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.**
So much for respectfully keeping his hands to himself. Thanks to his foolhardy and spectacular lapse in judgment, they had had a high old time thoroughly getting to know Minerva. He couldn’t look at his palms without remembering how perfectly her delectable bottom had filled them. Or her breasts.
Giles left him to pace the study. A week didn’t bear thinking about. Under the original circumstances, it would be a risky gamble that would be near impossible to pull off. But now he’d kissed Minerva! Thoroughly kissed Minerva and been thoroughly knocked sideways by his own incomprehensible reaction to it, rendering a single day in her company pure torture.
What he didn’t understand, what he had been wondering incessantly since he’d left her last night, in between reliving the experience over and over again in his mind, was what was different about the way Minerva kissed from all the other women whose lips had locked with his over the years. He’d lost himself in it, poured all of himself into it, and then been left blindsided by the impact. Her kisses were potent, addictive, dangerous, and best avoided henceforth. He could barely look at her now without a new, strange, and frightening yearning taking over. A yearning he hoped to God was just carnal.
“Lord Bellingham’s carriage has left, my lord.” Payne hadn’t bothered knocking—or perhaps he had and Hugh was so bewitched by the vixen he’d been rendered deaf as well as stupid. “Therefore, it would be prudent if you apprised me of the alternative plan.”
“There is no alternative plan. And unless you can come up with something brilliant, we shall just have to make it up as we go along, Payne. Until Giles returns.”
“Oh dear…”
“‘Oh dear’ indeed, Payne. My mother has already made a spirited start on the wedding preparations and she hasn’t been home a full day yet.”
“Those will only keep her occupied for so long.”
“But at least they will keep her occupied for the time being. I have no choice but to allow my mother to plan to her heart’s content.”
“But she is planning with Miss Minerva. Is it fair to load such a burden solely on her shoulders?”
“I suppose not.”
Poor Minerva. All the money in the world wouldn’t compensate her for that onerous task. Hours and hours together, his meddling mother gradually chiseling away at their flimsy story until there was nothing left to hide behind. “Damn and bloody blast, Payne! What the hell am I going to do?”
“Until a new plan emerges, might I suggest you attempt to be the model son and fiancé.”
“I don’t follow.”
“Spend as much time with your mother as possible. Take her riding, visit her friends—whatever it takes to keep the woman busy. Accompany Minerva in all dealings with your mother, or at least as many of them as you can without arousing suspicion. That way you can better manage their interactions as well as mitigate any unwelcome surprises. And, what better way to distract your mother than by allowing her free rein to plan the wedding? At least it allows you to direct the inevitable meddling there, too.”
“That is exactly what Giles said.”
“Then we have our alternative plan. Shall I inform Miss Minerva once she is alone?”
“No, Payne. I will.” Because Lord only knew they needed to talk. Aside from the hastily cobbled together plan, Hugh needed to construct some boundaries between them, which were suddenly very necessary if he was going to survive till the end. “Can you find a way to occupy my mother and her blasted sisters so I can speak to Minerva after breakfast?” The last thing he needed was Diana realizing her prophecy concerning his supposed plans to debauch her sister had come true. And in less than a week. A very stark reminder indeed of what could happen in the coming week if he lost his head again.
“It is an unforeseen development, to be sure—but not insurmountable.” Hugh was pacing the floor of the rarely visited portrait gallery like an expectant father, his errant hands clasped tightly behind his back in case they gave in to the overwhelming urge to touch her. Heaven only knew why he had chosen this place for their clandestine meeting, because now he felt the weight of all his ancestors’ eyes on him as well as Minerva’s. His philandering cruel grandfather and his philandering and duplicitous father both a stark warning of the hereditary weakness that flowed through his veins, and which would break her generous heart if he succumbed. “All we need to do is keep my mother occupied.”
By the looks of her, she was as uncomfortable with their meeting as he was. Her hands were clasped tightly in front of her like a prim schoolmistress, when she hadn’t been the slightest bit prim last night. Those hands had wandered as freely and as boldly on his person as his had on hers. Something he had enjoyed at the time but wished he didn’t remember quite so vividly now. “She’s already occupied, Hugh. Thanks to my clumsy comment.” She stared down at her feet, her expression pained. “I am so sorry I brought up the wedding. I was trying to extricate us both from an awkward situation and yet have only made it more awkward in the process.”
“It’s all right. In a funny sort of way, it’s the perfect distraction. So long as she is fervently planning our nuptials, she won’t be watching the pair of us too closely. All we have to do is cheerfully play along.”
“Even though she wants to take me to meet the vicar tomorrow?”
“There is no need to worry about the vicar. Reverend Cranham is a thoroughly decent chap. Besides, I shall be with you. We should become inseparable until Giles returns. It’s the safest option for keeping our stories straight.”
She nodded, still frowning. “It’s not the vicar who bothers me, it’s lying. In church, Hugh. Lying to your mother is bad enough, but I don’t want to lie in church.” She pointed heavenward and shuddered. “I don’t want to be consigned to eternal damnation … not even for forty pounds.”
“I thought we agreed it was sixty? Although I don’t fancy eternal damnation either. How about I invite the reverend to tea after church tomorrow, then we can avoid outright lying in the house of God? I know it’s not ideal…” None of this was ideal.
“Tea here would be better, I suppose.” When she frowned, a little furrow appeared between her dark eyebrows. Hugh’s lips desperately wanted to kiss it away. “But if I am honest, I am not happy with your mother planning the wedding at all. I’ll feel dreadful allowing her to get all excited about something which is never going to happen. She has been nothing but lovely so far.”
“Perhaps we can dampen her enthusiasm a little. Stall her from going all guns blazing.”
“I fear she will be hard to stop now that I have set her off. I left her discussing the music with Lucretia and Diana. Your mother favors Pleyel, by the way, over the Mozart piece Lucretia feels would be more appropriate.”
“That’s because my mother loathes Mozart. She says it is overdone, trite, and sets her teeth on edge.”
“No wonder the discussion downstairs has become so spirited. Lucretia is apparently in love with Mozart.”