Free Shayla Black by Strictly Seduction Page B

me forget, I’m certain.”
    He reached for his hat and placed it on his head once more. “Don’t tarry too long, Maddie. My patience is running thin.”
    #
    “ I can only threaten Maddie so much,” Brock said to his father with a sigh as he entered the study in his town house.
    “ Not bending, is she?” Jack grinned.
    Brock scowled as he removed his coat. “Not an inch. I don’t remember that woman being so stubborn. She despises me. Hell, every time I’m in the same room with her daughter, Maddie sends the girl away like she’s afraid I’m going to eat her for a snack.”
    Jack chuckled. “You really have made a good impression.”
    “ Thank you. I needed your reminder that I’ve bumbled this.” Brock raked a hand through his hair. “I have no idea how to make that woman marry me. My threats are losing their power.”
    “ Would you really throw Maddie and her daughter in debtor’s prison?” Jack asked over a glass of port.
    “ Of course not.”
    “ Maybe she knows your threats are hollow.”
    “ I don’t think so. She looks terrified when I mention it.” He sighed. “And she fears me, too. I see it in her eyes.”
    Jack rose and poured himself another port. “That’s your problem.”
    “ What?” He frowned. “Maddie has to believe I mean business, or I will never persuade her to marry me.”
    “ All you’ve done with your threats, son, is put her back to the wall. She’s desperate and defensive. I don’t think it was wise.”
    “ Advice on women from the man who never remarried?”
    Jack sent him a slow smile. “That hardly means I’ve spent all my time alone.”
    “ Spare me the details.” Brock held up his hand to ward off further conversation on that topic. “What would you have done, then? I could hardly kneel at the woman’s feet and ask for her hand. That approach failed once. Five years ago, she thought me beneath her. Her assessment has not changed one whit.”
    Bitterness surged like the tide in a storm, and Brock wondered why the hell Maddie’s opinion mattered. She had made herself perfectly clear when she had refused to marry him—twice. This was not about his heart, but his future.
    “ What have you accomplished with threats except to reaffirm her bad opinions?” asked Jack rhetorically.
    Brock had no answer for that. “So what are you suggesting?”
    “ Since you can’t go through her wall of defense, you must go underneath it.”
    Sighing, Brock stared at his father. “I’m trying to court her, do the thing properly. She’s not swayed.”
    “ Seduce the girl, then. Ply her with wine, kisses, and compliments. Buy her clothes and jewels and nights on the town. Wear down her resistance. She will eventually accept, I’m certain.” Jack smiled. “You’ve never been one to take no for an answer.”
    Through the evening, Brock couldn’t get his father’s advice out of his head.
    Each midnight, I will lie here and wait for you .
    He lifted a glass of port to his mouth and consumed the contents in one long swallow, hoping to drive the echo of Maddie’s voice from his head.
    I need you to be my lover.
    Wonderful, a new torment to add to his tortured mind and near-bursting body.
    Gritting his teeth, Brock rose and opened the window in his bedroom, taking in huge draughts of the chilly air, the soft scents of grass and impending rain, spring flowers...and Maddie.
    Damn, her voice rang inside him, the feel of her mouth beneath his like a drug, addicting him. He could not let her go.
    But he needed a new plan.
    Drawing in another rush of sharp air, Brock considered Jack’s suggestion. How was he to seduce her without taking her as a mistress?
    In the next moment, the answer came. He could do that—and he knew precisely how. Turning from the window, he called for his cloak and his horse, purpose driving an impatient surge inside him.
    Outside, the crisp, dark night sharpened his senses. The moon’s glow and mysterious fog heightened his fever.
    He could reach St.