Read Shayla Black for Free Online Page A

the end of her pert nose. “I promise.”
    Her little pink lips lifted in a smile at that, warming him. “When?”
    At that question, Brock rose to his full height and looked straight into Maddie’s mysterious gray eyes. “Soon. From now on, I plan to be with your mama very, very often.”
    #
    Riding the old nag she could scarcely afford to keep, Maddie made her way through the spring chill toward the section of London known as The City. She clutched the address of Colin’s solicitor in her palm. Desperation clawed at her throat. If the man had any answer to her dilemma, she must know it now. Though her father had discouraged discussion with Mr. Henry and society frowned upon women taking such financial matters in their own hands, she no longer had a choice.
    In a mere two days, Brock had tightened the monetary noose about her neck. With this business of courting, Maddie feared he intended to set a silkier, more dangerous trap.
    That realization frightened her beyond sleeping, eating. Aunt Edith had remarked just that morning about her preoccupied frown, while wearing an impish smile. Though Maddie was hardly addle-brained enough to fall for the same cad twice, she could not deny that when he came near, she felt fidgety and excitable. She didn’t like her fast breathing, racing heart, or that hum of awareness. She must banish those stray thoughts recalling the feel of his strong body covering hers with passion and demand.
    Dismounting, Maddie secured the nag in the afternoon fog and entered the Palladian style building. With her palms sweating inside her gloves, she made her way to the solicitor’s door.
    A plump, bespectacled young man opened the door. “Yes?”
    “ I am Lady Wolcott. I must speak with Mr. Henry regarding my late husband’s estate.”
    Rejection flittered across the clerk’s ruddy face. “You have no appoint—”
    “ Please.” Maddie grabbed the man’s arm. “I truly must see Mr. Henry.”
    “ What’s this?” boomed a voice from behind the door.
    The clerk cleared his throat. “Lady Wolcott to see you, sir?”
    Opening the door wide, Maddie glimpsed the portly Mr. Henry, a shock of gray hair and whiskers. His curious expression said he was unaccustomed to seeing women in his domain.
    “ Come in, my lady.”
    He ushered her through the door, into a smaller room, shutting the door behind them. A sturdy wooden desk, a book shelf, and two chairs filled the tiny office.
    He gestured toward one of those chairs, and Maddie sat, clasping her hands together tightly. “Thank you. As you may remember, my late husband, Lord Wolcott, nearly died two years past. He did not leave me well off.”
    “ Yes. I do recall.”
    She swallowed her embarrassment. “I came to inquire if, perhaps, there remained anything at all in his estate of value. Property? Jewelry?”
    “ Hmm.” The man frowned, bushy brows slashing downward. “Let me look. I recall something unusual...”
    The solicitor turned about and searched the shelves behind him. Maddie felt her stomach lurch to her throat. After interminable minutes slid by, Mr. Henry retrieved a document.
    Scanning the papers, his frowned deepened. He set the papers aside and laced his fingers across his protruding stomach, regarding her with shrewd eyes. “Your husband had no male heirs or relatives.”
    “ That is correct.”
    “ Your father oversaw the disbursement of his estate. He did not want you aware of the fact that your husband owned a cottage.” Mr. Henry cleared his throat. “In St. John’s Wood.”
    Maddie absorbed the man’s words. For years, men of consequence had kept such cozy dwellings to cavort with their mistresses. It should not surprise her that Colin had kept a cottage for the purpose of bedding women he did not find cold. She had not wanted or loved him, no matter how he had demanded it. Ignoring his liaisons had been better than bearing the brunt of his lust herself. Still, shame suffused her.
    Thrusting aside her turmoil, Maddie