Read Kresley Cole - [MacCarrick Brothers 03] for Free Online

parted, Ethan had been stunned to find himself swiftly growing hard as stone. Now as he leaned his face in closer to her hair—a mass of white-blond curls, swept up to bare her neck—he smelled her light flowery scent and shot harder, his shaft straining hotly against his trousers. He savored the rare feeling, wanting to groan at the unexpected pleasure. “I followed you in here from the street.”
    “Why?” Her tone was straightforward, and he silently thanked her for not being coquettish.
    “I saw you outside under a streetlight. I liked the way you smiled.”
    “And you just happened to have this with you?” She reached up, skimming her fingertips along the edge of his mask, but he caught her wrist, lowering it before releasing her.
    “I liberated it from a passing patron when I saw you enter.” The drop of his mask fluttered above his upper lip, and he’d quickly determined that no one could discern the extent of his scarred visage when courtesans had sought his attention in the crowd filling the Hive. When they’d hindered his progress, he’d been tempted to lift his mask to frighten them away.
    “Truly?” Her lips slid into that mysterious half grin, and the need to see the rest of her face burned in him. “So the entire time I saw you searching the crowd, you were looking for me ?” Her accent was unusual—English upper class mixed with a tinge of French.
    “Aye, for you,” he said. “You were watching me from your vantage?”
    “Raptly,” she said, again straightforward, again surprising him.
    The idea of her noticing him gave him an odd sense of gratification. “You’re no’ from London, are you?” When she shook her head, he asked, “Why are you here?”
    “Do you want the truth or an answer fit for a masquerade?”
    “Truth.”
    “I’ve come to England to search for a rich husband,” she said.
    “No’ unusual,” he replied. “At least you have the ballocks to admit it.”
    “I have a proposal waiting in the wings at home,” she said, then frowned. “Though I had hoped not to fall back on that one.”
    “How is your hunt going?”
    “Not as well as I’d wished,” she said. “A few discountable proposals.”
    “Discountable? Why?”
    “Whenever I ask them to qualify themselves, they back off.”
    “Is that so?” he asked, and when she nodded solemnly, he felt a completely unfamiliar tug at his lips. “And how would a man qualify himself to you?”
    “By giving me a token that would actually be dear to him, like an expensive ring or a pair of matched bays, or something along those lines.”
    “You’ve given this a lot of thought.”
    “I think of nothing else,” she said so softly that he scarcely heard her. Then she added, “I did almost secure one. A truly good man.” Her blond brows drew together as she clearly mused about him. “There might still be the slimmest hope with that one.”
    For the first time in his life and at the age of thirty-three, Ethan felt the unmistakable heat of jealousy.
    What the bloody hell is wrong with me? “Then should you no’ be working tonight on securing him?” he asked, his voice colder.
    She blinked up at him. “Oh. Well, the man I mentioned went out for the evening. I’m his sister’s houseguest, so I’m accompanying her tonight.”
    That generation of Weylands had only one male— Quin . Ethan ground his teeth. Quin had always been a favorite with the ladies.
    She sighed. “ Ça ne fait rien . It doesn’t matter.” Her voice was growing a bit slurred.
    “No, it does no’.” The hell she’d be securing Quin. Ethan would have to see her around London continually as their paths crossed—and if tonight was any indication, he’d have to continually cuckold Quin. “Forget him. He’s no’ here and I am.”
    She gazed up at him and tilted her head. “Take off your mask.”
    “That defeats the purpose of a masquerade, does it no’?” If he removed it, she would stop looking up at him with a growing curiosity