Not Always a Saint by Mary Jo Putney Page B

unheralded from nowhere, and so great is her beauty that a man could die happy for having once held her in his arms,” Kirkland said wryly. “One of the caricaturists immediately drew a print illustrating her as an alluring black widow spider, if you can imagine. It’s in his shop window now.”
    â€œThat’s revolting!” Laurel exclaimed. “And very quick. She hasn’t been in London for long at all.”
    â€œLady Kelham is a woman who is always noticed.” Kirkland poured more claret. “She has my sympathies.”
    â€œMaybe that’s why she wants another husband,” Laurel speculated. “As protection against such harassment.”
    â€œPerhaps.” Daniel considered their interaction. Usually he was very good at reading people, but he didn’t know what to think of Lady Kelham. Jessie. She had seemed attracted to him at first and, realistically, he was prime husband material. Then she’d abruptly terminated what had been a mutually enjoyable conversation. Apparently she didn’t like vicars, but her reaction had been extreme. “I have a feeling that her life has been more complicated than merely growing up in Kent and marrying a local man.”
    â€œDo you want me to see what more I can learn about her?” Kirkland offered. “Unlike Aphrodite, she can’t have sprung full grown from nowhere.”
    Daniel hesitated. “I’ll admit I’m curious about her, but I don’t like asking you to use your special talents to spy on her.”
    â€œYou might as well ask,” Kirkland said with amusement. “Everyone else does.”
    Daniel laughed. “Very well, then. I still have the feeling that we’ve met before, and I’m curious.”
    â€œI’ll see what I can learn.”
    Daniel nodded, then firmly turned his mind away from the lady in black. “Does your London women’s sanctuary need a doctor a few days a week? I’m feeling restless.”
    â€œI’ll ask Julia. I’m sure she’ll welcome the offer.”
    â€œGood. I’m not cut out to be a gentleman of leisure.” Any more than he was cut out to be a lord.
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    That night, the Black Widow came to bed with Daniel. His mind churned with visions of her lithe, feminine figure. He wanted to peel away her mourning black so he could see every glorious inch of her. He wanted to kiss her until they were both gasping for breath, yet unwilling to separate even for a moment. He wanted her to raise her arms and draw him close so they could join, body and soul....
    He woke gasping and sweaty, feeling a sinner’s guilt without a sinner’s satisfaction. He was no innocent. He’d spent his life working on human bodies, knew a great deal about how they worked, had heard all kinds of confessions and questions from patients. Yet now he was at the mercy of raw desire.
    Closing his eyes, he relaxed his muscles one by one, starting with his forehead and working his way down his body to his toes. The exercise relaxed both body and mind to the point that he could pray. He couldn’t pray for deliverance from his desires, because he didn’t want to be free of them. But he could pray for the best possible outcome for himself and the woman who was becoming his obsession.
    He was human enough to want that outcome to bring them together—and rational enough to recognize that might be a disaster for them both.

Chapter 10
    D aniel and Kirkland were greeted with rippling music when they returned to Kirkland House after a long session with lawyers on an unseasonably warm day. Wordlessly they both climbed the stairs to the music room. Laurel glanced up from the piano without interrupting the liquid grace of her dancing fingers. “You both look rather limp. Is that from the weather or your ordeal by lawyer?”
    As Kirkland brushed a kiss on his wife’s head, Daniel said wryly, “Both. I would have bolted if