Nicole Jordan Read Online Free

was considered a devil with women: because he was so sinfully beautiful. But she’d fallen in love with a beautiful face before, a disastrous mistake that had led to her social ruin.
    “Confound him, don’t you dare allow his looks to addle your wits,” Diana chastised herself.
    Trying to regain control of her senses, she remained in the shadow of the bluff as she debated whether to leave or to make herself known to Thorne.
    She needed to speak to him alone, the sooner the better, for he had been awarded guardianship of Nathaniel’s younger sister, Amy. At nineteen, Amy was now an heiress and, as such, was the target of numerous fortune-hunters and rakes bent on seduction.
    Nathaniel’s will hadn’t surprised Diana, for Thorne was his longtime friend, and women were rarely appointed legal guardians. Besides, in society’s eyes, her own single state, as well as the scandal in her past, precluded her from making a proper steward for her flighty young cousin.
    But a man like Lord Thorne was hardly a suitable guardian either, even if he
had
made Nathaniel a promise to look after his sister.
    Diana was very protective of her spoiled but basically lovable younger cousin. At her uncle’s passing several years ago, she’d taken over raising the girl, while her cousin Nathaniel assumed legal guardianship. Yet the responsibility she felt was based as much on affection as on moral duty or the ties of blood. She loved Amy dearly, like a sister or even a daughter. And now she was the only family Amy had left…and Amy was hers.
    Since Nathaniel’s shocking death, they’d both spent the past year in mourning for him, quietly living in the country. But such a tranquil life had made Amy highly susceptible to male attention and flattery, and now she fancied herself in love with the handsome fortune-hunter who’d begun to pursue her over the Christmas season.
    Diana was determined to prevent the girl from making the same ruinous mistake she had once made. To stop Amy from being so badly hurt, the way she had been.
    If it meant dealing with the devilish Lord Thorne, Diana would do it.
    She certainly wouldn’t allow his rakish reputation to intimidate her—for the sake of her own pride if nothing else. She’d vowed she was through hiding herself away. No longer would she voluntarily be held back because of her dubious past. Nor would she willingly suffer any more of society’s punishment.
    She was starting an entirely new life of independence, Diana reminded herself. Indeed, this was the first test of the first real freedom she’d ever had.
    She had never expected to visit such a glorious island as Cyrene. The golden sunlight, the fresh, salty sea breeze, the magnificent vista, all were completely foreign to her. Faith, she’d never been to the seashore before this. Since being orphaned at age seven, she’d spent most of her life at her uncle’s country estate in Derbyshire.
    Diana squared her shoulders. She didn’t intend to let any man, wicked or not, beautiful or not, naked or not, drive her back into her shell.
    Summoning her courage, she took a deep breath, raised her muslin skirts to keep them from dragging in the sand, and stepped forward into the sunlight.
     
     
    He knew he was being watched.
    A sixth sense alerting him to danger, Thorne glanced covertly at his pile of clothing, assuring himself that the dagger he usually carried was close to hand.
    Pretending to keep his eyes shut, he stretched languidly and rolled over onto his back, so that he could glimpse the intruder who was now moving toward him.
    The watcher wore skirts.
    What the devil was a woman doing down here in his private cove? And a lady, by the looks of her attire.
    Irritation was Thorne’s first automatic response. The last genteel female to unexpectedly see him in the buff had tried to trap him into wedlock.
    In fact, that lamentable incident was what had driven him to take refuge on Cyrene for the past two months. At a house party in the