Pure Sin Read Online Free

scowl.
    "It doesn't really matter, right now." His smile was remarkably bland. This wasn't the time to analyze their disparate worlds. "All we have to do
now
, darling," he softly said, "is walk in, ignore everyone staring at us, and see that your father is assuaged."
    "Papa will be fine," she quietly said, sure of her father's unconditional support.
    "You can do no wrong?"
    "Something like that."
    "He may not so easily excuse me."
    "He excuses all my friends."
     
    It turned out Adam Serre was right about his authority. Although numerous glances took note of their entrance, of Flora's tousled hair and the occasional crushed bow on her gown, their leisurely passage across the ballroom went unobstructed. No one spoke to them.
    "I'm impressed," Flora whispered as another guest smiled at them in acknowledgment of Adam's nod. She grinned. "And you're not even armed."
    "
Now
I'm not armed," he quietly said. "Everyone understands the distinction." He didn't smile back. And she wondered at the reputation of a man who could intimidate so effortlessly.
    "Could you take any woman from this room with equal impunity?"
    He glanced down at her, not with surprise but with sudden recognition, as if his thoughts had been elsewhere. "I don't coerce women."
    "That's not what I meant."
    "Yes, then." Spare, unornamented words, softly uttered. "Are you sure your father won't be upset?" he added as if the incongruous subjects shared some common sentiment.
    He was genuinely concerned, Flora thought, fascinated by his complexity, or maybe simply distracted.
    "Perhaps you could intimidate him too," she teased, allowing him the distraction.
    A faint smile appeared on his handsome face. "I'll leave that to you,
bia
. You're fierce enough for both of us."
    She found herself blushing.
    "I'm not complaining," he said, amused at her embarrassment. "Believe me."
    "I don't have any complaints either, Monsieur le Comte," she lightly replied.
    "I don't use my title here. But thank you." He touched her fingers lightly as they lay on his arm. "Thank you for everything."
    When they found George Bonham in the billiard room, their conversation had nothing to do with their disappearance from the party, but rather with the earl's plans to purchase horses from Adam. After some discussion of diverse schedules, arrangements were made to meet at Adam's ranch in two weeks.
    Adam left Judge Parkman's home very soon afterward. He found it impossible to socialize with equanimity, the extraordinary sensations he'd experienced in the carriage house difficult to disregard. He found he no longer cared to smile and talk of trivialities. Troubled by his singular reaction to Flora Bonham, he wished to escape her presence and his disturbing feelings.
    Perhaps the contentious style of Isolde's departure today had taken its toll on his emotions, he thought, exiting the mansion with relief, or maybe he was responding with his normal weariness to fashionable society. Perhaps he simply missed his home and daughter. The only thing he was certain of was that he wished to leave Virginia City immediately, tonight. And forget Flora Bonham. After his wretched experience with marriage, his interest in women was purely physical, and Flora Bonham, despite her fascinating conversation and captivating sensuality, didn't fall into the category of transient pleasures. Unmarried women like Flora generally expected more than an amorous interlude. Or if they didn't, their fathers generally did.
    And he wasn't inclined to be anyone's gentleman suitor.
    But he found himself bothered on the long ride home by her statement that her father excused all her friends.
    What exactly did that mean?
    How many men had there been?
    Was she as sensational with all her "friends"?
    He shook away the heated anger and the damnable longing, forcing the nagging question aside when it slipped past his defenses. He didn't need her, he reminded himself. He didn't want her. He didn't want any women after so recently delivering