Society's Most Disreputable Gentleman by Julia Justiss Page A

long standing, rather than a near-stranger she’d just met. A rapport he’d felt, too, she was certain, as he’d certainly felt that flash of…something, heat and need and desire…that ignited between them once they were alone.
    Before he’d put her back in her place. Strange, though he was the social inferior, she was the one who felt dismissed. The abrupt termination of their seductively intimate interlude had left her feeling…bereft.
    Very well, she needed a friend and confidant. Soon she would have Lady Parnell. In the interim, since she wished neither to be the butt of his little jokes nor to subject herself to the disturbing allure of his company, best that she just avoid him.
    With that conclusion, she turned down the hallway and walked towards the salon. On physician’s orders, Papa took a glass of sherry there each evening before leading her in to dinner. Although if Mr Anders did join them, she suddenly realised, it would be her duty as hostess to go in on his arm.
    So much for avoiding the man, she thought. At the image of his hand covering hers, another of those little shivers she seemed unable to either prevent or suppress trembled through her.
    Trying to shake off the feeling, she turned her mind to the problem of Althea. After her too-intimate chat with Mr Anders on the terrace, she’d put him firmly out of mind, which perhaps hadn’t been wise. Though she’d not seen him the rest of the day,she hadn’t seen her cousin either. Had Althea managed to run their guest to ground after her ride?
    Unsettled as their guest’s teasing had made her, for some inexplicable reason she felt that Mr Anders would do Althea no harm. None the less, since he was a gentleman entirely unrelated to them and a stranger to the neighbours, she probably should have checked on them. To keep loose tongues from wagging, in the servants’ hall if nowhere else, she must ensure that they were chaperoned during any walks and drives they took together.
    Where the girl’s reputation was concerned, it wouldn’t do to trust any man, especially one as undeniably charming as Mr Anders.
    She sighed. By the end of their walk, before he’d set her at a distance with that absurdity about hammocks, she’d been almost as won over by Mr Anders as her cousin. His sincere-sounding compliments, combined with the devilishly appealing trait he had of seeming to focus his entire attention on what one said, made him very hard to resist.
    Adding to that, the handsomeness of his person—for a moment, she allowed the image of that tall, upright figure, the handsome face and arresting green eyes to play through her mind again—made him a vastly attractive gentleman.
    Given how tempted she, who knew how indiscreet it might be, was to befriend the man, it was likely to be even more difficult than she’d initially anticipated to pry Althea away from him.
    Perhaps, after dinner tonight, she’d have an opportunity to mention her concerns to Papa, much as she hated to burden him with any further cares. Althea had clearly found Amanda’s presence during her excursion with Mr Anders an unnecessary interference. Papa was both the one ultimately responsible for Althea’s well-being and the only one who might be able topoint out the need for prudence without inciting a scathing response.
    Even if Papa intervened to safeguard her cousin from falling into some impropriety, it was likely that Amanda would still have to continue supervising the two. This would mean abandoning, before she’d even begun to act upon it, her new-minted intention to avoid Mr Anders.
    Unfortunately, the prospect didn’t alarm her nearly as much as it ought to.
    Which should’ve put her on her guard. Not only was she as vulnerable as Althea to having her reputation damaged by an over-close association with that gentleman, she’d had a potent lesson on the terrace in just how easy it was to fall