Page 17 of One Night for Seduction
“You’ll be at the Riddings’ soirée tomorrow evening, I trust?” Colehaven enquired.
“It depends.” Diana bit her lip. Whatever had caused the duke’s ill-timed interest in marrying her off, she needed it to stop. “Will you be there?”
Colehaven narrowed his eyes. “Why do I suspect that my attendance would ensure your absence?”
“Because you aren’t nearly the simpleton I initially took you for,” she assured him.
Felicity snorted behind a silk-gloved hand and feigned great interest in a window display of men’s hairbrushes. “Why, are those… boar bristles? Please excuse me whilst I take a closer look.”
Diana glared after her. The dratted woman was meant to take her brother with her when she left, not abandon them alone together.
Colehaven took a step closer. “Where’s your chaperone?”
Diana gestured vaguely at the shop behind her. This was not the moment to admit she’d brought no such person in order to perpetuate a false identity.
“Why do you care what I do?” she asked instead.
“I intend to matchmake you,” he replied, surprising her with his honesty. “The task becomes exponentially more difficult if you ruin your reputation before a suitor can be found.”
“You may call off your search.” She folded her arms beneath her bosom. “I don’t know why you’ve decided to meddle in my affairs, but I do not require your services.”
He arched a brow. “Says the wallflower whom no one can recall ever seeing on the dance floor.”
Diana would feel better if he and his friends could not recall ever seeing her anywhere at all.
“I’m not interested,” she said primly.
“Of course you’reinterested,” he said in exasperation. “All young ladies hope to marry well. The longer you wait, the harder it becomes.”
Precisely. Diana smiled to herself. In another year or two, she’d be off the marriage mart altogether, and conversations such as this would become moot.
Colehaven shook his head, as if there was nothing so heartbreaking as the thought of her becoming an unshackled spinster with the freedom to do and live as she pleased.
“You’ve no independent fortune with which to secure your future,” he said gently. “There’s no shame in accepting help. I wager you’ll marry the gentleman I select, and happily at that.”
“I’ll take that bet.” Diana lifted her chin. “I’m not marrying anyone, least of all some sapyou’vechosen for me.”
She cursed her tongue at once. She had not meant to admit her intention to remain unwed. It made her memorable. The duke was right—marrying well was the singular obsession of every other eligible young lady of Diana’s acquaintance. Doing so was often the only way to ensure a comfortable future.
“I am in a unique position to provide great service,” Colehaven continued. “I know everyone in the ton. If you could give me a hint of what you’d like…”
“You,” she said at once, “abandoning this ghastly plot.”
A husband would be the worst sort of leg-shackle. He would possess all the power, in every sense. Which meant staying as far from the altar as possible. No matter the ache in her chest when she thought of the alternate life she was forsaking.
After all, she didn’t have to give upeverything. Not having a husband to share her bed did not mean she wouldn’t share it with anyone. Since she wasn’t saving herself for marriage, her “virtue”—or lack thereof—was hers to do with as she pleased.
“Surely you’d agree that a husband offerssomeadvantages,” Colehaven said.
Perhaps he didn’t mean the comment to send shivers of anticipation down her spine. The thought of carnal intimacy combined with his intoxicating proximity was almost too much to bear. She could barely look at him without wondering how his kiss would feel, what his hands might do. There was no need tomarrya man to sate the call of desire.
With anyone but him, Diana reminded herself quickly. No ton gentlemen need apply. They had too many rules. Too many expectations. And the Duke of Colehaven might be the most dangerous of all.
“I’ll consider your thoughts on marriage,” she said aloud, “if you’ll consider my suggestions for improvements to the current weights and measures system.”
He stared at her as if she had just spouted gibberish.
“Uniformity instead of the current hodgepodge,” she prompted. “There’s an urgent need to simplify and normalize—”
