Society's Most Disreputable Gentleman by Julia Justiss

couldn’t rule out the possibility she might even know about some of the questionable activities in which he’d participated with her nephew.
    Time to stop indulging in—and tantalising himself with— Miss Neville’s company before he grew too fond of it. What better way than to remind them both of his present position?
    Halting with her in front of the French doors leading back into the house, Greville said, ‘A most enjoyable stroll, Miss Neville, but now I must let you return to your duties. By the by, do you think I might find someone who could string ahammock in my bedchamber? I do miss some aspects of being at sea.’
    There it was again, that flash of alarm, followed by irritation when she realised he was playing with her. ‘I can certainly enquire,’ she said frigidly, clearly not appreciating his teasing at her expense. ‘Thank you for your escort, sir—and I will count upon your word as a gentleman in dealing with my cousin. Good day.’
    She turned to stomp off, her posture as stiffly upright as a ship flying downwind under full sail. He chuckled, thinking it would only serve him right if he returned to his chamber this evening to find his bed removed and a hammock swinging gently from the overhead.
    â€˜My pleasure, Miss Neville,’ he called after her.
    How he wished she might be, he thought wistfully, watching the sway of her trim posterior as she walked through the doorway into the house. He could vividly imagine luring her to his chamber, burying his face in the scent of her golden hair while he pulled the strands free of their pins, loosing the ties of her bodice…
    He could obliterate the pain of the past and uncertainty of the future with simple, all-consuming lust.
    But that was the old Greville’s favourite way of avoiding what he didn’t wish to face. He was going to have to find a new way of handling difficulties.
    Still, he thought with a sigh as he relinquished the tantalising image of Miss Neville in his bedchamber, despite knowing that he would doubtless end up a much better man for making the change, there were parts of being the old Greville he really, really hated to give up.
    Becoming respectable, he acknowledged as he walked into the house and headed for the stairs, surreptitiously adjusting his suddenly restricting trouser flap, was turning out to be a deal more difficult than he could have imagined.

Chapter Five
    L ater that evening, Amanda left the kitchen and took the back stairs up to the first floor. Though she’d previously gone over the week’s menus with Mrs Pepys, she’d felt driven to check one more time on tonight’s dinner, pressed by an inexplicable compulsion to make doubly sure that their guest, if he in fact joined them this evening, would find nothing amiss.
    It was ridiculous, the glow Mr Anders had ignited in her with his compliments about her management of Ashton Grove. Why should his approval matter? He was simply, as he seemed to take delight in reminding her, a lowly sailor.
    She sighed. He was also, however, unmistakably a gentleman, by birth, speech and, teasing aside, usually behaviour. What was she to make of him…and the unprecedented, powerful attraction that had flooded her on the terrace this morning? For a moment, even knowing her destiny lay elsewhere, she’d nearly succumbed to a desire to kiss him!
    And whatever had possessed her, burbling out all her thoughts, hopes and plans like a toddler visiting an indulgent grandmama? Her unusual loquaciousness merely underlinedhow starved she was for a sympathetic soul with whom to share all those details, from important to trivial, she used to confide to her mama.
    Mr Anders certainly was not that…though he had been an attentive and sympathetic listener. A nearly instantaneous rapport seemed to spring up between them, so easy and natural that she’d not felt a moment’s qualm about speaking to him like a close friend of