The Husband List -2 Read Free Page B

pull her into his arms, press his lips to hers. Electricity arched between them and... what? Desire?
    “No!” She pushed past him and fled to the other side of the room. “There will be none of that!”
    “None of what?” He exhaled a long breath.
    “You know perfectly well what .” She aimed an accusing finger at him. “ That !”
    “I didn’t do a thing.”
    “But you wanted to!”
    “Did I? Are you certain?”
    She paused and considered him, then nodded. “Yes.”
    “Apparently, you too are quite observant.” He folded his arms over his chest. “It will be bloody difficult to have a marriage with none of that.”
    “It will not be that kind of marriage.” She mirrored his stance with her own and glared.
    “What precisely do you mean by that kind of marriage ?”
    “You know perfectly well what I mean. We will each continue to live our separate lives,” she said loftily. “It will be a marriage in name only,”
    He snorted in disbelief. “Not with me it won’t.”
    “But you are the only suitable candidate on the list.”
    “What list?”
    “The list of possible husbands.” An uneasy expression crossed her face as if she suddenly comprehended the unflattering nature of her admission.
    “You have a list? A list?”
    “You come very highly recommended,” she said weakly.
    “Bloody hell.” He strode across the room to the table still bearing refreshments, poured a glass of wine, and downed it in one swallow. All sense of amusement had vanished. By God, the woman was serious. Worse, she apparently aimed to select a new husband the same way she’d pick a dressmaker or milliner.
    “I have brandy if you’d prefer something more substantial,” she said helpfully.
    He ignored her. “And what propelled me to the top of this list? I assume I am at the top?”
    “Of course you’re at the top.”
    “Why?” He eyed her cautiously.
    “Well...” She glanced around the room as if to find the answer lurking in the shadows. “Everything I know about you indicates you’re an honorable man with a strong character and sense of responsibility and honor and ...”
    “And what?”
    She smiled apologetically, and her gaze met his. “And you need money.”
    “Go on.”
    “I am the beneficiary of a substantial inheritance. But to receive it, I must be married by my thirtieth birthday.”
    “In two months’ time?”
    She nodded.
    Suspicion narrowed his eyes. “How substantial?”
    “Very.” She stepped to him, took his empty glass from his hand, and moved to a cabinet, opening a door and selecting a decanter of brandy. “It’s from a distant relative in America. It includes ships—”
    “How many ships?”
    “Eight, I think, more or less.” She pulled the stopper from the decanter and filled the glass. “Plus there’s a great deal of land, in America of course.” She replaced the stopper. “And there is a fair amount of cash.” She turned and held the glass out to him.
    “How much cash?”
    “Six hundred thousand pounds.” She took a quick sip of the brandy, as if she needed its bracing effect.
    “Six hundred thousand ...” He stepped to her, plucked the glass from her hand, and drew a long, deep swallow. Even the burn of the best brandy he’d had in some time failed to temper the shock of her words. “Six hundred thousand ...”
    “Pounds.” A tempting note sounded in her voice, as if she were offering a sweet to a small child or a rope to a drowning man. “And, as my husband, half of it would be yours.”
    “Under the laws of England, all of it will be mine,” he said pointedly.
    She shook her head. “Not under my terms. First of all, I am willing to divide the inheritance in half legally and have papers drawn up to that effect.”
    “So.” He chose his words with care. “You propose to buy a husband.”
    “I hadn’t thought of it that way at all.” She huffed. “The benefits are not exactly one-sided. You will gain a great deal from this arrangement. The funding to