Free An Affair in Winter (Seasons Book 1) by Jess Michaels

dismiss his brother’s question. “That doesn’t matter. Mrs. Wilde does not matter.” Those words sounded false, but he continued regardless. “I want to reiterate my strenuous objections to this marriage.”
    Now Lucien set his quill aside with a long, tired sigh and pushed to his feet. “This again?” he asked as he moved to the sideboard and poured himself a drink, despite the early hour.
    “Yes.” Gray pursed his lips. “This again. It is important, Lucien.”
    “So you say,” Stenfax replied with a glance in his direction.
    “It is .” Gray threw up his hands. “Great God, doesn’t it bother you that Celia Fitzgilbert and her grandfather are title grabbers?”
    Lucien’s brow wrinkled. “Unlike two-thirds of the ton , you mean?” he asked, sarcasm dripping from every word.
    “Like Elise,” Gray bit out.
    The color drained from Lucien’s face and he slammed his drink down before he returned to his desk. As he settled back in to his work, he said, “Do not mention that name to me.”
    Gray flinched at the coldness in Lucien’s tone. It didn’t match the hot emotion he knew his brother felt about the woman he’d once loved. The one who’d thrown him over when she had been offered the chance to marry a rich duke over an almost penniless earl.
    Gray had watched his brother suffer massively from that broken engagement. He’d watched him step out on the edge of a terrace wall in a drunken stupor and nearly throw himself to his death. Gray’s stomach turned at the memory that sometimes rushed back to haunt him in both his dreams and in waking moments that were like a nightmare.
    “I don’t want to see you hurt,” Gray said, this time softly.
    Lucien didn’t look up from his paperwork, but his jaw clenched and unclenched. “I won’t be,” he vowed. “I was hurt before because Eli—because that woman made me believe she cared for me. Celia and I have no such illusions between us. Our marriage will be one of mutual convenience, nothing more. Her dowry is large and allows me to refill our family coffers. My title will elevate her and her grandfather as they wish.”
    “My investments are paying off,” Gray said. “I have money. Let me refill the family coffers.”
    Lucien’s cheeks flamed, and he finally looked at Gray. “Take your charity? No thank you. You have found your way, Grayson. Allow me to find my own.”
    “But there are plenty of rich women who aren’t only interested in a title,” Gray suggested. “You are a popular man.”
    “I don’t want ridiculous romantic entanglements,” Lucien insisted with another heavy sigh. He finally looked at Gray. “You are the younger brother, Gray, not the eldest. You needn’t play nursemaid to me. I am perfectly capable of making my own decisions. This subject is closed.”
    Gray opened his mouth to argue, but his brother shook his head. “It is closed , Grayson. I mean it. Now go find something else to do and allow me to finish my business.”
    Gray let out his breath in a frustrated sigh as he turned on his heel and left him alone. He had no choice at the moment but to do as Lucien asked, for his brother was not in any mood to hear the truth. But whatever Lucien said, the subject was not closed to Gray.
     

     
    Rosalinde paced the parlor, frustration growing in her every time she turned and took another lap around the room. That she could still be so angry almost two hours after her encounter with Grayson only proved what a hateful man he was. He and his accusations and his full lips could hang for all she cared.
    She fisted her hands at her sides with an angry growl just before she made the next turn in her endless pacing. And as she did so, she found her grandfather standing in the doorway to the chamber, watching her through a narrowed gaze.
    She stopped, forcing her hands to unfist, trying to calm her expression and her racing heart. “Gr-grandfather,” she said. “I didn’t see you there.”
    He stepped into the room.