Bronwyn Scott's Sexy Regency Bundle (136 page)

Chapter S i x

midnight, Paine realised he wasn't going to the club.

It wasn't too late to go. Indeed, midnight was considered early among those who frequented the hells. The real action and serious gambling would just be getting under way this time of night. If he went, he could still hear all the news about town. The truth was, he didn't
want
to go. The thought of leaving Julia and the warm bed for the dingy hell was vastly unappealing. For the first time in a year, he had somewhere else he wanted to be.

Julia stirred in his arms, her naked form pressed against him in reminder that he did not make it a regular practice to hold sleeping women at length after the act.

'Tell

Julia

ubviuusly

unaware that that type of question after lovemaking was far too smothering. Countless times that question served to be a conversation ender, not starter, with him.

But miracles seemed to be in endless supply that evening. Not only did he not want to go to the gambling

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hell, he actually wanted to talk. Paine absently stroked a length of her hair. 'What do you want to know?'

'I want to know why you choose to flaunt convention, why you run a low-level gambling hell when you could move among high society, I want to know.. . .

'Whoa, one question at a time!' Paine protested, but only in jest. He found he didn't mind her curiosity. She was quite astute to pick up on the little contradictions of his world.

'The ton likes to ignore my money because it comes from a shipping business I ran for ten years in Calcutta.

You and I know both know how

for money is

frowned upon. But such narrow-mindedness works out because, as it happens, I like to ignore them.' Paine gave a little laugh, smiling in the dark. 'What about you, Julia? Do you like the

world?'

'I haven't had much experience with it,' she admitted with a sigh. 'I should like to try a taste of it, though, just for fun, without the pressures of the Marriage Mart.' She spun him an innocent fantasy of waltzing in a fine ballroom with a dashing hero of a man, drinking champagne and wearing a beautiful gown. 'You must think me a foolish girl for thinking such things. I try to be practical, but every once in a while it's nice not to be.'

Paine chuckled and tightened his grip about her shoulders. 'Not at all, my dear. It's perfectly fine to have dreams.' It was a girlish fantasy, but he found he wanted to give it to her, hero, gown, waltz and all.

'Enough about me, Paine. This was supposed to be

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Notorious Rake, Innocent Lady

about you. Was shipping one of your dreams? Is that why you were in India?'

The vixen was clever. She'd noticed the shift in conversation and had redirected it back to the original topic.

Her comment also reminded him just what an Julia was. She hadn't been in town long enough to hear all the sordid details of his exile, only the more romantic of his exile. She was young and untouched in so many ways. His thirty-two years seemed eons from her innocent nineteen.

Paine shifted his position for more comfort, rising up on an elbow so he could look at her while he spoke. 'I suppose you could say that. Shipping was a necessary dream. I am the third of three sons. You know
that
story-eldest gets the title, second son gets the military commission, third son gets the church or whatever else he can muster up. Well, it was obvious at a young age that I would never suit the calling of a church-some-thing to do with getting caught with a village blacksmith's daughter when I was twelve.'

'No ! ' Julia gasped in mock surprise.

'Your lack of faith in me is touching. I must add in my own defence that there was some hope I might become a missionary. I did love to travel. I spent most of my school days poring over atlases and studying ge-ography.' Paine drew down the bed sheet covering Julia and traced a delicate circle around the aureole of a breast. 'I think if my tutors had impressed upon me that more of the world went topless than naught, I might have gone the missionary route,' he said in seductive tones.

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'You would have been a horrible missionary.' Julia laughed.

'Or a very persuasive one,' Paine whispered, tracing a ticklish line to her stomach. 'Have you ever read the Song of Solomon?'