Never Fall for Your Fiancee
- Автор: Heath Virginia
- Год: 2021
- Язык: английский
- Год: St. Martin's Publishing Group
- Жанр: Исторические любовные романы
Электронная книга - «Never Fall for Your Fiancee». Краткое содержание книги:
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Virginia Heath's fun characters and situations will have you laughing out loud! Don't miss this wonderful read! - Sabrina Jeffries, *New York Times* bestselling author**
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The first in a new historical rom-com series, a handsome earl hires a fake fiancée to keep his matchmaking mother at bay, but hilarity ensues when love threatens to complicate everything.**
“Thank you.” He reached for her hand and brought it to his lips, then had a very odd moment when he realized it wasn’t only her hand he wanted to kiss.
It was all of her.
Off-kilter yet again, Hugh stepped back awkwardly and tried to look unaffected as she blinked back at him. Lord, she was lovely! Too lovely. All that hair, the nightgown. The shadow of the long legs he could see beneath it. Realizing he was staring, he looked away, only to be confronted with the large bed that dominated the room. Its covers turned down in invitation. “Then I declare a truce.” His heart was racing. Beads of nervous perspiration seemed to multiply along his spine as images of the pair of them in that bed skittered vividly across his mind. “Now can we talk?”
“You didn’t just come here to apologize, then?”
As he was in danger of awkwardly bouncing on the balls of his feet, Hugh sat on the chair by the dressing table and, after casting another frantic glance around the room, had no choice but to gesture for her to sit on the bed or continue to stand like Eve tempting Adam before him. “There is much to discuss and I haven’t had a second with you alone since you told me to go to hell outside the stables.”
She sat, rearranging the shawl primly around her shoulders and forcing him to notice some alluring female jiggling beneath the nightgown. Then the jiggling reminded him that the diaphanous nightgown was the only flimsy barrier between his eyes and her nakedness. More unwelcome images writhed erotically in his imagination, more than he feared he was capable of coping with. Rather than groan out loud at the visceral effect they had on his body, he crossed one leg over the other and tried to imagine he wasn’t alone in this intimately lit bedchamber with a woman who had no idea how much he wanted her. He tried valiantly to picture Lucretia in that seductive garment instead—short, stout legs and slightly crinkly graying hair unbound. He clung to that unappealing image like grim death. “What were you and my mother whispering about after dinner?”
“Your mother wanted to go through your entire story with a fine-tooth comb. How we met, our courtship, my illness, and my father’s death.” Her pretty face became pained. “I did my best to answer every question, but I am not entirely sure she is convinced, Hugh. She asked the same things over and over in different ways. All very cordially, but I got the distinct impression she was trying to trip me up.”
“She excels at that.”
“If I say so myself, I did a good job of distracting her. I asked a great many questions about Boston and Mr. Peabody.”
“Jeremiah has always managed to distract her.”
“It’s obvious she adores him.” Minerva’s face softened, and she had a faraway look in her green eyes that made him want to go far away with her. “She lit up whenever she talked about him.”
“They married entirely for love.”
“How lovely…”
“I know…” With her before him doing odd things to his heart, he sincerely wished he was capable of it. But it wasn’t to be. He might be able to behave himself in the short term, but like his cheating sire and grandfather before him, he wasn’t capable of the commitment such a lofty undertaking entailed. Even if she was willing and he tried to fight his wayward blood, he’d end up breaking her heart. Because that’s what Standish men did. “After being shackled to my father, she deserved some happiness.” What had possessed him to admit to that? Being too canny and intuitive for her own good, Minerva noticed. Sympathy clouded her green eyes.
“Was he not a nice man, then? That comes as a surprise. I’ve not heard a bad word against your father in the time I’ve been here. Even Payne seems to admire him—and he is thoroughly devoted to you.”
“Payne? Devoted? If that’s devotion, I would hate to see what disdain looks like.” Nightgown or no nightgown, Hugh was not going to talk about his father. She hadn’t scrambled his wits that much. “Ironically, it was my father who introduced my mother to Jeremiah.” Or perhaps she had, seeing as he apparently was talking about his father. “Jeremiah was a good family friend for many years before she was widowed, he was my mother’s rock during my father’s illness, and then it wasn’t long before friendship turned into more. I was best man at their wedding. I have a great deal of respect for Jeremiah. He is the only person who has ever made my harridan of a mother see reason.”
“Your mother isn’t a harridan.”
“You have only endured one tea and one dinner.”
“Perhaps—but it is obvious she adores you and only wants what is best for you.”
“And you learned all this during two interrogations in which she tried repeatedly to trip you up?”
“We did talk about your scandalous lifestyle—before I came along and rescued you from it.” She failed to hide her amusement as she tried to look appalled. “Opera dancers and married ladies, Hugh? Your mother says they were a predictable choice considering your irrational fear of falling in love.”
“I am not the least bit afraid of falling in love.” Although just saying it aloud made his insides tighten. It wasn’t an irrational fear, it was a genuine one. Love wasn’t for the fainthearted and it certainly wasn’t for the easily distracted. Because the other side of the coin to love was heartbreak and, inevitably, loathing. Ergo, it was best avoided.
“Then I suppose that is why you … How did your mother put it?” She paused and then giggled. He wanted to catch the infectious sound in his fist and keep it forever. “Actually, I cannot repeat it. It’s too scandalous.”
“But clearly very amusing. Go ahead. Say it. It’s cruel of you to laugh at me to my face but refuse to say why. At the very least, I should have the right of reply.”
“Very well. If you insist…” A very becoming blush stained her cheeks despite her attempt to appear bold. “Your mother says you deftly avoided falling in love by … heavens! I cannot believe I am going to say this … hopping from bed to bed before you had time to warm the sheets.” She forced herself to meet his eyes and folded her arms across her chest. “Let’s hear your defense, then, Hugh? Is she right? Do you purposefully conduct your affairs based on their transient nature?”
Yes.
The more transient, the better.
“I believe my mother has exaggerated my conquests greatly to illustrate her point, but as usual, she has the wrong end of the stick.” Hugh folded his arms, too, acting bemused rather than overthinking the bullet she had sent flying straight through the bull’s-eye. It was hardly a bombshell, more of a considered choice he’d made. He knew his limitations and wasn’t prepared to suffer the inevitable crushing remorse that would follow each mistake. Just imagining hurting Minerva was already causing an ache in his heart. That pain would be unbearable if he actually did hurt her. “The sad truth is—and you must never repeat this outside this room—despite giving it my best shot, I have never found a single woman I have wanted to spend more than a few nights with.” Apart from her.
“Your best shot? That suggests you have tried and failed. You could hardly spend a prolonged period of time with a married woman, Hugh! That is a road to nowhere. Perhaps you should give one of the many single ladies a go? A nice young lady who has kept her sheets pristine and is waiting for a handsome and charming fellow like you to sweep her off her feet. Have you never courted a single lady?”
And now Minerva was beginning to sound like his mother. She used to come out with exactly that sort of reasonable rot all the time, when she of all people should know the Standish male was not to be trusted.