Free Nicole Jordan by Lord of Seduction

set up Macky’s ruse. And I don’t want to arrive in London just when he begins work at the club. It could too easily rouse Venus’s suspicions. Also, there are a few other personal arrangements I must make first.”
    Out of the corner of his eye, he caught Ryder’s taunting grin. “I thought,” Ryder mused, “that you were rusticating here on Cyrene to escape your father’s machinations. Won’t he present complications if you return to London so soon?”
    “Fortuitously I’ve thought of a plan to deal with my father.”
    “Oh? Would you care to elaborate?”
    Thorne hooded his gaze. “Not just yet. Give me a day or two to see if I can make it work.”
    He first had to ascertain if Diana Sheridan would be amenable to his proposition.
    His plan was not entirely selfish, for it would also benefit her. And surprisingly, Thorne found himself wanting to aid her. Perhaps his usual defenses had been weakened by the tale of her rejection by a fickle suitor, but Thorne found himself instinctively wanting to protect her. Which shouldn’t amaze him. After all, he had taken a sworn oath as a protector.
    At the thought of confronting the spirited Miss Sheridan with his proposal, Thorne felt the stirring of a familiar excitement. What he was considering would no doubt challenge all his powers of persuasion.
    But he thrived on challenges.
    And he couldn’t help but reflect how damned boring his life had been of late.
     

     
    “You wish me to do
what
?” Diana Sheridan exclaimed, staring at him as if he had lost his senses.
    Thorne couldn’t repress a smile. He obviously had shocked her with his proposal. Upon returning home, he’d summoned Miss Sheridan directly to the drawing room, where he poured them both a glass of sherry before making his proposition.
    “I wish you to do me the honor of becoming my betrothed,” he repeated quite seriously.
    Her brows narrowing in a frown, she sank down distractedly onto the settee. “I did not think I could possibly have heard you correctly. Barely a few hours ago you told me in no uncertain terms that you refused to be leg-shackled.”
    “I still do. It would be a betrothal in name only.”
    She pinned him with her darkly brilliant gaze. “If you think to make me one of your conquests, Lord Thorne, simply because you learned of my notoriety, pray let me disabuse you of the notion at once.”
    I would very much like to make you one of my conquests,
Thorne reflected silently. Diana had already dressed for dinner in a flattering, rose-colored silk gown that showed her figure to advantage, and he would like nothing more than to slowly peel it from her body and explore her charms….
    But he quelled the lustful urge and shook his head. “That could not be further from my intent, Miss Sheridan. On the contrary, I am throwing myself on your good graces. You would be doing me an immense service—saving me from a fate worse than death.”
    “Which is?”
    “Wedding my father’s choice of a bride.”
    “I think you had best explain.”
    Thorne settled himself in a chair opposite her, where he could watch every nuance of her expression. “I plan to return to London very soon to look into Nathaniel’s murder, just as I promised you. But to properly focus on an investigation, I need to first free myself from a distracting entanglement.”
    “Entanglement?”
    “I believe I mentioned that the last young lady to see me nude claimed I compromised her? It was a scheme to ensnare me in wedlock, and her mother is still plaguing me, demanding that I wed the girl. And my illustrious father has taken their side.”
    Diana’s mouth curled dryly, as if she understood his dilemma. “That would account for your sudden and unexpected disappearance from England, I suppose.”
    “Precisely,” Thorne agreed. “My case is not quite desperate, but I anticipate difficulties if I show my face in London without some sort of defense. A betrothal would offer me shelter from their machinations. And