The Bachelor Bargain (Secrets, Scandals, and Spies) Michaels, Maddison (libby ebook reader .TXT) 📖

in, please, Simpkins,” Seb directed his butler before closing the door and turning to face Livie again.

“If you thought dealing with rival gangs was difficult, you have another thing coming with my godmother when she is in a mood, as it most definitely sounds like she is.”

Seb shrugged and Livie got the impression it mattered little to him. “Well, you have your chaperone now, don’t you?”

Livie cocked her head to the side and regarded him. “You’re really not going to take no for an answer, are you? About me going to the country with you and Charlotte?”

“When it comes to your safety,”—his piercing eyes stole through her—“no, I won’t.”

“Are you really that concerned over the possibility of losing two thousand pounds?” To a man with the sort of fortune he’d amassed, she would have thought that sort of sum would be like a drop in the ocean.

He lifted his shoulder in a half shrug. “You’re forgetting where I’ve come from, love. There was a time when as a boy I probably would have killed for a pound. So, yes, any amount matters to me.” He was letting more of his cockney accent show. Slowly, he wandered over and picked up her cane from where it now lay after she’d dropped the thing when he’d been kissing her. Then, he brought it to her. “But money isn’t the reason I’m concerned about you. And that is saying something.”

She took her cane from his hand and felt a shiver run up her arm from the contact. “It’s not?” Dare she ask him why else he was concerned? A part of her desperately yearned to hear that it was because he was starting to care for her, but the other part of her couldn’t stand the thought he’d make some sarcastic remark about why, and cut her feelings to shreds in the process.

“No. It’s not.” He raked his fingers through his hair. “But before we go any further into it, you might want to do up those buttons of yours. At least before the duchess is shown in.” His gaze wandered down to her chest and lingered for a moment. “Wouldn’t want her to guess you’d very nearly just been ravaged by the Bastard of Baker Street, would we?”

With a start, Livie glanced down and saw that, indeed, she’d completely forgotten her buttons were undone and one of her breasts was still partly uncovered from when Sebastian had been fondling it. Oh my goodness, how mortifying. A deep flush of crimson swept up her cheeks while she grabbed the edges of her jacket and began buttoning the little black buttons.

“Your hands are a bit shaky there, love,” he had the gall to comment. “Want a hand?”

“No, I do not!” she snapped at him. He seemed to create all sorts of havoc within her body while staying so calm and collected himself. Livie really had to strengthen her resolve against him. It was the only way she’d be able to get through the next few days with him, because goodness knows what liberties she’d allow him if she didn’t. And with a sinking heart, Livie realized what Alice must have felt.

This all-consuming desire and passion. This want to experience more of these heady sensations. This need to be surrounded by the person and breathe in his scent. And look at what had happened to Alice… Seduced, left with child, and then possibly murdered by the man she believed she’d loved.

Not that Livie thought for an instant Sebastian would ever resort to murdering her, even though he, more than anyone, could do so. No. He’d made it perfectly plain that he abhorred anyone committing any sort of violence against women.

What Livie was more worried of was that the feelings he stirred inside her were enough to make her forget all good sense. And without good sense, she just might let him seduce her. Then, after he did, he’d probably never want to have another thing to do with her again. Especially after he saw her leg. Men wanted perfection, and she certainly wasn’t it. So, realistically, if she was to start any sort of illicit liaison with Sebastian, her heart probably would get broken.

That was the part that scared her most of all.

Chapter Thirty-Eight

Thirty minutes later, after Demelza had arrived in a flourish of drama, insisting on talking with Sebastian alone before she would agree to anything, they were all now ensconced in his luxuriously appointed private railway car, with the train steaming ahead to Cambridge.

Livie was still in disbelief that her godmother had agreed to accompany them to Sebastian’s estate. It was almost as if Sebastian had put a spell over her normally fierce aunt, making the woman almost approachable.

She was rather desperate to know what Sebastian had told her aunt to convince her to play chaperone. Especially, as her aunt was traveling minus her lady’s maid and retinue of servants.

Livie didn’t think Demelza had ever done that before. Not that Livie had, either, come to think of it. She realized for the first time just what a privileged life she and her aunt led. It probably helped that Sebastian had obviously become accustomed to the sort of extravagant luxuries that her aunt was used to by the looks of his railway car.

Livie had never seen anything so grand, and considering her father was a duke, though not an ostentatious one, that was still saying something. The carriage itself had been made to Sebastian’s exact specifications, and there was not an inch of it that had not been thought out and planned precisely. Everything screamed of wealth and luxury, though was restrained enough to not be gaudy. Just like the man himself.

The saloon carriage had been crafted with mahogany and satinwood inlaid panels, blue velvet drapes hung across the windows that lined the carriage, and matching blue velvet upholstered sofas and armchairs sat invitingly along the length of it. There was a matching mahogany desk in the far corner, where