Mad About the Duke Read Online Free Page B

seemed to come through the window frames as easily as the sunlight did the panes, her cheeks flamed with heat.
    Her entire body burned.
    She tried taking a deep, calming breath, but not even that worked, for when she closed her eyes, she saw it all again.
    The dark, shadowy room. The brocade-covered settee. A candle on the mantel, casting just enough light so she could see him as he tugged her into his arms.
    She shouldn’t be there. Not with him.
    Not with him holding her thusly, his hands roaming over her as if he already knew every inch of her…knew just how to bring her body alive…so she couldn’t breathe, couldn’t think.
    Then he drove her closer to madness by kissing her, his lips coming down atop hers…
    Elinor’s eyes sprang open again.
    Goodness, she shouldn’t even be recounting this scandalous dream, but she couldn’t help herself.
    Her fingers went to her lips, as if they were truly swollen from his kisses. Her breasts were heavy and even her nipples sat erect, as if he’d actually teased them into these taut points.
    She shivered and wondered at her own sanity. Never in her life had she felt this way. Felt such desire.
    And worse yet, she thought as she glanced toward the window, she couldn’t help but wonder if Mr. St. Maur was truly as reckless and dangerous as he looked.
    Oh, yes, Elinor, that is exactly what you need, she chided herself. An improper man bent on seducing you .
    Yet when Lucy Sterling had confessed the other night that the right man in one’s bed could be a delicious, passionate adventure, Elinor hadn’t been shocked.
    She’d been completely and utterly jealous.
    A lover. She drew another deep breath. For the life of her, she hadn’t been able to get the notion out of her head.
    Tugging the sheets up to her chin, she glanced around her small, barely furnished bedroom, with its draughts and thin carpet.
    A lover, indeed! She needed to find a husband. A solid, lofty, powerful husband who could protect her and Tia. A man forbidding enough that her stepfather would never again gain Tia’s guardianship, be able to force the young girl into a convenient and profitable (profitable for Lord Lewis, that is) marriage, as he had all those years ago to Elinor.
    No, that was exactly why she had impulsively hired Mr. St. Maur. He looked like the sort of fellow who could ferret out every scandal and possible weakness of any prospective husband and ensure that not only was she getting everything she needed in a spouse but also that there wouldn’t be any nasty surprises, as there had been with her first marriage.
    To Edward Sterling.
    Elinor shuddered. Whatever warmth had filled her veins before now ran to ice.
    â€œNever again,” she muttered, repeating the words that had buoyed her in the years since Edward’s death in a gaming hell.
    No man was worth such pain and trial.
    Yet once again, she had no choice. She needed a husband.
    You need a man, that mischievous little voice whispered. A dangerous devil like St. Maur.
    â€œI most certainly do not,” she declared as she got out of bed, knowing only too well that she was lying through her teeth.
    Â 
    â€œDo you think it is wise to employ such a person? Why, you know nothing of him,” Minerva, Lady Standon said over the breakfast table. “I doubt Aunt Bedelia will approve of such methods for finding a husband.”
    Elinor shifted in her seat. Oh good heavens, she hadn’t considered what Aunt Bedelia would say about all this. Ever since the Duchess of Hollindrake had ordered the Standon widows to live together at the house on Brook Street, Minerva’s Aunt Bedelia had considered it her personal mission to see all three of them married off.
    No doubt the lady was already crowing about Town that Lucy’s runaway marriage to the Earl of Clifton had been all her doing.
    â€œI hardly think Mr. St. Maur’s assistance will be all that shocking to your