Always a Rogue, Forever Her Love (Scandalous Seasons #4)(30)

At the breakfast table the following morning, Jonathan read and re-read the same five lines in the copy of The Times about a certain Lord L being discovered in a compromising position with Lady-Something-Or-Another.

In the thirty-minutes since he had entered the breakfast room and sat to enjoy the newspaper, a coffee, and a plate of cold ham and baked eggs covered in a tomato sauce, he’d not managed to learn the identity of that particular woman discovered with Lord L. In large part because he truly didn’t give a fig if Lord L was diddling his butler.

In larger part because he couldn’t, for all his wealth and holdings, ignore Juliet or the memory of their kiss last evening. Her position at the opposite end of the long breakfast table only made his already exceedingly difficult task of forgetting the lady all the more impossible. He’d offered to make her his mistress. Had offered her wealth beyond anything she’d ever earn in the course of her lifetime as a governess. He’d even offered her that bloody cottage. And how had she responded to his offer? She’d eyed him like he was a spider who’d crawled between her bed sheets.

In the end, he’d felt like that damned spider that had crawled into her bed.

Over the years, he had become accustomed to women vying for a place in his bed. He didn’t beg women, but rather had they begged for the pleasure of his touch. Juliet, however, had tipped her chin up and flatly rejected his offer. I will never, ever become your mistress. Never, indeed.

Poppy, seated alongside Juliet, prattled on in the young woman’s ears, which he found he didn’t mind for the distraction afforded him with an opportunity to study Juliet.

He lowered his paper, not because he needed another glimpse of the crimson siren whose kiss had stolen all hope of sleep from him, until the morning sun peeked beyond the distant horizon. Her proud shoulders stiffened. He picked up his coffee and took a sip of the vile brew.

“Are you listening to me, Jonathan?” Prudence called from across the table, with a touch of impatience.

“No,” he said over the rim of his glass.

His sister pointed her eyes to the ceiling, appropriately vexed. “You’re insufferable,” she lamented, and then promptly dismissed him.

Which was very good, because in the moment he cared about his sister’s words with the same level of interest he cared about Lord L’s dalliance with Lady Someone-Or-Another.

Juliet’s long fingers toyed with the fork, and his eyes narrowed at the faint tremble to those digits. He found some solace in knowing the young lady experienced at least some level of discomfit in his presence. With a smile, he again picked up his paper, and peered around the edge of it over in Juliet’s direction.

She nibbled at the edge of her roll. The sweetly erotic image conjured a remembrance of their kiss last evening. Jonathan fought back a groan.

Then, she peeked up at him. Their gazes met. Held. And then she returned her attention to the buttered roll, cold ham, baked eggs, and bacon atop her dish. His lips twitched. Well, if that wasn’t quite the breakfast plate for such a lithe, slender young lady.

Prudence cleared her throat.

Jonathan jerked his attention back to the page in front of him, lest his sister note his untoward interest in Miss Juliet Marsh.

Prudence coughed.

He rustled the paper. “Perhaps you need a drink, Pru?” he suggested, drolly.

“I assure you, I’m just fine,” she returned.

Jonathan lowered the page slightly, and arched a brow.

His minx of a sister waved a hand in his general direction. “I merely wondered how long you intended to study that same page before you realized your paper is flipped upside down?” she called loudly from her spot at the opposite end of the table. A heavy amount of humor laced her question.

His gaze flew back to the copy of The Times in his hands. Bloody hell.

Poppy and Penelope erupted into a flurry of giggles.

Mother quietly scolded them, until they fell silent.

Of course the second eldest of his sisters, the troublesome bit of baggage, would not let the matter die. “I must admit, Sin, I find myself left speechless at your remarkable talents.”

Penelope and Poppy tittered behind their hands, encouraging Prudence.

Jonathan flipped the page around so quick, the bottom corner dipped into the tomato sauce atop his egg, coating the sheet in a slimy, orange-red film. Oh, well hell and damn, now.

Prudence gestured to the newspaper. “Why, I’ve never known one to read a paper upside down before.”

Patrina pointed her eyes to the ceiling as though she’d not been the same vexing, troublesome bit of baggage herself a mere handful of months ago.

Juliet leaned close to Prudence and whispered something for the girl’s ears alone. His sister’s mouth tightened, and then quite shockingly, she fell silent.

Feeling eyes upon him, Jonathan glanced around to find his mother’s stern gaze trained upon him. A frown marred her ageless face. Jonathan snapped his paper closed, and tossed it down onto the table. He returned his gaze to Juliet.

She colored prettily and dropped her gaze to her plate. Ah, the sweet minx might prefer to maintain a fa?ade of indifference, but her kiss and the blush upon her cheeks spoke to her desires.

“Miss Marsh, perhaps we might meet at the beginning of each week and discuss your plans for the girls.”

Juliet’s head whipped around to face his mother with such alacrity he imagined her neck muscles ached like the devil. Oh, what he wouldn’t give to cross over to her and run his palms over the sweet, satiny softness of her flesh.