An Invitation to Seduction Read Free Page B

rule, he was not vain. Mainly because he found little about himself that lent itself well to vanity. Without the proper attire of a gentleman, he could easily be mistaken for a dockside worker or a fisherman, a laborer of some sort. He simply did not possess fine patrician features. Rather he looked as though his face had been hewn from rock, chiseled with care to be sure, but never finely sanded into perfection.
    So the possibility existed that the lady—on getting a clearer inspection of him when he’d twisted around yesterday morning—had run, not because she’d been spotted—as he’d presumed—but because she hadn’t found his face nearly as interesting as she had his bare back, buttocks, and thighs. For all he knew, she might not have given him another thought once she’d dashed off.
    While he had been burdened with the inability to cease thinking of her, of the fiery shade of her hair that had so mimicked the sun. He couldn’t help but believe she would be equally bold, daring, and passionate. Surely God would not give such an alluring feature to a docile woman. It would be cruelty in the extreme, when she so easily captured a man’s attention.
    No, indeed. If Darwin’s theory of evolution were to be believed, then women such as she would have no choice but to populate the world with titian goddesses, and men would be powerless to prevent it. Indeed, they would be overjoyed to ensure it.
    The more he pondered what he knew of her, the more conclusions he drew regarding what he did not know. He thought it highly unlikely that her features would be unflattering or that he would find anything about her unwelcoming. Within his gut, he’d experienced a sharp primal attraction the instant his gaze had fallen on her.He couldn’t explain it, and yet neither could he deny its existence.
    It was the solitary reason he now waited with the uncharacteristic patience of a saint for her arrival when he had no way of knowing if she would even appear. Madness. He was engaged in absolute madness. He should take his morning swim, be done with it, and return home.
    Instead he waited as though he did not have businesses to oversee, estate managers to meet with, and preparations to be made for the journey to London. He’d become responsible for all five of his family’s holdings when he was a mere eighteen, and the sea had savagely stolen his father from him. Richard had taken control with a firm hand and a vision his father had argued against, a vision that would serve to catapult them into the next century.
    Modern advances were moving forward too rapidly. A man either embraced them or drowned. His father had drowned. Literally.
    Richard fought back the images threatening to overcome him. He did not wish to deal with them now, preferred never to deal with them, but they lurked in the corners of his mind, waiting until he lowered his guard, until he was weakest, to pounce. They were the reason he seldom imbibed alcohol and seldom lay down to sleep unless he was completely exhausted. Only a strong, determined will could beat back the memories. And that will he had inherited from his father tenfold.
    He forced his thoughts back to the woman who had deprived him of his morning swim. Not that it was too late to take one, but fate would no doubt deliver her as soon as he was too far out to return to shore in time to approach her.
    He truly couldn’t understand the overpowering desire to see her again. It wasn’t so much that he wanted awoman as much as it was that he wanted this particular woman. And it was this realization that baffled him.
    It had been some months since he’d had a mistress. Having parted on good terms with his last one, he’d been in no hurry to replace her. One did not choose a mistress carelessly for fear one would end up paying more dearly than one anticipated. Richard had a well-planned budget he allowed for such things: a residence, servants, clothing, and appropriate jeweled gifts from time to time. He