Indiscreet Read Online Free Page B

Had she inadvertently reminded him of a lost love? "Someone who will love you, my lord. Exactly as you deserve."

    Without thinking, she leaned forward, peering into his face. Foye's gaze came back to the present Their eyes locked, and with no warning, her breath caught in her throat. Her skin prickled up and down her body, all in pointed awareness of the man sitting across from her. He wasn't handsome. He wasn't at all. But Sabine's heart beat hard against her ribs as if he were.

    She leaned away,- still struggling to get enough air into her lungs. She felt she had not moved soon enough, that she had unwittingly allowed an intimacy she would never permit in actual fact A spark of fear settled in her chest because even with the distance between them, she remained lost in his eyes. Lost.

    It was Foye who broke their gate. "What else do the tea leaves predict?" he softly asked.

    Sabine thought that in all her life she'd never heard a more seductive voice. But her lesson had been a harsh one well learned. Her own future did not include love or marriage. She returned to his tea leaves. "Here," she said, pointing. "A dragon."

    His expression was remote. Distant but pleasant She was reminded that he was a great deal older than she. This was not a man to be bothered with young ladies. If he happened to be looking for a lover, she suspected he would prefer a woman older than her twenty-three years. And a woman with some independence as well. She knew how things were done, if he was discreet. A married woman. Or perhaps a widow. Someone closer to his own age.

    He leaned forward again and frowned. "A dragon, you say." He squinted and tilted his head. "Are you certain it's not a snake? Or a stick. Or even nothing more than an accidentally formed clump of leaves clinging to the inside of a cup?"

    "Oh," she said, laughing. His mouth twitched, too, and she felt another bream hitch in her chest "Accidental? Impossible, my lord."

    "Why ever so?"

    She flicked a look in his direction. "Why, because then we would be wasting our time over this when we could be speaking of politics or mathematics or Newton's first law of thermodynamics."

    Lord Foye sat back and crossed his hands over his very flat stomach. His eyelashes, she noted, were very thick and dark. "What a great many words just came out of your mouth. My head swims with all those syllables." That wasn't a smile, not precisely, lurking around the edges of his mouth, and Sabine waited breathlessly for one to appear. "I prefer that you tell me of this dragon in my tea, Miss Godard. What is it doing there, and what does it portend?"

    "That's easy enough to divine. A snake signifies misfortune, and I see no misfortune in this cup. As for a stick, I assure you, there is never anything so mundane as a stick in one's tea leaves. No, I am quite confident this is no snake but a dragon, and it portends change. Typically with the dragon, the change is sudden and unexpected."

    "And how is that different from the unfortunate snake?"

    "Change isn't always a misfortune," she said. The more she looked at him, the more she itched to pull out her sketch pad and take a likeness of him. He was possessed of a fearsome intellect, and sooner or later, intellect always affected one's impression of a man's appearance. Lord Foye probably did quite well with the ladies, if he was a man inclined to dally. She peeked at him. Yes. He was a dangerous man.

    And what a fascinating face he possessed. If she were to force herself to select Foye's best feature she would have to choose his eyes. They were lovely. Deep set, wide, and blue, with his lovely, thick, dark lashes. As for the rest of him? Quite unlovely. And unconscionably large. Not just in height but in sheer mass, and he was not in the least fat.

    "Are you thinking of dragons?" he asked with a wry twist of his mouth.

    "Oh dear." She felt her cheeks flush. "I have been caught out."

    "In what transgression, Miss Godard?" His voice went low and