me, please tell me, if I’m really going to be a father.”
Marry. That’s what he had meant by happy.
Marry him.
Marry Daniel Hartmann, the man I had hated. The man I now loved.
I sucked in a sob, stared at him helplessly. His eyes were alight. As if he knew what I was trying to say but he was searching my face … waiting.
“Emily?”
“I—” I hesitated. “What if I’m too young for this?”
He paled. Sucked in a breath. “Every time I said you were too young, it was me looking for an excuse to run away. Is that what you want to do?”
No. I didn’t want to run, but I needed … something. More.
“If I tell you I’m not pregnant, would you still want to be with me? Still be asking me to marry you? Even though we met only five months ago?”
He looked away, down, ran a hand through his hair. He seemed agitated and barely in control. I wanted to reach out, soothe him, but at the same time my arms were wrapped tightly around myself. I needed him to say the right thing. I needed to know that this biological accident wasn’t the only reason he loved me. The human mind was a wily thing; it could make us think all sorts of notions to force ideals and reality to match.
“When your father came,” he started finally, his lashes lifting, his green eyes focusing fully on me. I hung on his words, desperate. “All I could think was, now I have a reason to go back to Barrows. Now she can’t turn me away.”
“It doesn’t really work that way,” I murmured. He needed to understand that I did have a choice. That we did. “I … I am pregnant.”
He lit up, started to reach for me and then stopped when I raised a hand. I watched him, trembling, needing to say this last thing.
“But that doesn’t mean we have to get married. Or even be together. I would have told you, eventually … ” I dropped off.
His gaze searched my face, his body tense. I couldn’t do this anymore. I couldn’t say no and I didn’t want to.
“Daniel, I love you,” I said helplessly.
“Thank god,” he whispered and then there wasn’t any holding back. He stepped forward, took me in his arms, against the wall, my lips under his finally again. He kissed me hungrily, everywhere, and I gasped under his touch, pulling him closer.
It was some time later, sated and warming ourselves in a patch of grassy sunlight, that I curled against his side, savoring the feel of his fingers running through my hair.
“Emily Hartmann,” I said softly, playing with the strangeness of the name on my tongue. “That is not something I ever in my life imagined I’d be saying.”
“It sounds right.”
It did and I laughed. All of it was so ridiculous. “I should just tell my father this was my plan all along. To ruin your life by making you fall in love with me.” As soon as I said it, I thought maybe it was too soon to be making jokes.
But he laughed, too, and the rich sound wrapped around me.
“I like your style of revenge,” he whispered against my ear, following the words with his tongue.
I smiled against his cheek, stroked my fingers down his loosened tie before I closed my fist around the length and pulled him even closer.
“That’s good,” I said, my voice light and teasing, “because I intend to spend a lifetime making you pay.”
About the Author
Sabrina Darby has been reading romance since the age of seven and learned her best vocabulary (dulcet, diaphanous, and turgid) from them. She started writing romance the day after her wedding when she woke up with an idea for a Regency; she’s been back in the early 19th century ever since. Her debut book with Avon Red, On These Silken Sheets, was a Favourite Erotic Romance finalist in the Australian Romance Readers Awards and a Best First Book finalist in the National Readers’ Choice Awards. Her Regency novella, The Short and Fascinating Tale of Angelina Whitcombe, released from Avon Impulse in July 2012. Entry-Level Mistress is her first contemporary romance.
Website: SabrinaDarby.com
Twitter: @SabrinaDarby
Facebook: SabrinaDarbyRomance
Blog: TheBallroomBlog.com
ENTRY-LEVEL MISTRESS
Copyright © 2013 by Sabrina Darby
Cover Design by Hot Damn Designs
eBook formatting and print design by B10 Mediaworx
All rights reserved. Without limiting the rights under copyright reserved above, no part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in or introduced into a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form, or by any means (electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise) without the prior written permission of both the copyright owners and the above publisher of this book.
This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, brands, media, and incidents are either the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. The author acknowledges the trademarked status and trademark owners of various products referenced in this work of fiction, which have been used without permission. The publication/use of these trademarks is not authorized, associated with, or sponsored by the trademark owners.
Table of Contents
Dedication
Acknowledgments
Prologue
1
2
3
4
5
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7
8
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15
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18
19
20
About the Author
Copyright
Table of Contents
Dedication
Acknowledgments
Prologue
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12
13
14
15
16
17
18
19
20
About the Author
Copyright