She could not allow Lord Keery to shoulder all of the blame for their predicament-not when she’d been a willing accomplice. Jane pressed her lips together, but stood her ground. “Silence!” Henry bit the word out from between clenched teeth, his eyes burning with unsuppressed anger. Jane found her strength and rushed forward. Bloody hell, the countess stood witness to this…this atrocity.” His attention remained riveted on Lord Keery. “Keery has already seen to that, I daresay. Her cheeks burned with embarrassment.Ĭlaudia moved to the door and pushed it shut, closing off the Countess’s view as well as any other houseguests who may come upon them. She stood in the middle of her room in nothing more than a chemise with a more than half naked man. Nothing she could say would make any difference. Jane’s heart pounded head spun with all the excuses she could make, but no words came. Claudia remained behind her husband, her hand on her chest and her mouth agape. “Explain yourself,” her brother, Henry, demanded of Lord Keery. The blood drained from Jane’s face as she averted her gaze to the pained glass window wishing she could fling herself out of it. To her horror, her brother and his wife had entered her room, worse still, the Countess of Bailey, an older woman renowned for her gossiping, stood wide-eyed in the hallway. The door swung open behind her, spinning her around. “There seems to be a shortage of gentleman as well.” She bent to retrieve his breeches before flinging them at him. “If that is true, it is a damn good thing there are no ladies present.” He pulled his shirt over his head.
“That is an invitation you shall never receive from me! You are a blackguard unfit for the company of ladies.” She jabbed finger into the bone and muscle of his chest. Anger flared to life, burning her from the inside out. To think she was bemoaning the fact they had not made love mere minutes ago. The chill in his tone sliced through her. “It seems you welcomed me with open legs, madam.”
He glanced at the mussed bed, then raked his gaze over her body before meeting her eyes. Can they let go of their old hurts and beliefs long enough to embrace the gift fate bestowed upon them? Two people brought together through an unwanted circumstance discover something neither one believed they’d ever have. Even after he accidentally ruins a lady and is forced to offer marriage. He holds his vices close-light skirts, gambling, and liquor-and has no intention of giving them up. Still she dared to dream-that is until she finds herself thoroughly scandalized by a lord with the manners of a wild boar.Īfter Caleb Wesley, Lord Keery, failed to protect the one person who’d counted on him, he embraced his role of blackguard. After all she’d witnessed firsthand how miserable marriage could make a lady. A wallflower by nature, Jane long ago accepted she would become a spinster.
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