The Desperate Love of a Lord Read Online Free Page A

she’d wanted nothing more, then she’d have withdrawn from him and left him with nothing at all.
    Yet when he’d taken her to bed her gaze had held his, her eyes glowing with something far more than a physical connection. No other woman had looked at him like that. Surely her views had changed.
    Her words on the very first night he’d slept with her almost two years ago came into his mind. “You understand, Sparks, this is just what it is, I shan’t expect commitment or any such nonsense, I do not want you falling at my feet one day.” He could hear her laugh as she’d said it, as she’d stripped off his shirt.
    Her hooks had slipped into him that night, he’d felt the barbs even then. They’d kept pulling him back to her bed. He’d just been one of her hoard of casual lovers then. But he’d enjoyed her company, and admittedly her sex. Then this summer he had tired of that role, and he’d stopped playing the game her way. Instead he’d asked her to dance and invited her out. It had won him the sole occupancy of her bed. The pleasure of that knowledge warmed his blood even now. He’d liked having her lean on his shoulder, and grip his hand possessively. He’d liked her .
    Then his likes had turned to more, his deeper feelings gathering as a storm. He should have spoken. That was his error.

    He would now… When he found her… If I find her … He’d tell her what he felt. He’d offer her marriage and pray she’d accept.
    But if he found her with another man, what then? Then he’d walk away with a crushed heart, that was what. Even now he could feel it waiting to break in his chest. Like it was porcelain, and any jolt would shatter it.
    She’d rip it out of his bloody chest if she took another man now. He was in love with Violet Rimes, the bloody Merry Widow, of all the people to fall for.
    The last agent on his list was in Queen Street. He walked beneath the arch from Trim St, into the narrow cobbled back street which ran parallel to Milsom Street.
    The agent’s was the fifth door up. His name was engraved on the front door.
    “Mr Harrison?” Geoff spoke as he entered.
    A short, thin man rose from his position behind a desk. Another man sat at a smaller desk in the corner.
    “May I help you…?”
    “Lord Sparks… I am seeking –”
    “Property, my Lord.” The man immediately turned to gather some papers.
    “No, no, not property, I am looking for a lady who may have rented a place locally in the last couple of days. Lad…” He nearly said her name, but instinct suddenly warned him not to. If she was running from him, would she use her name? “A lady with striking blue eyes, the colour of a summer sky, and blonde hair like gold. I believe she was alone.” He hoped she was alone.
    The man looked at Geoff with wide eyes which then turned sly and suggestive. The man had seen her. Thank God! “Did she rent from you?”
    “And who is it who asks? I should not divulge –”
    “I am her brother…” An utter lie, but he’d do anything to find her. “She is in need of protection and I am worried for her?”

    “And she is running from you, so she cannot wish for yours, my Lord,” The man’s voice rang with condescension and disbelief, but as he spoke he held out a hand.
    Geoff understood and reached for money, withdrawing a note from the roll clipped in his pocket.
    The man took it, looking down with a grin. Then he looked back up at Geoff. “Mrs Mayer took a property in a village a little out of Bath, in Lacock.”
    Mayer? Geoff’s heart pounded. Was it her? It was the only lead he’d had, he had to follow it.
    “Which street, what number?”
    The man just smiled. “It was organised by another agent. His office isn’t open for two days, he’s gone away.”
    Tiredness washed over Geoff, he was sick of facing dead ends. This was like navigating a bloody maze. It was a game of chance.
    When he left, he walked out into a white mist. Fog. The cooler air of night had fallen and it felt