Pursuing Lord Pascal (22 page)

“We’ve met several times. He’s articulate and
handsome and seems considerate.”

The unconcealed interest in her dark blue
eyes threatened to make Silas lose his dinner. In an attempt to
rein in his explosive reactions, he looked at Vernon Grange, Baron
West, the man he’d previously considered his best friend. “Until he
moves on to his next mistress. West has an appalling reputation
with women.”

“That’s the pot calling the kettle black,”
she retorted.

He looked down into Caro’s piquant face under
the elaborate coronet of dark brown curls set with glittering
diamond pins. His darling was no fragile beauty like her friend
Fenella Deerham. Her face was too angular and full of character to
be fashionably pretty. But the sight of her transformed his day
from the mundane to the extraordinary.

And she talked about wasting herself on that
scoundrel West.

Silas told himself that a short affair with
another man didn’t toll a death knell to his dreams. But everything
male roared denial. Silas didn’t want Caro Beaumont in West’s bed.
He wanted her in
his
bed. For always.

With difficulty, he found the rhythm of the
music again. “He’ll leave you once he’s bored—and that usually
means after only a few weeks.”

She was back to regarding him like a complete
stranger, blast her. “Stone, I’m contemplating a fling, not
lifelong slavery.”

Slavery? What a clod he was. Finally and
reluctantly, he recognized that her opposition to a second marriage
was real—and deep-seated. Dear God in heaven, all the clues had
been there. He’d just been too lost in a rosy fog of love and hope
to see them.

Given time, that was a problem he could
surely overcome. The threat of Caro tumbling into West’s bed in the
meantime was far more immediate. “He’s a debauchee and incapable of
fidelity.”

She frowned in puzzlement. “I thought he was
your friend.”

He used to be.
“That doesn’t mean I’m
blind to his faults.”

Silas’s blood thundered to haul her out of
that blackguard West’s reach. Not to mention all the other
boneheads infesting this room. He retained enough of his previously
civilized self to resist the impulse. Just.

Love, it seemed, made beasts of men. How wise
he’d been to avoid it all these years.

“You could be useful in my search for a
lover, you know.” Her tone was thoughtful rather than hostile.

Yes, I can kill every one of the encroaching
buggers, until I’m the only man standing.

“I can certainly alert you to the rogues and
wastrels.” Which meant London’s entire male population, except for
the newly reformed Lord Stone. He tightened his hold on her trim
waist and performed a breathtaking twirl, privately claiming her as
his and devil take any fellow with different ideas.

“That’s what I mean.” Despite his childish
acrobatics, she remained disgustingly level-headed. “Ladies are at
such a disadvantage when it comes to what a man is really like. We
see gentlemen all polished and careful of their manners, when any
fool knows that they show their true selves to their friends, away
from the artificial light of polite society.”

Silas regarded her in horror. “You expect me
to pimp you to my friends?”

She blushed again. It was odd—until tonight,
he’d never seen her blush. This made twice in the space of half an
hour. “No, of course not. But if you think I’m making an unwise
choice, I’d like you to tell me.”

His gut tightened with self-hatred. Her trust
remained, despite tonight’s numskullery. Now she invited the wolf
to guard the sheepfold. If he retained a shred of honor, he should
say no. He used to have some principles, for pity’s sake.

“I’ll do my best,” he said, and knew himself
the biggest rogue of all.

She glanced over his shoulder again. “Good.
Although despite what you say, I still think West might be my best
bet—and he’s indicated an interest.”

Had he, by God? Silas began to plot a slow
and painful demise for a man who had been a lifelong companion.
“That doesn’t mean much. He pursues anything in petticoats.”

Another turn and Silas realized that Caro
examined the satanically handsome Lord West with a speculative
glint in her fine eyes. “So it wouldn’t be difficult to win him as
a lover? I’d rather not devote months to the preliminaries. He
seems more appealing by the minute.”

And Silas realized that in becoming his
beloved’s conspirator, he signed up for a special place in
hell.

Find
The Seduction of
Lord Stone
on
Smashwords
.

Make sure you
read the second and third novellas in the bestselling Dashing
Widows series!

Tempting Mr. Townsend

Beauty - and the Beast? When rough diamond
Anthony Townsend, who also happens to be one of the richest men in
England, bursts into Lady Fenella’s house and demands she hand over
his runaway nephew, this dashing widow embarks on a breathtaking
adventure that might just end in exciting new love.

Winning Lord
West

All rakes are the same! Except when they’re
not… Spirited Helena, Countess of Crewe, knows all about profligate
rakes; she was married to one for 9 years and still bears the
scars. Now this Dashing Widow plans a life of glorious freedom
where she does just what she wishes – and nobody will ever hurt her
again. So what is she to do when that handsome scoundrel Lord West
sets out to make her his.

And watch out
for the next exciting instalments in Anna Campbell’s Dashing Widows
series:

Charming Sir
Charles (Early 2017)

Catching
Captain Nash (2017)

Australian Anna Campbell has written ten multi
award-winning historical romances for Grand Central Publishing and
Avon HarperCollins and 12 bestselling independently-published
novellas. Anna has won numerous awards for her Regency-set stories
including
RT
Book Reviews
Reviewers
Choice, the Booksellers Best, the Golden Quill (three times), the
Heart of Excellence (twice), the Write Touch, the Aspen Gold
(twice) and the Australian Romance Readers Association’s favorite
historical romance (five times).

Anna loves to
hear from her readers. You can find her at:

Website:
www.annacampbell.com

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