Free More Than a Duke (Heart of a Duke Book 2) by Christi Caldwell Page B

the sun-kissed golden hue of her silken ringlets?
     
    He gave his head a hard shake and stood.
     
    Anne looked up at him with a question in her wide-blue eyes.
     
    He gave a curt bow and without a backward glance took his leave. The echo of his boot steps blended with the squawking squeal-like song of Lady Marissa Westmoreland. When at last he exited the palatial townhouse, he tugged at his cravat and sucked in a much-needed breath of air.
     
    His driver hopped down from atop the black lacquer carriage and opened the door.
     
    Harry strode over as fast as his bachelor legs could carry him and leapt inside. “To my clubs,” he said curtly.
     
    The driver closed the door behind him and then the carriage shifted as he scrambled onto his perch.
     
    Harry pulled back the black curtain and peered at the white stucco townhouse bathed in candlelight, unable to account for this desire to return to the too small, prim Klismos chair beside Lady Anne. The carriage sprung forward and he let the velvet fabric flutter back into place. He drummed his fingertips on the tops of his thighs, suddenly reminded of a different tapping. Specifically, two delicate slippered feet beating away a staccato rhythm upon the Italian marble floor.
     
    He dragged a hand across his eyes. Slippered feet did not earn his notice. Bare naked toes used for wicked deeds, however, did.
     
    As his carriage approached the front of Forbidden Pleasures, one of the most disreputable of the hells in London, Harry exited the coach resolved to put the innocent Anne from his thoughts once and for all. He strode up the three stone steps. The majordomo pulled the door open and Harry swept inside.
     
    Raucous laughter and a cloud of thick cheroot smoke hung over the crimson-red establishment. Harry eyed the room a moment and then moved deeper into the club.
    He strode over to an empty table and sat, absently viewing the debauchery before him. A liveried servant rushed over with a bottle of brandy. Harry accepted a glass and waved the man off. He splashed several fingerfuls into the tumbler and then filled it to the brim, determined to get well and fully soused. He took a sip and when that did little to diminish Anne’s disapproving eyes from his mind, he downed the entire contents.
     
    “Well, well, Stanhope,” a voice drawled. “I thought you’d never arrive.”
     
    He glanced up.
     
    Lord Alex Edgerton grinned down at him. He and Edgerton went back to early days at Eton and Oxford. Theirs was the manner of friendship in which they would risk their life for the other. Harry should know. When he’d fought that foolish duel, Edgerton had been his second. Known for carousing, gaming, and over-indulging in spirits and ladies, the two were remarkably similar and good friends for it. “May I?”
     
    Harry motioned to the chair opposite him.
     
    Edgerton, the second son to the Marquess of Waverly tugged out a seat. A servant rushed to set down a bottle of brandy and an empty glass for the other man. The liveried footman reached for the bottle, but Edgerton waved him off. He poured himself a glass and shoved the bottle toward Harry. His friend quirked an eyebrow. “Lady Anne Adamson?” he drawled without preamble.
     
    Harry grabbed the bottle and poured himself a third glass. He’d not come here to discuss Lady Anne but rather to bury thoughts of her in the arms of some nameless beauty with sweet lips and a clever tongue.
     
    “Well?”
     
    “I didn’t think there was a question there,” Harry said over the rim of his glass.
     
    “Oh, there most certainly is a question. First Lady Katherine, now the lady’s sister.” Edgerton chuckled. “I am, of course, imagining all manner of delicious ways to entertain twin sisters.”
     
    Harry’s fingers tightened almost reflexively about the glass, so hard he threatened to shatter the thick, crystal tumbler. “Don’t be crude, Edgerton.” He eased his grip. After all, would he not have had similar,