The Reluctant Duke Read Online Free Page B

funny.’
    He gave a rueful shake of his head. ‘It seems that even when you try to be polite you can’t help but be rude.’
    She bristled. ‘And you find that amusing?’
    ‘Not really.’ He gave a slow shake of his head. ‘I’ve just never met anyone quite like you before,’ he said.
    Lexie wasn’t sure she was altogether comfortable with the softening of his tone. Or the speculation she could see in the warmth of those dark eyes as he looked at her. It was too male an assessment. The assessment of a handsome man looking at a woman he found attractive…
    No way!
    Absolutely no way!
    Lucan St Claire and his two brothers had all but disowned their own father after he and their mother were divorced. Had totally rejected so much as even meeting the woman their father had loved and spent the rest of his life with.
    Lexie accepted that their parents’ divorce must have been tough on three young boys such as Lucan and his two brothers would have been twenty-five years ago. But they
had
been only boys, and as such couldn’t possibly have been aware of all the details of the situation.
    Any more than Lexie, who hadn’t even been born at the time, could really know…
    No, she wasn’t even going there.
    The whole of the St Claire family had treated Grandpa Alex and her grandmother abominably as far as she was concerned. As such, they were all beneath contempt. It was better for Lexie if she continued to think that way.
    Except, as she had realised this morning, Lucan St Claire was lethally and heart-poundingly handsome.
    Lucan had seen some of the emotions flickering across Lexie’s expressive, beautiful face. Seen them, but not understood them. Which wasn’t so unusual; so far there was very little about this woman that he
did
understand.
    Except that for some inexplicable reason he was attracted to her.
    Her outward beauty was undeniable, but it was the things Lucan didn’t know about her, the things he didn’t yet understand, that intrigued him.
    And that, if Lucan were completely honest with himself, was also the reason he had been so annoyed at Andrew Proctor’s flirting with her earlier.
    He straightened abruptly. ‘I take it from your earlier remarks that you would prefer to give lunch a miss?’
    She frowned. ‘Not completely, no…’
    ‘Just lunch with
me?
‘ Lucan guessed easily.
    Her mouth tightened. ‘Yes.’
    It was all Lucan could do to stop himself from laughing again. No woman had ever before given him the blunt put-downs that Lexie did so effortlessly!
    Put-downs he found more arousing than annoying when they were coming from between Lexie’s full and sensually erotic lips…
    He gave a terse nod of his head. ‘I had thought you might appreciate having lunch before we leave. But we can eat later if that’s what you would prefer.’
    ‘Before we leave for where?’ Lexie said slowly, suspiciously, not liking the gleam of satisfaction she could clearly see in the depths of Lucan’s dark eyes.
    Eyes that now met hers with mocking innocence. ‘Did I forget to mention we’re leaving town for a couple of days?’
    Lexie very much doubted that this man ever forgot anything—after sitting in on this morning’s meeting, witnessing the precision of his business acumen as he rattled off reams of facts and figures without consulting a single sheet of paper in Andrew Proctor’s file, Lexie no longer believed he had forgotten his previous PA’s name, either. A more logical explanation for that oversight was that the woman had simply been of such insignificance to him that he simply hadn’t troubled himself to learn it.
    He didn’t seem to be having the same trouble where
she
was concerned.
    ‘Yes…’ Lexie confirmed warily.
    He nodded tersely. ‘I finally managed to return Barton’s call earlier. After careful consideration I’ve decided thatI
should
go to Gloucestershire to deal with the problem personally after all.’
    Lexie’s heart gave a sickening lurch. ‘And this affects me