“My American uncle has left me a significant fortune,” she blurted. “But to inherit, I must be married. If I am not married by my twenty-first birthday, I will lose my rights to my inheritance.”
“I have funds aplenty.” He began unbuttoning his coat. Truly, he ought to ring for Grove, but there was something about Lady Julianna watching him remove his clothes that made his heart thud hard. “Get out.”
He shrugged his coat to the floor.
Her eyes were wide. “You are disrobing.”
He toed off his shoes. “As I recall, you liked the sight well enough before.”
Her cheeks went scarlet. “This is scandalous.”
“I’ve already told you to leave. If you remain, the scandal is yours.” He opened the fastening of his trousers.
Damn, his cock was hard. Just because she stood near. Watching. He could hardly drop his trousers and let her see him in this state with nothing but his smalls to shield him. Could he?
“I am offering you a marriage of convenience,” she continued. “I will return to America. You will live here. I will give you half the inheritance, and I will be free to live as I choose.”
Live as she chose? His ears went hot.
“And what do you mean by that, living as you choose? You will take lovers?” He longed to slam his fist into the faces of each invisible man.
Which was ridiculous. She was not his. He was not going to marry her. As soon as she left him alone, he was going to forget her.
No he wasn’t. What a stupid bloody lie to tell himself. He had never forgotten her. Expunging her from his memory had proven impossible.
“It would be my right to take lovers,” she said quietly. “As it would be yours to do so as well. You have a mistress now, do you not?”
How the hell did she know about Charlotte?
He raised a brow. “Jealous,chérie?”
“No. I am not the naïve girl I once was.”
He was not sure why her words stung. Whatever the reason, it seemed an excellent time to begin plucking the buttons on his shirt from their moorings. He had gone to the Black Souls straight from the fencing club, which meant he was still dressed for the sport. No necktie. A private chamber had rendered formality unimportant.
She was still hovering at the threshold of his chamber, a temptation he could not afford to want. “My answer remains no. You may go now, Lady Julianna.”
He took great care to keep his tone cold and biting. To keep her at a distance. Any nearer, and he could not be responsible for his actions. Lunacy ill-became him.
“Will you not consider my offer?” she asked, lingering.
To perdition with her.
He tore off his shirt, leaving himself bare to the waist. Let her look her fill. Damn it if he did not feel her gaze upon him as if it were a caress.
“I am about to wed another.”
The color fled her cheeks. “You are? Helena said nothing of your having a betrothed.”
Helena was his sister and Julianna’s friend. Also the reason he had first become acquainted with the fiery-haired temptress who had upended his life.
“Helena is busy enough with her own affairs. I endeavor to keep her out of mine,” he said grimly.
That much was true. His sister had recently married his best friend, the Earl of Huntingdon, after managing to escape the clutches of the marriage their father had wanted for her. He could not fault his sister for wanting to avoid a union with the pigheaded Lord Hamish White. And whilst it had taken him some time to grow accustomed to the idea of his friend and his sister married, they were both contented, and he was happy for them.
“You are marrying another, truly?” Julianna pressed.
“Yes.” And he was still sporting a cockstand for the woman before him.
