Cocky Earl - Annabelle Anders Page 0,51

she’d quickly recovered.

And he’d had to wonder if he’d imagined that she’d wanted his kiss because she’d seemed quite unaffected when he’d left her outside the door of her chamber. She hadn’t gazed up at him longingly, willing him to kiss her goodbye. She’d not invited him inside. She’d not even alluded to any future meetings.

Damned chit had bid him good afternoon by shaking his hand.

“At least you will be free from all the husband-seeking chits and their matchmaking mamas this year.”

Jules stared at his cards, unseeing.

“Are you staying in?”

“Jules?” Stone’s voice jerked him back to the game at hand.

Two kings looked back at him along with a jack and an ace, but it was the queen who made up his mind.

Damnit, he should have kissed her.

“Folding.” He pushed himself away from the table. “I’m going to join the others.”

Five sets of incredulous eyes gawked at him as though he’d grown a second head.

“Why in God’s name would you do that?” Greys frowned, looking only slightly more perturbed than his normal unflappable self.

Surprisingly enough, the others folded as well and were pushing back their chairs. “What kind of friends would we be if we allowed you to return to the hunt without rein… reinforcements?” Chase swayed, slurring his words slightly.

“You’d be level-headed intelligent gentlemen, that’s what you’d be.” Greys dropped into a large chair, lifted his feet onto the low table in front of it, and leaned back, closing his eyes.

With a shrug, Stone scooped up their jackets and they assisted one another into what they believed was each of their respective garments.

“Wait!” Mantis reached out one hand. His arm managed to be stuck halfway into the jacket Stone had handed him. Peter, on the other hand, all but swam in his.

After trading off, they each took one last swallow of the bottle they’d been drinking from, and with a resounding belch from Chase, deigned themselves prepared for battle, er, to mingle with his mother’s guests.

And as they ambled along to the withdrawing room, the closer they got, an odd urgency grew in Jules.

Anticipation.

“Where have you been?” Jules’ mother caught his arm practically before he’d made it through the door. “Good God. Have you been smoking? And drinking?”

All he wished to do was scan the room to search for a certain bright redhead but instead, he gave his mother his attention. “Isn’t that what gentlemen are expected to do in the afternoon?”

She narrowed her eyes at him. “Afternoon is long since passed. You missed dinner.” She eyed the gents who’d entered behind him warily. “All of you.”

“And that was my loss, Mother, as you look particularly beautiful tonight. Is that a new gown?” He planted his feet wide so as to afford him additional balance and drew back his shoulders. “It was the height of rudeness. Will you forgive me?”

She was already shaking her head. “You’re incorrigible.”

Sounds of feminine laughter had both of them turning toward the seats set up around the pianoforte. His sisters, two vaguely familiar ladies whose name he could not remember, Felicity, and, seated on one of the benches in the—Charley.

“I’m here.” He only thought the words but almost as though she heard them, she lifted her lashes, and her gaze caught his. Just as the corner of her lips tilted upward, however, she shuttered her expression and sent a sideways glance in the direction of the sour-looking woman seated beside her in the window.

Unnerved, Jules turned his attention back to his mother.

“Why is Mrs. Crabtree seated beside Miss Jackson?” His mother’s secretary, an old battle ax, exuded a stern, unyielding demeanor.

“I’ve assigned the poor girl a proper chaperone as the woman who came along with her is not at all appropriate for the task.”

“Is that really necessary?” He already knew the answer but just as quickly realized his mother’s decision would complicate his own personal objectives.

“She absented herself from everyone else early this afternoon and when I went to locate her myself, her maid didn’t know where she was. I cannot have an unmarried young woman under our protection wandering the manor alone. Why, she’s practically begging for trouble. I knew her mother, after all.” His mother glanced down when a popping sound drifted up from his right hand. “I do wish you wouldn’t do that.”

Jules hadn’t acted improperly with Charley.

But he’d wanted to.

“Lord Brightly is expecting you to make Felicity an offer this spring. It would be positively lovely if you did so before the party ended. We could celebrate your betrothal at the