The Belligerent Miss Boynton AND The Lurid Lady Lockport (Two Companion Full-Length Regency Novels) Read Free Page A

him.
    "Oh, I'm perfectly aware of my own danger, Miss Boynton, as you so artlessly put it," Jared replied smoothly. "Although I seriously doubt you are."
    At his words, and most probably in direct response to his tone, she hesitated—only for a second—then lifted her chin and moved forward with him once more.
    Together they headed toward the dance floor. Jared shook his head in warning in the direction of the approaching, clearly irate Countess of Jersey—Almacks leading and most feared Patroness, and a woman whose aging but still lovely face had turned an unbecoming crimson at the sight of Amanda's gown.
    Both Amanda and Jared patently ignored the gasps and turned heads all around them as they joined the other dancers already moving through the first steps of a silly country dance. Jared could feel the tension in Amanda as their hands touched briefly—but her smile was brave as she drifted away into the first movement of the dance. The girl had spirit—pluck to the backbone, by God.
    As the movements of the dance brought them together once more, Jared whispered, "We're causing quite a stir, Miss Boynton."
    "I am more than faintly cognizant of that fact, my lord."
    Encouraged, he lingered, to tease her further. "Your gown is as enchanting as it is inappropriate, Miss Boynton."
    "You flatter me, Lord Storm," she replied as he easily maneuvered her off into the line of dancers. "Inappropriate was the most I aimed for."
    Giving up any pretense of keeping to the steps, he placed himself directly in front of her. He tried again, for some reason unhappy with the notion that she could remain so cool, so composed. "You'll be denied access to these hallowed portals from this night forward, and be shunned by all but the most daring of the ton, Miss Boynton."
    "Really? Then to that happy news I say, huzzah , my lord."
    Laughing out loud at this pithy answer, Jared cast an eye toward the rank of dowagers. "I wouldn't advise that you look in her direction just now, Miss Boynton, but your overburdened companion has swooned yet again."
    She faltered, taking a single step in Mrs. Halsey direction, then shook her head and stood her ground. "A pity, but unavoidable, my Lord Storm."
    He cocked an eyebrow and looked down into her face as a few of the dancers began muttering that Storm and his horrible companion were making a mockery of a most civil dance. Taking her elbow, Jared deliberately leered at her, some devil inside him wishing to see just how far the little vixen was prepared to go to disgrace herself. "You seem to have planned this evening's exhibition with great care. Not that I am unwilling to help. A kiss between us now would send half the ladies in the room to swooning—if you're willing?"
    Amanda pulled her elbow free and began walking from the floor, leaving Jared no choice but to follow along as she warned, "Have a care, my lord, or I shall further embarrass myself by slapping that silly grin from your equally silly face. The dance was your idea."
    Jared threw back his head and laughed again as he commandeered her elbow once more and directed her through the now staring throng and toward a secluded couch half-hidden by a hideous, towering plant. "You delight me, Miss Boynton, and for that I'd gladly suffer your punishment. You're definitely your father's daughter, you know. I remember that he had the much same flair for the ridiculous, and an equally fiery temper."
    Amanda sat down with a small thump, pulling out a fan she opened with a snap, to begin fanning herself furiously. "I thank you for the compliment, my lord, for I can only consider it as such," she said, her voice losing much of its hard edge at this mention of her father. "I really must apologize for involving a friend of my father's in this scheme. I hadn't planned on anyone being brave enough to partner me this evening. The gown, you understand, was to be sufficient outrage."
    "You can do nothing to my reputation that hasn't already been done by myself,