No Marriage Of Convenience - No Marriage Of Convenience Part 40
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No Marriage Of Convenience Part 40

She knew if she saw him stomping up the steps, she'd probably lose the nerve to do what she must.

She needed to say good-bye.She'd done as she'd promised-refashioned the girls into Originals-if the storm of suitors that hadplagued them all night was any evidence. And it shouldn't be long before offers of marriage cameflooding into Ashlin House.

At least the girls would find happiness, she thought.

And for one night, Riley mused, she too would find her own small piece of that elusive emotion.

Glancing around the room for something to occupy herself until Mason got home, she spied his

spectacles sitting atop a book on the library table.

Her curiosity getting the better of her, she looked around to see if anyone was about. Satisfied she was alone, she picked them up and studied them.

They lent him such a stern air, and yet they seemed so innocuous when left by the wayside-still, if he

had forgotten them, she wondered how he was to get on without them.

Perhaps he'd proposed to the wrong girl, considering how many shepherdesses had been wanderingabout tonight. Wouldn't that make Mrs. Pindar see red! And serve the manipulative woman right.Riley glanced down at the spectacles in her hand and then up at the mirror over the fireplace.I wonder how he sees the world, she thought...carrying them over to the mantel and closing her eyes as she placed them on her face.

When she opened her eyes, she made a startling discovery-the glass inside the frames was just that-

glass.Clear and unground.She stared at her reflection, wondering why the Earl chose to wear glasses, when he didn't need them."Because when you are the son of the ton's most notorious rake and you want to be taken as a serious academic, you try to distance yourself as far as you can from fashionable society," Lord Ashlin said from the doorway, where he stood watching her.

She spun around and faced him. "Pardon?"

"You were wondering why I wear glasses which I don't really need." He stepped into the room. "They do work, though. You look quite the bluestocking."

She plucked the evidence off her face, her cheeks burning at being caught. "I'm sorry," she rushed to

say, holding them out. "I saw them here and I don't know what came over me.""Curiosity, perhaps," he suggested, taking them from her and setting them back down on the table wherehe'd left them. "I don't know why I still wear them. Habit, perhaps."

Riley felt like the veriest ninny. She'd meant for him to find her like Aphrodite herself, reclined and awaiting her lover, such a seductive sight that he would fall at her feet and profess his undying love, disavowing Dahlia Pindar once and for all.

Instead, he'd come in and found her peering about like an old spinster!Lost in her own musings, she didn't realize he'd come up behind her until his hands caught her by the shoulders. His touch was different somehow. Stronger. More commanding. Perhaps it was just his anger at her, but she sensed something between them had changed.

"Riley, what were you thinking, disobeying my order?"

She glanced over at him. His mask was gone, but the face that stared at her shone with steely resolve,

sending shivers down her spine with the intimacy of his gaze, the intensity of it. "Your order was wrong. I can hardly see what danger, if any, I would be in at the Duke's."

"The least you could have done was choose costumes that didn't stand out. Greek goddesses, indeed!"

Tapping her finger to her lips, she considered this. "Yes, perhaps I should have done them up like shepherdesses, we could have hidden quite nicely with the flock."

"That isn't funny," Mason said, continuing his severe tone, but Riley could see the desire to laugh

twinkling in his eyes, at his lips.

"You find something wrong with this costume?" She stepped back from him and slowly turned in a circle.

"A man of classical tastes, like yourself, I would think you'd find it quite intriguing."

His jaw worked back and forth. "Yes, very intriguing. Too much so. I know finances are tight around

here, but couldn't you have found enough fabric to see that you were all decently clad?""Decently?" She smiled, then tipped her sandled foot out, so the slit in her gown fell away, exposing herleg up to her thigh. "I don't see what is so indecent about this. Do you?"

She edged closer to him and took his hands, guiding them down the edge of her body so he could feel

the line of her breasts, the curve of her hips."You have nothing on beneath this," he said, in a voice filled with need."Maybe I do, and maybe I don't," she whispered back. "There really is only one way to find out."She didn't need to encourage him any further. Mason caught her in his arms and crushed his lips to hers in a hungry kiss.

It made every tense moment since he'd entered the room flare up in a blaze of passion.

She opened her mouth to him, welcoming him.

If only they could kiss like this forever.

Mason seemed determined to give her that wish, for he continued plying her with his lips, teasing her to

open up to him, until her senses whirled in a dizzy circle.

When he finally lifted his head, Riley gasped for air.

"Every day you remain in London, you are in danger," he told her.

"Only from you," she whispered back, tipping up on her toes and kissing him anew. She hadn't thought it

would be this easy to convince him that propriety and honor had no place in their relationship. She

wanted, just for one night, to belong to the man she would never be able to have.

It was a selfish wish-to have this night always in her heart, when by tomorrow, he would be betrothed to someone else.

She didn't blame him-not too much, for Dahlia Pindar's fortune would forge the foundation for the

honorable life he so valued.

Something Riley couldn't give him. Her theatre could stave off the worst of his debts, but roofs for tenants and repairs to a tumble-down pile of venerable stones that made up the Abbey would never be possible.

So if there was no place for her to fit into that cozy future of respectability, for tonight she would pretend that she was his heiress, his convenient bride, rich and in love with him.

Well, at least one part of that was true.

She did love him with all her heart.

He'd started kissing her neck, in that spot right behind her ear, the one that left her knees weak and her breath coming in short, ragged pants.

Her fingers worked open his coat, moving their way over his chest, tracing over the muscles, the strength,

the wild, steely cadence of his heart beating beneath her palm.

Mason quickly shrugged off his coat and then his cravat. Riley helped him, pulling his shirt free of his breeches and pushing it up over his head.

Taking a moment just to look at him, she wondered if she'd ever seen a man more magnificently puttogether. Having grown up in the theatre, she'd seen men-in all states of undress as they switchedbetween costumes in often crowded conditions-so the sight of a bare-chested man didn't alarm her.

What stopped her breath was how beautiful his body was to her. She'd never beheld a man like this, anticipating what was to come, knowing that he would be holding her tightly to him, claiming her with his touch.

She stepped willingly into that irresistible realm.

He reached out and slid the single shoulder of her gown down and along her arm. Her breasts fell free, leaving them exposed to him.

Riley thought she should be embarrassed, but the gleam in his eyes told her not to be-Mason found her

desirable. Very much so. He pulled her close, his arm cradling her waist. She arched as his lips trailed a heated path down the nape of her neck. He made the descent with agonizingly deliberate indulgence, tasting each inch of her flesh as if it were his last morsel.

Her stomach tightened as his lips made a tender assault on her breast, touched her with a reverent sigh

and whisper.

A soft moan escaped her when he closed his mouth over her nipple, teasing the peak to life. She'd never imagined that it would feel like this, this fluttering, hungry need.

Mason had tossed aside respectability the moment he'd walked in and found her wearing his spectacles.A goddess in glasses.He would have Riley in his life and only her-and damn the problems that would ensue. Ashlins forged their own unique path through life, and it was time he blazed his.

He would find a way to pay off Frederick's debts and tell Mrs. Pindar and her greedy plans to go to hell.

Then he would marry this woman whom he loved so much. It was easy to believe all that was possible when he stood here claiming Riley with his kiss.

In his arms, she wavered, pressing into his embrace. He glanced about-but there was really no place for