A Perfect Groom Read Free Page B

face. Justin wasn’t certain he liked the flare of amusement in Gideon’s gaze.
    He knew it for certain when Gideon tipped his head to the side.
    “Intrigued, are we, Justin?”
    Justin shrugged.
    Gideon’s laughter rang out. “Admit it. We’ve known each other too long. You are, if not by the fact that the sum is a significant one, then because of the fact that my interest was once piqued by The Unattainable.”
    An elegant black brow arose. “She must be a veritable ice maiden to resist the likes of you.”
    Gideon neither confirmed nor denied it. Instead his eyes glinted. “If that is indeed the case, no doubt you think you can thaw her.”
    “I am not inclined to try,” Justin said baldly.
    “I confess, you disappoint me.” Gideon affected shock. “You, the man with innumerable conquests. By God, you’ve gone and gotten almost…dare I say it? Almost respectable. You,” came his drawling complaint, “are growing into a dullard.”
    Now, that was laughable.
    He was a devil inside, and everyone knew it…everyone except, perhaps, his brother Sebastian, who liked to remind him of his occasional lapses into respectability. The way he’d ventured into several business dealings and profited quite fortuitously, for one. Too, he’d left the family townhouse two years earlier and leased his own just prior to Sebastian’s marriage. Those were, he supposed, the trappings of respectability.
    A pleasant haze had begun to surround him, for he was well into his third glass of port. Nonetheless, his smile was rather tight. “Don’t bother baiting me, Gideon,” he said amicably.
    Gideon gestured toward the group still gathered around the betting book. “Then why aren’t you leading the way?”
    Justin was abruptly irritated. “She sounds positively ghastly, for one. For another, no doubt she’s a paragon of virtue —”
    “Ah, without question! Did I not mention she’s the daughter of a vicar?”
    Justin’s mind stirred. A vicar’s daughter…hair the color of flame. Once again, it put him in mind of…But no. He dismissed the notion immediately. That could never be.
    “I am many things, but I am not a ravisher of innocent females.” He leveled on Gideon his most condescending stare, the one that had set many a man to quailing in his boots.
    On Gideon, it had no such effect. Instead he erupted into laughter. “Forgive me, but I know in truth you are a ravisher of all things female.”
    “I detest redheads,” Justin pronounced flatly. “And I have a distinct aversion to virgins.”
    “What, do you mean to say you’ve never had a virgin?”
    “I don’t believe I have,” Justin countered smoothly. “You know my tastes run to sophisticates — in particular, pale, delicate blondes.”
    “Do you doubt your abilities? A woman such as The Unattainable shall require a gentle wooing. Just think, a virgin, to make and mold as you please.” Gideon gave an exaggerated sigh. “Or perhaps, old man, you are afraid your much-touted charm is waning?”
    Justin merely offered a faint smile. They both knew otherwise.
    Gideon leaned forward. “I can see you require more persuasion. No doubt to you Bentley’s three thousand is a paltry sum. So what say we make this more interesting?”
    Justin’s eyes narrowed. “What do you have in mind?”
    Gideon’s gaze never left his. “I propose we double the stakes, a wager between the two of us. A private wager between friends, if you will.” He smiled. “I’ve often wondered…what woman can resist the man touted as the handsomest in all England ? Does she exist? Six thousand pounds says she does. Six thousand pounds says that woman is The Unattainable.”
    Justin said nothing. To cold-bloodedly seduce a virgin, to callously make her fall in love with him so that he could…
    God. That he could even consider it spoke to his character — or lack thereof. Indeed, it only proved what he’d always known…
    He was beyond redemption.
    He was wicked, and despite