Free Somewhere I'll Find You by Lisa Kleypas

didn't matter if every lock on her head were sticking straight out—she hardly cared about his opinion of her.
    Glancing down at his own lack of attire, Savage tightened the belt of his silk robe. “I hadn't planned on receiving visitors,” he said.
    She folded her arms before her, a gesture that was both militant and self-protective. “I won't stay long.”
    He stared at her once more. It seemed that he was as uncomfortable as she was with the silence between them…but he appeared to be equally powerless to break it. Julia tried in vain to read his thoughts, but he revealed nothing. What kind of man was he? Usually it was easy for her to discern someone's character, to sense if a person was intrinsically kind, selfish, shy, or honorable. Savage betrayed nothing of himself.
    His face was austerely beautiful, with its long nose, the distinctive angles of his cheeks, and the aggressive jut of his jaw. There were appealing, surprising touches of softness in the wide curve of his mouth and the long-lashed gray eyes. It must be unbearable temptation for many women to make Savage smile, look at them with desire, to arouse any sort of emotion in those enigmatic features. It even provoked her imagination, the% thought of what it must be like to earn his hard-won trust, to hold his dark head in her lap and fondle the thick locks of black hair—
    “Why are you here, Mrs. Wentworth?” he asked.
    Julia felt a scowl pinching between her eyebrows, and she answered in a crisp tone. “I think you already know, my lord.”
    “Scott has spoken with you.”
    “Yes, he did. And now I've come to correct an impression of yours. You seem to think that your money can buy anything you want.”
    “Most of the time it can.”
    “Well, you can't buy me .” She had been sold once in her life, for the price of a title she had neither asked for nor wanted. It would never happen again.
    “There seems to have been a misunderstanding,” he said quietly. “If you object to the idea of having dinner with me, you're free to refuse.”
    “You've made that impossible. If I don't accept, I'll lose all the choice parts at the Capital this season—parts I would have otherwise had!”
    He seemed perturbed, a frown drawing his dark brows together. “Would you like me to speak with Mr. Scott?”
    “No! You'll only make the situation worse.”
    Savage shrugged, and infuriated her with a matter-of-fact reply. “I suppose you'll just have to make the best of it, then.”
    “What about the woman you were seated with in the corner tonight?” she asked. “Lady Ashton, I believe. She seems quite attached to you.”
    “Lady Ashton has no claim on me. She and I have an understanding.”
    “How sophisticated of you,” she said acidly. “Let me pose a question to you, Lord Savage. If you were a married man, would you still desire to have dinner alone with me?”
    “Since I'm a bachelor,” he said evenly, “the question is irrelevant.”
    A bachelor ! The realization that he had decided to ignore their long-ago marriage, pretend she had vanished from the face of the earth, filled Julia with outrage. To be truthful, she had done the same thing—but their situations were hardly comparable. After all, she had spent the past years struggling to make a new life for herself, whereas he had enjoyed himself playing lord of the manor with her dowry at his disposal!
    “Does it bother you in the slightest that I have a husband?” she asked. “That I belong to someone else?”
    He hesitated for a long moment. “No.”
    Julia shook her head slowly, staring at him with disdain. “I know what you think of me, my lord…the same thing most men in your position think of actresses. But let me assure you, I'm not a prostitute—and I certainly can't be had for the cost of dinner and a few promises—”
    “That's not what I think.” Savage unnerved her by taking a step forward until she could almost feel the warmth of his breath on her skin. She was aware of the