Seducing the Single Lady Read Free

Susie,” he said with a grin. Then, just as he always used to do (and as she always used to hate), he reached out for one of those luscious auburn curls and gave a little tug.
     
    ******
     
    Susannah was terribly vexed to discover that Damien was as handsome as ever. His boyish good looks had matured into devastating handsomeness.
    If he’d been anyone else…
    With his looks he would have made her heart beat faster with desire (not fear that he’d ruin her fun). Or he would have left her breathless with anticipation (not from the strain of concealing the storm of emotions she felt upon seeing him again).
    But it was Damien, the man who had called her horrid names, had teased her endlessly and who had fled the country rather than be wed to her. She despised him.
    Granted she had never wished to be married to him either—but she hadn’t declared it publicly and in the most humiliating way. Scrappy brat. Ha!
    Her heart was still racing, and she would not attribute it to something like desire or how she felt warmed to her core because of his hot gaze upon her. She had felt his attentions upon her earlier in the evening, while she was dancing with Sommerly and before she even realized who he was.
    Damien had come back for her. Just when her fun was beginning.
    What cursed luck!
    Susannah strolled through the ballroom, fan fluttering before her face, her heart stil l beating at a rapid-fire pace and felling as it had for one rare, strange and slightly magical moment from years ago.
    Damien, being a n idiotic young boy, had, just for his amusement, pushed her into the lake that bordered their neighboring properties. She had emerged from the cold water with her hair dark and wet, hanging in perfect tight curls instead of their usual frizz. Her ill-fitting white dress had been plastered against her newly developed curves.
    For one long awkward, confusing moment they had stood, riveted. She could still feel the warm sunlight on her cool skin and the weight of her wet dress tangled around her legs. The way his eyes had darkened and his lips had parted was the same then as tonight. On both occasions her heart started to thud fast and hard, like a series of fireworks explosions in her chest. S he also remembered the hot flush of mortification when she realized that he could see…everything…everything…
    She felt that again tonight, like déjà vu.
    But she hadn’t seen any of the charming, rakish rogue all the stories claimed him to be. Those qualities were apparently reserved for his collection of lovelies on the continent. The Damien who had returned was a tongue-tied gentleman who issued the least romantic proposal in the history of the world.
    We ought to marry. It is time, he had said, apropos of nothing, in the middle of Almack’s.
    Susannah was deeply glad to have refused him, though she suspected it would not be the last she’d hear or see of him. In fact, she was aware of him for the rest of the night. 
    She waltzed and flirted and laughed as she always did, and pretended she was a young heiress out on the town without a care in the world.
     

Chapter 2: Déjà Vu
     
    Everywhere Susannah looked, she saw Damien. She stayed at the ball until late into the night—or early into the morning—helplessly comparing all her other suitors to him. Upon a few occasions, she was convinced that she had seen him in a darkened corner. She bit her lip to keep from calling his name.
    The following day she took a stroll through the park and again, everything reminded her of Damien. The way a gentleman glanced at her and did not set her heart aflutter made her think of him. Any broad-shouldered gent drew a second look. When she came to the Serpentine, she remembered, again, the day at the lake and the one instance—save for last night—when he really looked at her.
    She couldn’t help but reminisce . She pushed the thoughts away.
    Even though she did not want to see him, and even feared another confrontation, Susannah found she