In The Prince's Bed by Sabrina Jeffries Page B

told me to be honest.”
    “But not… I mean…” Sheer desperation shone in her eyes. “I’m sure this is all great fun to you, but it’s my life. I can’t have you mucking it up for your own entertainment.”
    Generated by ABC Amber LIT Conv erter, http://www.processtext.com/abclit.html Anger flared in his chest. “You think I’m toying with you?”
    “I know you take a perverse pleasure in tauntingSydney, but you don’t understand how difficult your mischief makes things for me.”
    “Your jealous poet friend may have told you about my boyhood exploits, but he knows nothing of me as a man except gossip. I don’t get my ‘entertainment’ from toying with innocents.”
    “Then what reason do you have for continually thrusting yourself into my presence?”
    “The same reason any man has for pursuing a woman. Courtship.”
    Her burst of laughter annoyed him. “You must be joking.”
    “Absolutely not.” He bent close to her ear. “Perhaps I should take you back out on the gallery and remind you how sincere I am.”
    With a frown, she jerked back. “About kissing, yes. But that’s not the same thing. Your sort is always sincere about kissing.”
    His eyes narrowed. “What sort is that?”
    “You know—men of the world.”
    “Even men of the world have to get married sometime,” he said irritably.
    “Yes, but not to poor squires’ daughters with country manners. Especially when you possess a title as old and venerable asEnglanditself.”
    “What other reason could I have for pursuing you?”
    “Don’t assume that because I’m a country girl I’m naive. I know very well that men like you only find amusement in the chase. But once you catch the hare, you’re done. While the hare is stewing in the pot.”
    Her determination to think badly of him aggravated him more by the moment. He tugged her closer in the turn. “Somehow I can’t see you as a hare, Katherine.”
    With a deft maneuver, she slipped back to restore the distance between them. “That’s because I don’t intend to be one. Ever.”
    Blast, she had her defenses up higher thanPortugal’sMountPeneda. He should never have kissed her on the gallery—it had only added to her false impression of him. But how could he have resisted such an invitation?
    Unfortunately, only the truth about how he’d lived abroad would change her mind about him, and that would also rouse questions he must avoid. It might even lead to questions about his current finances. If she even believed any explanation he gave her about what he’d done inPortugal. No, better to let her get to know his character—then she’d discover that her impressions were wrong. But would that be enough? “Does your cynicism have anything to do with your father and his ‘mission to debauch everything in skirts’?”
    Generated by ABC Amber LIT Conv erter, http://www.processtext.com/abclit.html She blushed crimson. “My goodness, did you hear my entire conversation withSydneyout there?”
    “Enough to know that you let your father influence your opinion of men too much. Just because your only example of a man happened to be a debaucher—”
    “I had ample examples of good men growing up, I assure you. My grandfather lived withusuntil his death six years ago, and he was fine and moral.”
    “LikeSydney.”
    “Yes. And likeSydney’s father. Whenever I visited the Lovelace estate, I saw how decent, upstanding people live—who respect each other and behave with courtesy and consideration instead of—” She broke off. “I decided then that I’d never let my… attraction to a man tempt me into doing anything I’d regret.”
    “Should I be flattered that you broke your rules for me on the gallery?”
    She tipped up her chin. “It was an experiment, nothing more—to remind me that my decision about Sydneywas wise. But I’m done with that particular experiment. For good.”
    Damn. She’d already tried and convicted him without a hearing. If he didn’t do something