A Taste of Seduction Read Free Page B

“You seem so sure that Isobel is involved with De Palma. It’s yet to be proved.”
    Arend lowered his voice. “You and I both know De Palma is her stepmother, Countess Victoria Northumberland. We just have to prove it.”
    Hadley looked around the room and sighed, not wishing to discuss their enemy further until they were with the rest of the Libertine Scholars. They were joining them for dinner to discuss what they had found out about De Palma. “My engagement will be announced in three weeks.”
    Arend looked surprised, something that didn’t often occur. “Oh,” he said with a nod. “There is no other way?”
    “I don’t see me finding a pot of gold at the bottom of a rainbow. Augustus needs the money he lent me for the winery repaid. He’s been waiting five years. Besides, one woman is as good as any other for a wife.” Hadley tried to ignore the stares and the men heading to the White’s wager book. “I say, is everyone betting on the reason Philomena and I have parted ways?”
    “Yes.”
    “What reason has the best odds?”
    Arend laughed. “Unfortunately, the one I wagered on.”
    “And that is?”
    “The return of Lady Evangeline Stuart, nee Althrope, to London.”
    Hadley felt the floor shake beneath his feet, and it was not an earthquake. He downed his brandy in one large gulp, the burning in his throat stinging his eyes. “Bloody hell,” he choked out. “Her husband has brought her to London.” For just on five years he’d been dreading this news.
    Evangeline Althrope, now Evangeline Stuart, had been the love of his life.
    Everything about her suddenly assaulted his memory. The mere mention of her name undid him.
    Forbidden memories rushed into his head. He recalled her sleek limbs wrapped round him. Her uninhibited cries of passion as her exquisite body arched against his. He could almost feel her luxurious hair, auburn silk flowing like flames over flawless creamy skin. Her taste as he’d sampled all she had to give. Her laughter and her smile could bring him to his knees. But it had always been her eyes, filled with intelligence, that drew him. Their light blue color would darken with incredible sensuality….
    She was branded on his soul, her memory sharp with a clarity that still seared.
    Arend’s glass halted halfway to his mouth, which now hung open. “You haven’t heard?”
    Hadley looked back at Arend blankly.
    “She’s widowed and just out of mourning. Plus, she has been asking after you, setting tongues wagging and sending men to the betting books.”
    The ground rushed toward him, and if he hadn’t been sitting down, he’d have folded in a heap on the floor. Evangeline was here, in London, and a widow. Anger burned in his gut, raw and powerful. He felt his fists clench. “I hope you didn’t wager on her and I forming an attachment.”
    “Silly me, I should have known better.” Arend ran a hand through his hair. “I thought I had inside knowledge. Sebastian is positive you are still in love with her.”
    Breath fled Hadley, and a wave of dizziness almost caused him to drop his glass. Those words, “still in love,” echoed in his head over and over, like an unforgotten song. He had loved her. “Had” being the operative word.
    She’d married another.
    But she was now free.
    Then, as if Thor’s hammer came hurtling from the gods straight to his chest, the blow invisibly knocking him to hell, he remembered.
    She’d chosen money, a title, and a safe life over him.
    Over their love.
    Just over five years ago, he’d received Evangeline’s note. A note written in her own hand, telling him she was marrying Viscount Stuart. It had been painfully obvious that he’d been the only one in love.
    She’d used him, taken what she wanted, and then married a man with enough money to save her brother’s estate and then some. She had a title and lived in a castle, a real-life fairy tale.
    He looked at Arend. “You made a foolish bet. I would not change anything in my life