No Choice but Seduction Read Free Page B

matter. One look at her lushly abundant curves and nothing else mattered.
    She could talk a lot—about nothing. That was a remarkable feat. Even more remarkable, he’d never found that annoying! Her dimples often made her seem like she was smiling when she wasn’t. And she contradicted herself a lot, which could be quite confusing, but he actually found that endearing. It made her seem charmingly absentminded. Her nose was slim, almost patrician, her brows rather thin, her mouth—he could never think about her mouth without becoming aroused.
    No woman had ever affected him like that before, or stayed in his thoughts this long.
    Gabrielle Brooks had caught his interest though. What a relief that had been, assuring him that he wasn’t a lost cause! She could have banished Katey from his mind—well, that had been his original hope. Gabby had arrived in London at about the same time he did and had become Georgina and James’s houseguest because her father, an old friend of James’s, had asked James to sponsor her for the Season.
    A pretty thing, Gabby could have turned his thoughts toward marriage if Drew hadn’t been taken with her, too. Not that his carefree brother ever intended to get leg-shackled, as the English put it. But Gabby seemed to be fascinated with Drew, too, so Boyd had stopped thinking about her as a possible wife. Besides, she was the daughter of a pirate, as it turned out, and Boyd would have had a hard time getting past that simple fact. Pirates were the nemesis of honest sailors.
    He glanced at the two invitations on his tray that were actually for him and carefully put back the four that were addressed to his sister. He opened the folded note since he couldn’t tell whom that was for. He had to read it twice before the meaning sank in. And then he was bolting up the stairs shouting his niece’s name.
    When he found Jacqueline in her room, the color returned to his cheeks and his heart slowly returned to its normal beat. He read the note once more.
    I have your daughter. Start gathering a fortune if you want her back. You’ll be told where to bring it.
    Boyd shoved the note in his pocket, deciding it had obviously been delivered to the wrong house. He wondered if any of Georgina’s neighbors had daughters. He didn’t know, but he’d have to take that note to the authorities.
    “What’s wrong, Uncle?”
    Glancing at Jack’s woebegone expression, Boyd replied, “I could ask you the same thing.”
    She started to shrug, but then she sighed and said, “Judy’s riding her first horse today in Hyde Park. Not a pony, a real horse Uncle Tony bought her.”
    “And you weren’t invited to watch?” he guessed.
    “I was, but—I think only Uncle Tony should share that with her. He’s so been looking forward to it.”
    Boyd managed to stifle a grin. His niece was only seven years old, but sometimes she amazed him with her insight and consideration for others. She obviously wanted to be in the park watching her best friend ride her first real horse, but she’d taken the girl’s father’s feelings into account instead.
    Boyd had known about the outing and had been afraid that Jack would feel left out. He’d actually considered buying her a horse as well, but then he realized his sister might have a fit if he did. Actually, it was James’s likely reaction that had decided him against it. If Sir Anthony had been looking forward to seeing his daughter’s excitement upon riding her first real horse, James was probably looking forward to the same.
    “Besides,” Jacqueline added. “Judy’s coming over tonight to spend the weekend, so I’ll be hearing—”
    She didn’t finish because Henry burst in completely out of breath, as if he’d run up the stairs just as Boyd had done. Without saying what had brought him upstairs in such a hurry, he glanced at the daughter of the house then motioned for Boyd to come out into the corridor. Henry knew that small children had big ears, and this was one