Page 22 of Almost A Scoundrel

“The one I made last season,” he clarified. “I shall help you find a husband. Don’t tell me you’ve already forgotten?”

Phaedra shook her head. “I have no intention of marrying.”

“You are serious?”

“Of course,” Phaedra said. “That is unlessyouthrow your hat into the ring. You, I shall consider.”

Nash’s face contorted before his gaze darted left and right. “Don’t jest about such things. If Rochester hears you, I will have to spend days with his brooding.”

Phaedra inwardly snorted. She would never understand those two. Such forbidden love. How could they stand it? She certainly didn’t look down upon them, but the risk... trusting another person with your life and heart like that...

She glanced at the three men hovering on the edges of the invisible perimeter of their corner and shuddered.

“You know,” she said after a moment. “Ever since I was a little girl, all I wanted was to dress in beautiful gowns and twirl the night away in glittering ballrooms. The reality is much less romantic.”

“Reality and romance rarely ever go hand in hand,” Nash said. “But when they do, it’s quite magical.”

Phaedra didn’t refute Nash’s claim, but neither could she comment on it. She had experience only with the first part, not the second.

“Do not look now,” Nash suddenly said. “But Dare is staring at you.”

Phaedra glanced from Lord Nash to the infamous libertine and shook her head in annoyance. “So let him look.”

Nash raised a brow. “You are not worried that he’s casting his sights upon you?”

“Why?” Phaedra questioned. “Dare looks at every woman who moves.”

“You’re not moving.”

Phaedra smiled. “Everything with a skirt, then.”

“Even skirt-wearing goats?”

She laughed. “EvenIwill look at a skirt-wearing goat.”

Nash chuckled. “He’s got wealth.”

“So do I.”

“Exactly. And his profileisexquisitely hewn.”

Phaedra gave Nash a long, sideways glance. “You really think his profile isexquisitely hewn?”

He nodded. “But do not tell Rochester I said so. He gets dreadfully jealous.”

“Perhaps he has reason to get jealous what with you ogling everything in a tailcoat.”

Nash spluttered. He glanced around furiously, his shoulders slumping in relief when no one paid them any attention. Well, no one except the wolves pacing back and forth, searching for an opening to join.

“Will you be more careful with that tongue of yours? I do not ogle anything in a tailcoat.” He lifted his chin. “I just voice what every woman secretly thinks.”

Phaedra snorted. “That doesn’t mean you must flaunt your opinion to the world.”

“I’m not flaunting it to the world.” Nash grinned at her. “Only to you.”

“Well, I don’t think Dare is all that handsome. The man is a fop.” And Deerhurst was much more striking than Dare. The air of mystery that clung to the earl certainly had a way of making him more interesting. One look at Dare and a woman could tell what he was about.

“They say reformed rakes make the best husbands,” Nash pointed out.