Bitten by Desire Read Free Page B

end of the room. “Ask the man himself what?”
    â€œAbout the other night. Six of ’em, weren’t there?”
    The earl shrugged. “Poor specimens. Nothing to boast about.”
    â€œNothing to— For God’s sake, man, they could have killed you.”
    â€œI very much doubt it,” the Earl of Kilmun said drily. “Not armed only with cudgels.”
    â€œI hear you took fifty thousand off Mannington in one sitting of piquet the other night,” Lord Cullen interrupted.
    This piece of news drew several exclamations of amazement, but the earl was dismissive.
    â€œDo you ever lose?” Lord Cullen asked.
    â€œWhy, do you want to put me to the test?”
    â€œLord no, you have the devil’s own luck.”
    The Earl of Kilmun’s smile was thin. “Indeed I do.”
    Lord Aldridge drained his glass of claret in one long swallow, snapping the fingers of his other hand to summon the waiter for another. “What’s this I hear about Sally Emerson? It’s all over town that she’s given Malfrey his conge in favour of you.”
    â€œShallow waters and thin blood. That is one well drunk rather too dry for my taste.”
    The men laughed knowingly. “Dammit, Kilmun, you’ve the luck of the devil with the ladies, as well as with the cards. Whether you choose to taste what they offer or not, they lose all interest in the rest of us when you’re here, and yet you look through most of ’em as if you can’t see them.”
    â€œBelieve me, I see them. In fact, sometimes, I am forced to see rather more of them than I would like to,” Kilmun said with a shudder.
    Lord Cullen guffawed. “You’re an incorrigible dog. Why, only the other day I was saying…”
    But the Earl of Kilmun had already left the room.
    Â 
    In Lady Cullen’s magnificent formal salon, a group of women taking tea were also conversing upon the subject of the fascinating and elusive Earl of Kilmun.
    â€œThey say that there is a locked room in his town house full of gold and precious jewels.”
    â€œAside from his several estates in England, he has a chateau in France, a palace in Prussia and castles in each of the Baltics.”
    â€œAnd as for his reputation with the fairer sex—well…”
    The four ladies edged closer on their gilt chairs. Cornelia, the Dowager Duchess of Strathfyne—the first Dowager as she had come to be known by her particular friends since her beloved son, Alfred, passed on, leaving his widow to stake a second claim to the same title—tinkled her teaspoon on Lady Cullen’s second-best Spode and pursed her lips. “They say that even our hostess has flung her cap at him,” she said confidentially, “and as we are all too aware, what Melissa Cullen wants, Melissa Cullen gets.”
    Knowing nods greeted this statement. “And did Lady Cullen succeed with the earl?” Emily, Lady Alkington, raised a delicately enquiring brow.
    â€œOh no, and nor, as far as anyone can ascertain, has he shown the least interest in any of the ladies of the Ton, though it is not for the lack of opportunity,” the dowager said acerbically, “for some had as well trussed themselves up and offered themselves on a platter.”
    â€œI cannot blame them. I would myself, if I were not so long in the tooth,” Lady Emily said with a coy smile, “for even were he not as rich as Croesus, there is something fascinating about him, do you not agree?”
    Mrs Frances Burlington shuddered. “I don’t know about you, but I find him rather frightening. That look of his… I declare, I feel as if he is stripping me of my clothes, and whether it is to flay me alive or use me in a more particular way, I cannot ever quite tell.”
    â€œFrances!”
    â€œNo, I know what she means,” Lady Emily said. “One can never quite be sure whether one is safe with him or not.” Her