“Thus saving yourself trouble,” she said bitingly, remembering his rejection and her embarrassment.
“But in truth, I kissed you because I had forgotten what you looked like in the wit of your conversation and the pleasure of your company.” He drew a small, wooden, intricately carved box from his pocket and opened it. Inside a ring of pearls and sparkling blue saphires rested on a bed of black velvet. “For the touch of your hand I would crawl through a horse stable on my stomach. If you wished, you could be the worst kind of tyrant and I would love it, and you. I had to realize that I trusted you not to do that, and submit myself to your rule. Please marry me. I’ll always be faithful, and I can never be happy without you.”
He had been so sure she was going to say yes. He had groveled before her! But she had taken the ring, the ring he’d spent hours designing just for her, and asked that someone take her to her bedchamber because she was more tired than she’d realized.
He hadn’t seen her since. She had sent down an apology and a request for a dinner tray, and of course he’d accepted the apology and sent up the dinner tray and tried to understand where he’d gone wrong. He’d offered to fulfill her dreams. He’d assured her he wanted their child but knew that, without him, she would be able to care for it and herself. He had told her he loved her, which he had never told another woman because no other woman had captured his heart and soul.
Now, Kerrich hoisted himself out of the chair in the library where he’d been brooding, leaving Jimbo stretched out on the floor before the fire. Stopping beside the old dog, he petted him under the chin, thinking how easy life must be when one had been gelded. Unfortunately, that was not a solution Kerrich would consider for himself. Taking a candle, he mounted the stairs and strode along the corridor toward his bedchamber.
As he had tucked Beth into bed, she had told him it was his overconfidence. She said Miss Lockhart must have sensed overconfidence because no matter what he said or did, he still knew himself to be handsome, wealthy and of good character.
He had to admit Beth was right. His confidence was one of the bedrocks of his temperament, and so he would tell Pamela.
With his hand on the doorknob of his room, he stared down the corridor toward the wing where Pamela was sheltered. The temptation was almost irresistible. He wanted to go to her, to take her hand and again beg her to wed him. Then, if she didn’t agree, he would strip her naked and make her see sense.
But he feared the trip to Brookford had been difficult for her. She was increasing, she had suffered a gunshot wound and she needed rest. And who knew? Perhaps tomorrow he would wake and go down to breakfast, and she would be there smiling, pouring his tea and proclaiming she wished to marry him.
If not, he would refuse to let her go home.
According to his grandfather’s counsel, which Lord Reynard had given freely during dinner, kidnapping was a bad choice of methods to deal with a proud woman. But when pressed, Grandpapa had declared that if Pamela continued to prove difficult, kidnapping might be the only acceptable solution, although he did question how Kerrich would trick her into speaking wedding vows. Kerrich decided he would deal with that difficulty when he encountered it.
With a sigh, he opened the door and slammed it behind him.
A fire burned on the hearth, roses were scattered over the sheets on his downturned bed and someone—a female—rose out of the chair before the fire. He had a brief moment of thinking, Not the senior upstairs maid again!
Then his brain processes froze.
Miss Pamela Lockhart turned to face him, and she was totally, lushly, starkly naked. She stood with her feet slightly apart, her chin up, and her hands behind her back.
She smiled, a rather tremulously wicked smile that gave hope even as it aroused. “My lord, forgive my intrusion. I know how it irks you to have women arrive in your bedchamber without clothing, and I would not intrude on your hospitality without taking the precaution of trying to please you. So because I am like all the rest, and I’m here only because I love you without cease, I decided to wear this.” She extended her hand.
He had to try several times before he could tear his gaze from the body for which he endlessly lusted to a mere limb with five fingers…one of which was decorated with a sapphire-encrusted, pearl-decorated, love-given ring.
“Will that amount of adornment suffice?” she asked.
Her eyes glinted so merrily it was obvious she knew the answer, but she had led him on too long. He had to clarify, “Only if you agree to wear it every night in my bedchamber.”
“I will wear whatever you like every night in our bedchamber.”
He allowed himself one moment of relief before snatching her into his arms. “The ring alone will do.”
About the Author
New York Times-bestselling author Christina Dodd has written more than twenty-one historical romances. Her first such novel, Candle in the Window, won both the Romance Writers of America’s Golden Heart and RITA awards. In celebration of her new novel, Scandalous Again (2003), HarperCollins is publishing Ms. Dodd’s classic backlist, including: That Scandalous Evening; The Governess Brides Series: My Favorite Bride; Lost in Your Arms; In My Wildest Dreams; Rules of Surrender; Rules of Engagement; Rules of Attraction; The Princess Series: Someday My Prince and Runaway Princess; and The Well Pleasured Series: A Well Favored Gentleman and A Well Pleasured Lady. Please visit www.christinadodd.com.
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By Christina Dodd
Candle in the Window
Castles in the Air
The Greatest Lover in All England
In My Wildest Dreams
A Knight to Remember
Lost in Your Arms
Move Heaven and Earth
My Favorite Bride
Once a Knight
Outrageous
Priceless
Rules of Attraction
Rules of Engagement
Rules of Surrender
Runaway Princess
Scandalous Again
Scottish Brides
Someday My Prince
Tall, Dark, and Dangerous
That Scandalous Evening
Treasure of the Sun
A Well Favored Gentleman
A Well Pleasured Lady
Copyright
This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places and incidents either are the products of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously and are not to be construed as real. Any resemblance to actual events, locales, organizations, or persons, living or dead, is entirely coincidental.
RULES OF ENGAGEMENT. Copyright © 2000 by Christina Dodd. All rights reserved under International and Pan-American Copyright Conventions. By payment of the required fees, you have been granted the non-exclusive, non-transferable right to access and read the text of this e-book on-screen. No part of this text may be reproduced, transmitted, down-loaded, decompiled, reverse engineered, or stored in or introduced into any information storage and retrieval system, in any form or by any means, whether electronic or mechanical, now known or hereinafter invented, without the express written permission of HarperCollins e-books.
EPub Edition © NOVEMBER 2003 ISBN: 9780061793691
First Avon Books printing: October 2000
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Christina Dodd, Rules of Engagement
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