Dangerous Weakness Read Free Page A

steadily.
    Richard stared back, eyes fixated on her mouth.
    Dear God, her lip is quivering. Richard’s entire consciousness narrowed to a need to soothe her quivering mouth. He leaned closer until his own touched hers. She startled.
    “You don’t need to fear me,” he murmured against her lips. He felt her mouth soften. He explored her mouth with care, absorbed in the sensation.
    The woman responded tentatively, moving under his lips, and he forgot his purpose entirely. Desire to comfort gave way to desire to take. Just a taste, a small taste of what I’ve wanted all evening. When the tip of her tongue touched his lower lip, he deepened the kiss, probing and demanding.
    She shocked him with a response that matched his. A red cloud of desire consumed him. He slid his hands up her arms to cup her face. When she didn’t pull away, he put one arm around her waist and pulled her until her body touched his, from his knee to his chest, her soft curves warm against him.
    When Lily tried to push him away, Richard had to blink to clear his vision. He had her against the wall, her skirts bunched in one hand, her bodice askew. My God, what madness !
    He pulled his hands from her bodice and leaned on the wall, one hand on either side of her, breathing heavily, his head hung low.
    “I’m sorry,” he began. He felt like a fool and hated it.
    “You’re just like him,” she spat.
    “I beg your pardon?” His loss of control had left him disgusted with himself, yet her accusation outraged him. I’m nothing like Volkov!
    She pushed him away.
    “You’re no better than Volkov. You will use any means to get what you want,” she said, rearranging her dress. “You make me sick, both of you.”
    His irresponsible behavior left him with no response to that.
    “Now I can’t go back in there,” she went on, looking down at her disheveled gown. “My entire reason for being here lies in tatters, and you, sir, are to blame. I trust what just happened, that much at least, will stay between the two of us. I can’t afford the notoriety.”
    She started to leave but turned back and glared at him. “You owe me. Call my father home,” she demanded before she stalked away.
    Her clear voice grated on his memory . “I can’t afford the notoriety!” How odd! Any other chit would try to trap me into marriage .
    He knew he ought to feel gratitude, but he felt nothing but anger. He had behaved like a damned fool. Watching her, wanting her all evening, offered no excuse. Richard Hayden never lost control. Never.
    Damn the woman anyway .
    Richard drew breath to clear his thoughts. He would call John Thornton home; she could be sure of that. And he would stay away from Thornton’s tantalizing daughter, as far away as he could.

Chapter 3
    By the time the footmen began clearing the soup course the following evening, Richard profoundly regretted not taking a firmer hand with the seating.
    Will’s Catherine, as hostess and Countess of Chadbourn, sat at the head of the table. Sahin Pasha, the guest of honor, sat to her right and Richard to her left. The countess commanded a remarkable range of knowledge. Having glossed over politics and recently published books, she engaged Sahin in a comparison of the flora and fauna of the English countryside with his native land. The bluff, avuncular man happily described flat farmlands and the rocky mountainous region of Cappadocia.
    Their conversation progressed, as it ought. Richard’s problem lay with the two young ladies next in line, given their places at his mother’s request no doubt. The two had been after Richard like hounds on the scent all week.
    Lady Jane Ashbourne sulked to Sahin’s right, spouting banal comments about primroses and expressing horror of a world without them. She came just short of insulting their guest.
    Lady Sarah Wharton preened to Richard’s left. She ignored everyone around her while she kept up a dogged effort to engage Richard in a conversation about the probable social