Lover Be Mine A Legendary Lovers Novel - By Nicole Jordan Page 0,11
and Skye twelve.
It was also a matter of discipline. He disliked being alone and therefore regularly forced himself to go without company. But since his new home was within a mile of both the Beaufort and Traherne town residences, he couldn’t escape his prying relatives for long.
Nor could he escape their schemes.
Jack had been genuinely amused to see Ash made the victim of Kate’s matchmaking these past few months, but being the target himself wasn’t nearly as enjoyable. Particularly when two determined Wilde females ganged up on him at once. Evidently, Skye was once again determined to corner him, this time in his own drawing room.
As expected, Skye had made herself comfortable and was curled up on a sofa with a book. Her delicate loveliness, along with her pale gold hair and wide blue eyes, gave her something of an angelic appearance but concealed her high-spirited, mischievous nature.
When she looked up with an anticipatory smile, Jack cut her off with a peremptory question. “Why the devil are you here so late? It is nearly two o’clock in the morning.”
“You know why. I want a report on your encounter with Miss Fortin. I understand you attended her aunt’s masquerade this evening.”
“You could have waited until morning to interrogate me.”
“No, I could not,” Skye replied sweetly. “I would have been too excited to sleep, not knowing the outcome.”
“Far be it from me to disturb your beauty rest,” he drawled.
Skye closed her book with a decided air of resolve. “Jack, are you going to tell me what happened or not?”
“Do I have a choice?”
“No. You know I will not leave until you satisfy my rabid curiosity.”
Jack gave another exaggerated sigh, but she ignored his hint that her presence was unwanted.
“Very well,” he relented. “But come to the kitchens with me. I won’t hold this discussion on an empty stomach.”
Giving a sage nod, Skye rose and followed him below stairs to the large kitchen. Jack often had hunger pangs at odd hours, but his cook was well aware of his habits and thus kept a plentiful supply of leftovers handy.
Upon raiding the cellar, Jack unearthed a roasted chicken leg and poured himself an ale. Skye, however, declined his offer of refreshments and sat at the servants’ table across from him, as if prepared for a long siege. “So what happened at the masquerade?”
“I fulfilled my promise to meet Miss Fortin,” he answered.
“I was right, was I not? She is no milquetoast.”
“No, she is not,” Jack agreed grudgingly.
“I told you so,” Skye crowed. “Then you like her, Jack?”
Jack took a quaff of ale to avoid answering. He’d been prepared to dislike Sophie Fortin out of sheer self-defense, but the exact opposite had occurred. And when he’d deliberately set out to discomfit her by challenging her to a kiss, his plan had utterly backfired.
He’d been rocked by the intensity of his body’s reaction. Sophie was all woman, and her sweetly passionate response to his kiss had brought out the primitive, possessive male in him. Jack felt another stark tug of desire now, just thinking of her.
His sister’s lunatic theory was not so laughable after all, Jack conceded, and might even have a modicum of merit—although wild horses couldn’t drag that admission out of him at the moment. Not when Skye was looking so smugly triumphant.
Jack sidestepped her query by restating a previous objection. “Kate’s scheme to have us play Montague and Capulet is completely deranged.”
“I disagree,” Skye declared. “You saw how right she was about Ash. His romance with Maura proved that the theory works—using classic tales to find our own true loves. Ash and Maura are perfect for each other.”
Jack couldn’t refute that claim after seeing his brother with his new wife. The raw devotion in Ash’s eyes when he looked into Maura’s was unmistakable.
“You know they are deliriously happy, Jack. That could be you and Sophie someday.”
He refrained from commenting, reluctant to acknowledge his subversive thoughts. In truth, the possibility that Sophie was his legendary lover held a strange appeal. Certainly she roused his lust. And undeniably, their explosive passion had left him craving much more of her.
She had felt the sharp pull of sexual attraction, he knew. He’d seen it flare in her eyes, felt it in her melting response beneath him. The mating heat between them was undeniable.
Yet there was also something special and unique about her, something beyond her arresting beauty and physical allure that attracted him on a much deeper level.
“So will you consider courting her?” Skye asked when his