Page 74 of The Wager of a Lady (The Beautiful Barringtons 4)

Georgina looked down at her hands. “I’m not proud of it, Leo. But at the time, I thought I was doing what was best for everyone. I needed to leave. Daniel was here and I”—a tiny sob entered her words—“couldn’t be away from him a moment longer. It wasn’t easy to leave. But Harold sought me out at Elysium. I took a hack to the docks and got on theBetty Sue. Harold is mad but not stupid. He’d been telling people for weeks I was fragile and not in my right mind.”

“Your behavior didn’t help. That garden party—”

“A garden party isn’t a sign of insanity.”

“Tony told me you had your guests dress as woodland creatures. Carstairs went as a stag, for God’s sake.”

“The point I am trying to make is Harold meant to take me from Elysium. My only hope was to get away. I told Lind to send all the money in my account to Harold and say I’d gone to the Continent. I didn’t want him to look for me.”

Steps had been taken with Lind when Leo had set up the funds for Georgina to prevent Harold from ever touching the sum in her account. He’d never thought she’d try to pay Harold off. And Leo had called in Masterson’s markers.

A slight bit of unease, as if he’d eaten a spoiled bit of meat, hit his stomach.

“Can you understand why I hid him? I didn’t do it to hurt you, Leo. I need you to know I wouldn’t have—”

Georgina’s outward maturity often disguised the fact that she was still very young. Only twenty-two. She’d panicked. Had done what she thought she must to protect their child. And she hadn’t trusted Leo to help her. And that was his fault.

“Your life would have been easier if you had given Daniel up,” he said quietly.

She plucked at the coverlet. “I rarely do anything easy.”

“So you plan to remarry? To that overdressed thug who escorts you about?”

She looked up at him in surprise, then a smile crossed her lips. “He isn’t a thug. At least I don’t think so.”

“You aren’t marrying him.”

“I don’t respond well to being dictated to, Leo. Ask my father.” She held up a hand. “No, do not ask him. He’ll bore you with details of all the ways I’ve embarrassed him, which, of course, inspired me to do much worse.”

“I’m not dictating,” he said calmly. “Merely stating fact. And I look forward to meeting Jacob Rutherford.”

Her eyes, such a deep brown they appeared black, flickered to the exposed skin of his throat as he unbuttoned the top of his shirt. “Don’t be ridiculous. You’ll detest my father on sight. He’ll immediately determine your worth to him and all the ways he can use you to suit his own ends.” She tilted up her chin in the stubborn gesture he knew so well. “And Ben isn’t my lover. He’s my cousin. More like a brother, actually.”

“That’sBenjamin Cooke?” Rutherford’s heir apparent. More cold-blooded, Leo had heard it bandied about, than Rutherford himself. His shirt came off next and Georgina’s gaze lowered, cheeks pinking.

“Really, Georgie? You can blush after what I just did to you downstairs? I find the fact that you have a priggish streak to be highly erotic given the way your necklines dip.”

“I’m not priggish.” The color of her cheeks darkened further. “You are the only man I’ve been with.”

There wasn’t any doubt. She’d been so tight, she’d nearly strangled his cock.

“Well,” she tapped her chin with a finger, “I suppose Masterson, if I must claim his fumbling and poking about. But I’d hardly call him my lover.” She shivered in revulsion. “An altogether unpleasant experience.”

“Let’s not revisit it, then.” He didn’t even like to think of another man in her bed.

“A memory best put aside.” She stiffened her shoulders, as she often did when about to make a point. “I’m sure that feeds your ego quite nicely. That I’ve had no other lover.”

“I’m arrogant enough to tell you that it pleases me.” Leo shucked off his trousers, standing naked by the bed, letting her drink her fill. Her eyes deepened in color, her breath catching softly as he moved across the bed toward her on all fours. She glanced between his legs, then back at his face.

“Everything still where it should be, Georgie?”

“Of course.” She gave him a saucy look. “You proved all was in working order earlier.”

Dear God, he’d missed her. All those nights at Elysium, when he’d taught her to gamble and lusted for her, Georgina had been threading their souls together. Quietly. Resolutely.

“I lied to you.” He trailed one finger over the slope of her neck. Georgina possessed one of the most enticing necks in all the world, in his humble opinion. Smooth. The color of fine Belgian lace. And oh, so very sensitive.

She stiffened beneath his hand. “You did?”

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