Treacherous Temptations(34)

“I only know that you are perhaps not the brute you pretended to be.”

“All men are brutes, my dear,” he answered with a cynical twist of his lips. “It just takes different circumstances for the beast to emerge.” And his had sprung forth like a rabid wolf.

“And what are you now?” Mary asked with well-deserved suspicion.

Damned if he knew!

“Why did you bring me here? What do you really want from me?”

He had brought her here for a well-choreographed seduction. He had planned to show her pleasure and take his own. He had not expected her to move him in this damnable way. “What do you think I want?” he asked.

“My fortune,” she answered woodenly. “You thought to seduce me for it.”

“Yes. I had premeditated your seduction. It is why I brought you here, but whatever else you think, Mary, my desire for you is very real and has nothing to do with your money. I would still want to bed you, were you penniless.”

“I don’t believe you.”

“No? Do you recall our first meeting in the music room? I think I set out to seduce you almost from that moment we met, and that was well before I knew of your wealth.”

Mary stared in disbelief. “But why?”

He emitted a mirthless laugh. “I am confounded to understand it myself. Perhaps I’ve developed an aberrant desire to despoil innocence.”

Mary scrambled to her feet and brushed the grass from her petticoats while she endeavored to compose herself. “I think this entire day has been nothing but a game to you! Has it been diverting, my lord, to see how easily you could persuade the na?ve country girl to lift her skirts? But you have indeed won, for you could have claimed your prize only a moment ago.”

He rose too and grasped her chin, forcing her to face him. “Is that what you think? That I take perverse pleasure in randomly debauching virgins? Need I remind you that I desisted?”

“I don’t understand you at all!” she cried. “But if it is my fortune you seek, there was never any need to waste your time and considerable talents when you simply could have applied to my guardian for my hand…and all that goes with it.”

“My dear, my time has not been wasted, and you have yet no clue of my considerable talents.”

She turned away, her lips quivering. “Regardless, the subterfuge of seduction was hardly necessary when I already know I will only be sought out for my wealth.”

“On the contrary, fair Mary. I can’t deny my original object in bringing you here, but it’s strangely complicated now.”

“What do you mean?”

“You intrigue me, Mary. You. Immensely. In this very moment I find myself consumed with the conflicting and contradictory desires to shelter and protect you, to lose myself in those guileless eyes of yours while I pound my cock into you.”

“I won’t have you,” she whispered.

“Oh, yes you will, for I intend to make you mine in every possible way.” Even as he spoke, he realized he meant every word.

“No,” she repeated. “I will never have you. I don’t know who you really are and I don’t trust you. I wish to return to Hanover Square now. Please call the coach.”

“Trust?” he laughed. “So you would rather place your trust in a guardian who plans to give you to the highest bidder like a horse at auction?”

“It’s not like that!” she protested. “Sir Richard at least has my best interests at heart.”

“My dear girl, if you really believe that, you are gravely mistaken in his character. He will see you wed only to one who will exchange political favors in return— to one of his corpulent and corrupt cronies.”

She bit her lip. “Why should I believe you? You don’t care about me! You only look to your own interests.”

“Perhaps that was true at the start, but it’s more than that now.” Although he had certainly set out on false pretenses, now he desired her as well as her fortune, and actually wanted to deserve her faith, wanted her to believe in him.

“My father trusted Sir Richard and chose him as my guardian. What would you know of him?”

Hadley’s gaze narrowed. “I know him for a ruthless scoundrel.”

“Sir Richard would surely pay you a similar compliment, my lord,” she retorted. “You’ve already confessed your nefarious design in bringing me here. And have you not spent the past decade gallivanting around the Continent in feckless self-indulgence? What kind of man does that make you?”

His eyes narrowed, his mouth formed a grim line. “Is that your assessment of my character, Mary? That I am nothing more than a wastrel?”

“The boot appears to fit very well, my lord.”

“You make all manner of presumptions about me, but you know naught of what you speak!” He replied through clenched teeth.

“If that is so, who is to blame?” she bit back. “You share nothing of yourself!”

“I brought you here, didn’t I? To the fondest place of my boyhood.”

“Yet you refuse to talk about your family…or anything else of a personal nature. Why did you go abroad for seven years? Or were you sent away? And why does Sir Richard despise you so?”

“Why must you pry?” he growled. “These are private matters that I don’t wish to talk about!”