hissed, his face contorted into a frozen mask of white anger. “Don’t ever, ever compare me to my cousin. Do you understand?”
Mutely, she nodded, both terrified and thrilled at the same time. He dropped her back onto the settee, and as quickly as it had appeared, his anger slid behind the urbane, smooth facade. “Good. If I must marry, I would rather it be someone who understands me.”
Therese rubbed her arms where his fingers had marked her. “I don’t understand you at all.”
“No? And here I thought you were as depraved as I.”
She winced. As cruelly beautiful as a fallen angel, he knew how to draw blood with his every word. “Nick, have you ever fallen in love?”
He looked at her for a long moment. “No,” he said softly, placing a hand under her chin and lifting her face to his. “But if I ever do, I promise to share her with you.”
“What do you mean, ‘share’?” she asked, though a spiral of heat suffused her at the implications.
His smile whispered of forbidden pleasures. “Oh, yes,” he murmured, dropping his hand. “We understand one another very well indeed.”
It took the greatest of efforts to force her mind away from the tantalizingly erotic suggestion he had just made. “What do we do now?”
“Alec and your cousin must still live a year without scandal. Within that time, you and I will see to it that a scandal occurs to the lovely couple.”
Therese frowned. “What will I have to do?”
His glance dismissed her. “Whatever I tell you to.”
Briefly, Therese wondered why she hadn’t just married Alec. He was certainly handsome enough and would be disgustingly wealthy. Had he been in possession of the earldom, he would have been perfect. But he was a mere Scottish viscount, whereas Nick possessed the venerated Bridgeton title. There was no comparison.
Her gaze fell on his pure profile and she wet her lips with the tip of her tongue. She had already savored his charms once. Her thighs dampened at the memory of that one impassioned tryst. He had been brutal, almost vicious, and she had cried out in her passion, something she rarely did. If she could just satiate herself, her interest would wane. It always did.
Yet she wondered if anything was the same with Nick. No man had intrigued her more. And no man had ever left her so…wanting.
He caught her gaze and frowned. “It appears the Frant Dragon can indeed breathe fire when occasion demands it.”
“Julia? She is the most boring woman in the world.”
“Surely you exaggerate.”
She shrugged. “Alec has met her many times and never paid her the slightest heed. No one ever does.”
“Everyone will pay her heed, now that she is a wealthy viscountess.”
“I doubt it. She’s the drabbest creature, doing reform work and forever blurting out the most shocking things. Unless Alec can work miracles, they will never be able to avoid a scandal.”
“Don’t underestimate my cousin. He may be impetuous and quick to anger, but he is no fool. He managed to remain my grandfather’s favorite despite my best attempts to separate the two of them.”
She reclined against the settee and looked at him through her lashes. She knew the thin muslin outlined her form, hinting at the shape of her nipples. “I’m sure those efforts were drastic indeed.”
“How very perceptive of you,” he said dryly, collecting his hat. “You aren’t quite the fool one would think.”
Therese covered a flash of anger with a brittle laugh. “And Alec isn’t quite the demon the world thinks him, is he?”
“I admit I’ve assisted in his fall from grace.”
She watched him narrowly. It was unlike Nick to be so open. Unless, of course, he had a reason. “What did you do?”
“Don’t look so excited, my dear. I did nothing ungenteel. Tongues do wag, you know. A word here, a word there. It has all been remarkably easy.”
“Everything comes easy to you.” She knew her words held a hint of bitterness, but she could not stop them. Eaten with frustration, Therese yearned to give him a taste of his own.
Nick crossed to the door, where he stopped and regarded her with a dispassionate gaze. “Not as easy as you imagine, my dear.” His mouth curved in a half-smile that sent an uncomfortable flutter to her stomach and lower. “Unfortunately, this last venture proves it. We will have to plan something larger, more grandiose for the new bride and groom if we are to secure the fortune now.”
“What should we do?”
He adjusted his cravat with a deft touch. “If your intriguing cousin left without her possessions, you can be sure she will return.”
“I can’t wait to tell that scheming little—”
“You will do no such thing. Instead, you will convince her you are her best friend.”
Therese couldn’t begin to count all the slights and snubs she had heaped on Julia’s head. “She would never believe it.”
“Convince her you have changed,” Nick said sharply.
“And then what?”
“Then, my dear, we figure out how best to exploit her weaknesses.” He donned his hat, nestling the sable brim atop his golden hair. “I want to know her thoughts, desires, and secrets, if she has any. Find out everything about her relationship with my cousin.”
“What do I get in return?”
His lids shuttered his expression. “I will wed you the day I receive my grandfather’s fortune and not a moment before.”
“I want more than a promise.” She crossed to him, laced her arms around his neck, and trailed her mouth along the smooth line of his jaw. His cologne laced through her like laudanum, causing a languorous heat to rise up her legs and pool between her thighs. “Announce our engagement, Nick. Send a notice to the Gazette.” She put her lips to his ear and whispered, “I’d take you without the money.”
He pulled away and opened the door. “There, my dear, is where we differ.”
The portal shut behind him as Therese gave vent to a shriek of fury.
Chapter 7
Boxes upon boxes covered the foyer, some stacked so high they quavered as if the slightest jar would send them toppling. Alec had purchased his wife everything she needed to take her place in society. He should have been triumphant. Instead, Julia’s somber stare had stolen the pleasure from the entire afternoon.
Refusing to be rule
d by such prudery, he had bought even more than he’d intended. It had become a grim contest, a silent battle of wills. By the time she’d pleaded a headache, he’d suffered one as well. They had forgone the jewelers and returned home in silence, separating at the carriage with only polite, distant words.
He rubbed his neck wearily and wondered how a pleasant pastime like shopping could turn so sour.
Burroughs entered the foyer. “Welcome home, my lord.”
Alec placed his hat and gloves in the butler’s outstretched hand. “Where is her ladyship?”
“Resting in the front parlor.” Burroughs cast a deprecating look about the foyer and added dryly, “It must be fatiguing to spend an entire fortune in one afternoon.”
Fatiguing didn’t begin to describe it. Alec gestured to the boxes. “Have Johnston carry these up to her ladyship’s room.”
“Yes, my lord.” He hesitated. “If you’ll forgive me, her ladyship seems subdued. I hope nothing is amiss?”
“Of course not.” Alec refused to acknowledge the butler’s concerned gaze. Frankly, he didn’t think anything was bothering Julia other than an oversized dose of puritanical zeal.
The butler looked politely skeptical, but bowed. “Of course. Shall I bring tea?”
“No. Perhaps later.”
“Very well, my lord.” Burroughs turned and trod down the hall.
Alec randomly chose a box from the tallest stack and slipped through the open doors of the parlor. Julia sat on the edge of a settee, her pale skin startling against the dull gray of her shapeless dress. The kiss of the lingering sun as it slanted through the mullioned windows touched her hair with gold. She looked young and annoyingly innocent.
He walked toward her, the box tucked under his arm. She glanced up, clasping her gloved hands together in a nervous gesture, the leather shiny from use. There were eleven pairs of costly, delicate gloves in the boxes in the hallway. He had counted.
Maybe that was the problem. It was too much, too soon. God knew he himself felt a little staggered by the events of the past twenty-four hours. He couldn’t begin to imagine what it felt like for Julia.