Free Earls Just Want to Have Fun by Shana Galen Page A

night.”
    â€œWhat?”
    He sat back now. “I can’t talk to you when you look like you’ll bolt at any moment. Not to mention, your boots are on my counterpane, and it was quite expensive.”
    She climbed down off the bed and stood, arms crossed, on the other side, so the bed was a barrier between them.
    â€œThank you.”
    â€œYou were going to say what I get for staying.”
    He seemed to consider for a long moment. “A huge breakfast.”
    Oh, he was cruel, this one. Food was her weakness. She could have fought against anything else he said, but the thought of a full belly in the morning was almost more than she could resist.
    â€œOn any given day we sit down to oatmeal with sweet cream, bacon, kippers, cold veal pie, sausage, beef tongue—”
    He went on, but she could hardly hear him for the ringing in her ears. Bacon? Sausage? Sweet cream? She could not begin to imagine so much food, much less for only one meal.
    â€œThen there is fresh bread and rolls with butter, honey, marmalade, or jam made from cherries and apples, which we grow on our country estate. Of course, we have tea, coffee, or chocolate to drink.”
    â€œChocolate?”
    He finished his brandy and grinned at her. “Have you ever had chocolate?”
    â€œCourse.” But she hadn’t, and from the look on his face, he knew she was lying. When would she have ever had something so decadent as chocolate? Oh, but she’d heard of it. She’d listened to the curtezans talk about it, how they’d spent the night with some great rum duke and had chocolate to drink in the morning. Marlowe had thought they were lying. Apparently, it was true, and if she stayed, she could drink it in the morning.
    He had her now. He might not know it—she wouldn’t have made a very good thief if her every thought appeared on her face—but she could not leave without tasting the chocolate. “If I stay”—she must put up some resistance, mustn’t she?—“then after we break our fast, I can go?”
    He flicked his wrist, the sleeve of his fine white shirt floating up and back down gracefully. “That is Brook’s decision.”
    â€œThen where is he? I want to speak with him.” She started for the door and had her hand on the latch when she remembered the key. She turned to the earl. “Let me have the key.”
    â€œSo you can traipse about my house in the middle of the night, disturbing the servants, not to mention my sister and mother? No. You’ll be enough of a shock in the morning.”
    She put her hands on her hips, and for some reason, his eyes widened slightly. Well, let him see she could be as firm and stubborn as he was. She’d show him that he could not order her around. “Then you go find him and bring him back.”
    â€œEh?” he said.
    She huffed out a breath. “I said, you go get him!”
    His features, so handsome and genial, darkened then. He rose slowly, unfolding his body gracefully from the chair. Had he been this tall before? She suddenly felt rather scrawny standing in front of his door all alone.
    â€œYou, Marlowe, are not giving the orders.” He stalked toward her, and she felt like a dog cornered in an alley. Well, she couldn’t just roll over and whimper. She’d have to prove she had bite. But she didn’t want to make him too angry. There was sausage and bacon and chocolate to think of.
    â€œApparently, neither are you.”
    His face hardened, and she knew her punch had hit him in the breadbasket. One thing she knew about men. They did not like their authority challenged. Satin disliked it so much that she’d seen him make some bloody fool choices only to prove he was the undisputed arch rogue.
    She’d also seen Satin beat a man to death for a trifle.
    She didn’t think this earl would hurt her. She winced as his fist collided with the door beside her head. On the other