Tempt the Devil Read Free

you’ve heard Lady Roma Southwood is to marry Thomas Renton, old Wainfleet’s heir.”
    â€œNo, I hadn’t heard.” Her voice seemed to come from a long way away.
    Olivia sucked in a deep breath. That couldn’t be relief unfurling in her belly, could it? One man was the same as the next, although even she admitted that Erith was more interesting than the majority of his sex. But perhaps only because he was a stranger.
    She met her troubled brown gaze in the glass. Perhaps.
    She released the hairbrush and turned on the stool to face Perry. “You haven’t told me if he’s rich.”
    Perry’s unhappy expression intensified, but to his credit he didn’t lie. “As Croesus.”
    â€œHe sounds perfect.”
    This afternoon Erith hadn’t seemed perfect. This afternoon that arresting, tanned face with its deep-set gray eyes and cynical expression had disturbed her.
    He looked like a man who had experienced everything and felt nothing.
    Perry all but snarled. “He’s anything but perfect. He’s a rake without a scrap of kindness to offer a woman. He has a reputation for ruthlessness and hard dealing. He’s fought duels on the Continent and killed three men I know of. If he weren’t so cursed brilliant at what he does, the Foreign Office would have brought him home long ago. He’s a disgrace to his country and to his name. Good God, Olivia, he foisted his own children on his sister before his wife was cold in the grave and he’s barely seen them since. He’s interested in his own selfish pleasure, and Devil take anyone who gets in the way. Does this sound like a man you wish to entrust with your person?”
    Perry’s vitriol surprised her. “Why the indignation? You’re hardly a pattern card for conventional morality yourself.”
    His mouth tightened. “I look after my own, at least. You used to have a greater sense of self-preservation. Give yourself to Carrington if you must give yourself to anyone. He’salways been mad for you and he’s damned plump in the pocket. Or stay here.”
    â€œI can’t be your pensioner, Perry.” This was an old argument. Her occasional sojourns in his opulent town house served both of them, but she didn’t want to become a permanent fixture. She began to plait her hair ready for bed. “I’d break Carrington’s heart. I suspect Erith has no heart to break. I can handle him.”
    â€œHe’s clever and merciless and self-centered, Olivia. He’ll end up hurting you.”
    Her busy hands stilled. “He’s violent?” She wouldn’t have thought so, but Perry kept up with gossip much better than she.
    â€œNo,” he said reluctantly. “I haven’t heard that. But there are more ways to hurt a woman than hitting her.”
    Yes, wasn’t she living proof of that? She spoke quickly before cruel memory sank its claws into her. “I can look after myself. You credit the earl with powers he doesn’t possess.”
    The anger seeped from Perry’s face, and she read the aching concern underlying his temper. She loved only two men in the world and he was one. It hurt her to distress him. But whom she took into her bed was always her choice alone.
    â€œAnything I say falls on deaf ears. You’ve decided, haven’t you?”
    She rather thought she had. Although tomorrow’s conversation over the tea table—she smiled to recall the earl’s shock at being invited to share the harmless beverage—would lead to a final decision.
    â€œYes.” She tied the end of her plait, rose and shucked off her robe. Underneath she wore the plain white nightdress she preferred when she wasn’t working. “My next lover is the Earl of Erith.”
    â€œThen God help you. I’ll say no more.” Perry rolled off the bed and kissed her on the cheek. “Good night, my darling.”
    â€œGood