To Bed a Beauty (Courtship Wars 2)

Yet avoiding Roslyn hadn’t helped, for she’d begun to invade his dreams. Drew found himself weaving wild, erotic fantasies involving Roslyn wrapped around him

in the heat of passion. He couldn’t shut them out, much to his annoyance.

He had just clamped his jaw tight when he heard a familiar voice over his left shoulder.

“So the lovely Miss Roslyn has attracted your interest after all,” Heath said, clearly amused.

Unable to deny the truth of that observation, Drew made no reply.

“I wondered,” Heath went on, “why you would trouble yourself to attend a dull country affair-and I didn’t think it was merely because you pledged to defend Lady Freemantle against lurking highwaymen.”

Hiding his displeasure, Drew replied blandly, “We both promised Marcus that we would keep an eye on his former wards.”

“Not this close an eye.”

He managed a nonchalant shrug. He hadn’t told his friend about his tutelage of Roslyn, and he wouldn’t do so now. “Haven’t you better things to do than irritate me?”

Heath held up his hands. “Don’t take my head off, old son. I just find it humorous to see the greatest cynic in England in an ill temper over a woman.”

Drew narrowed his gaze. “Why the devil did you come tonight if you find it so deadly flat? Don’t you know that Lady Freemantle is lying in wait to snare you in her web?”

The question didn’t appear to faze Heath. “I’m not overly alarmed, since the match her ladyship has chosen for me has fled the district.”

“The youngest Loring sister, Lilian?”

“Just so. Reportedly the fair Lily has gone to Hampshire.”

Drew roused himself from his own dark mood to gibe, “What, did you drive her away?”

Heath’s own smile was rueful. “There is that possibility. She is set on eluding me, in any event.”

“How astounding,” Drew said truthfully. Heath had always been the heartbreaker of the three of them. Adoring women flocked to Heath in droves, enticed by his natural charm. “I’ve never known a woman to run from you.”

Heath’s grin turned self-deprecating. “It is astounding, isn’t it?” He gave Drew a penetrating look. “Is the lovely Miss Roslyn running from you? Marcus suggested she might make you a good match, and you seem to be inching toward that opinion yourself.”

Drew’s scowl returned. His instinctive response was to accuse Heath of having maggots in his head, but he wasn’t so certain it would be true. “You can’t possibly think I have matrimony in mind.”

“Don’t you? Then why have you been watching Roslyn as if you want to carry her back to your lair?”

Had he been that obvious? Drew thought with chagrin.

“Have no fear,” Heath said as if reading his mind. “No one else would suspect. I just know you too well.”

“You are not helping my temper any,” Drew said through clenched teeth.

Heath laughed. “No doubt. But you’d best take care if you don’t want to find yourself hanging in the parson’s noose. You can’t do to her what you’re thinking without the benefit of marriage. Marcus would rip you apart, not to mention that your own honor wouldn’t allow it.”

When Drew all but growled, Heath gave him a friendly clap on the shoulder. “I think I will take myself back to London before you call me out. There’s little amusement to be found here, anyway. In truth, I wouldn’t mind encountering your highwayman. At least it would liven up my life for a time.”

There was little amusement here for him, too, Drew thought as Heath walked away. Seeing Roslyn dance with Haviland was the primary cause, but his dissatisfaction went deeper than that.

The thought of her trying to seduce Haviland, of making love to him, filled Drew with an inexplicable anger. The bald truth was, he didn’t want her to become carnally intimate with any other man but him.

He wanted to be the one to introduce her to the secrets of sensuality, to awaken her to passion and pleasure and every other delight to be found between a man and woman.

Which confounded him to no end.

This was the first time in his life he had ever been envious of another man over the fair sex. He was frankly astounded to realize how possessive he felt toward Roslyn.