Ten Ways to Ruin

He watched her leave and then picked up the empty brandy snifter and hurled it at the door. The last thing he needed was a reckless girl who only wanted him because of some damned list. Who makes a list of ways to ruin their reputation? And why should he care if she chose him to help her eliminate some of the items on her list?

Because he did care.

He shouldn’t give a damn what she did...but he did.

Dammit all to hell. He had to find that list and see what else might be on it. Thwarting Emma Drake would now be his priority. He wasn’t about to let her ruin her reputation and live with the consequences for the rest of her life.

Chapter 14

Emma frowned as she struck through the words on number five of her list. This afternoon she intended to pay a call on Susan and confront her. It still pained her that her dearest friend would have done such a thing. Then again, so far, very little about this list had happened the way she expected. Mostly due to one man.

Introduce yourself to a man at a ball

Visit a gaming hell dressed as a man

Get foxed

Kiss a man

Get banned from Almacks’s

Learn to paint in oils

Race a carriage

Break a law

Seduce a rake

Simon Kingsley thwarted her every effort to have a little fun. Frustration consumed her, causing her fists to clench into tight balls whenever she thought of that loathsome man. How could she be attracted to him?

Besides the obvious answer that the man’s looks were simply too handsome for words. And why did he have to tell her about his reputation last night? Now she knew he wasn’t the scoundrel and rake everyone spoke of in the ton. He’d had no involvement in that duel with Winston. After hearing that, she might decide she might yet like the man as well as desire him.

This would never do!

She couldn’t like him as a person. It was the dislike that helped, only slightly, to keep her desire in check. She had to maintain some measure of distance. Kingsley was everything she did not want in a husband. He owned a gaming hell. He was not titled and not wealthy. Those attributes were what she’d been taught to look for in a gentleman since she was a child. And he had none, so then she would put him out of her mind completely.

Then again, Bolton had had all those qualities, and he certainly had been a poor choice.

She focused her attention back on her list, determined to put the frustration she felt away from her mind. She stared at numbers six and seven. The carriage races were not until Saturday, so she could do nothing but plan how she might manage to slip into a carriage and steal it away from its owner to race. That left number seven because she had every intention of ignoring number nine until she could find someone other than Simon Kingsley to desire. She’d never said she had to finish her list by a specific time.

Glancing over at the clock on the mantel, she decided noon was an excellent time to pay a call on her friend. Emma rang for Mary then quickly replaced her list in the hidden drawer of her desk.

“Yes, miss?” Mary asked as she entered the room. “Have you decided to go out?”

“Yes,” Emma turned to face her maid. “I need to pay a call on Miss Lancaster.”

“Of course, shall I pull out the blue striped muslin?” Mary opened the door to the linen cabinet.

“Yes, and my spencer. I thought it looked like a pleasant day for a walk.”

Mary looked back at Emma with a frown. “Are you certain? It looks as if it might rain.”

Emma glanced out the window and noticed the gray clouds gathering to the west. “We should be able to arrive before the rain starts.”

“As you wish. But let me get your cloak, not a spencer.”

Emma shook her head. “Of course.”