Lady Portia North is in love with her brother’s friend. She fell in love with him when she first met him years earlier and hasn’t been able to set those feelings aside. He’s always been kind to her, but nothing remotely amorous. She’s already had three seasons, and turned down several proposals. If she doesn’t let go of her dream of the Earl of Lyonsdale, she’ll end up a spinster.
Harrison Brooks, the Earl of Lyonsdale is tired. He no longer wants to be the rogue the ton expects him to be, and he certainly has no wish to spend his nights with all the different women offering themselves to him. They hold no appeal to him, and haven’t for quite some time. There is one lady he desires, but she isn’t one that he can have for one night and abandon. If he did her brother would certainly thrash him or more… No, he can’t have Portia, though he wants her more than he’s ever desired any woman.
One night they’re stranded together, and the passion they’ve both held at bay comes crashing over them. It is a night Portia will never forget, but is it enough for her to finally dissolve her love for the earl or will he instead demand that she be his forever.
Portia did as her mother demanded. She would, even if she hadn’t done so. It gave her a reason to move closer to the earl. She desperately needed to be near him. After she poured the tea, she handed a cup to her mother. The duchess always took it with a splash of cream. Her brother added nothing to it at all. So she handed Emmett his cup. Then she turned toward the earl, “How to you take your tea, Lord Lyonsdale?”
“Sweet, like me,” he said in a roguish tone.
She just bet he was sweet. Where had that thought come from? Her cheeks warmed a little, and that wasn’t the only place heat filled her. Portia turned away from him and added sugar to his tea, and then to hers. She liked sugar, too. That’s one thing they had in common. She turned back to him and handed him his cup.
“Thank you, my lady,” he said in a warm tone.
“You’re welcome,” she said. Portia had never felt more like a dolt. She wanted to say something else, but words failed her.
