One Rogue Too Many by Samantha Grace Page B

was slightly hard of hearing after a bout of measles as a child, so he would have no cause to feel nervous. Now she questioned the wisdom in receiving Thorne without someone more capable of making him toe the line.
    She took a seat in the wingback chair to discourage him from coming too close. “I didn’t expect you after I asked you not to write a sonnet.”
    With a shrug, he lowered to the settee adjacent to her. “If I follow every direction you give, I’ll never win your heart. Ladies may say they like an amenable chap, but I’ve come to learn a man easily wrapped around a lady’s finger is soon tossed over.”
    “Have you been tossed over then?” This news was surprising. Sebastian Thorne was hardly the type of gentleman a woman would banish from her bed. And she was certain this was the nature of any past assignations.
    “I wasn’t referring to myself, my lady, but Ellis can enlighten you on the ills of a lady running roughshod over a gentleman.”
    Gabby snorted, a most unladylike sound. “Lord Ellis is as ungovernable as you. I doubt he knows anything about the subject.”
    “I wouldn’t be so sure.”
    He was being too cryptic for her tastes, and she wanted to hurry him on his way. Anthony would arrive any moment, and although she wanted to punish him a little for his bad manners last night, she didn’t want to do it like this.
    “Well, be that as it may, Lord Thorne, I asked you not to write me a sonnet.”
    Thorne’s off-kilter grin reappeared. “I didn’t.”
    “And why not?” she asked, a bit outraged despite not wanting pretty words from him.
    “Because you ordered me to write one.”
    “You are impossible, my lord.”
    “And you are intrigued.”
    “I am not.” She crossed her arms and pressed her lips tightly together. Perhaps she was a little intrigued. He was providing her with a glimpse into the workings of the male mind. Did Anthony think this way, too? “I’m afraid I must ask you to leave. You failed your task, and I cannot reward you with an outing to Gunter’s.”
    “You weren’t going to choose me anyway, Lady Gabrielle, but now you’ll be unable to stop thinking about me. You will wonder why I didn’t mind my p’s and q’s. Why I’m not trying to win your favor. You’ll ask what you can do to gain my notice and make me want you so badly I would do anything you desire.”
    She rolled her eyes. “Does this actually work with some ladies?”
    He chuckled as he stood. “Yes, but I didn’t expect it would with you.” He bowed over her hand, a mischievous twinkle in his eyes. “You become more appealing every moment, my dear.”
    “Lucky me,” she mumbled, but even though she would like to be cross with him, she wasn’t. She appreciated his frankness. It was difficult to feel manipulated when the gentleman told her what he was doing. “Enjoy your afternoon, Lord Thorne.”
    “Take no offense, but I wish you the opposite.”

Eleven
    When Anthony arrived at Talliah House, the butler informed him Gabby was already waiting in the drawing room with her maid. He clutched the plain wrapped parcel he had stopped to pick up after leaving Brooks’s. He’d promised Gabby pretty words and romance, and he would deliver one way or another.
    “This way, my lord.”
    He shoved his hand in his pocket to check for his lucky talisman and followed. His rapid pulse slowed as his fingers skimmed the smooth edge. It was silly to find solace in a common object, but old habits were hard to break.
    Gabby was sitting on the settee with her hands folded primly in her lap. She studied him with the same cautious look he would expect from his childhood tutor, rather than a lady prepared to be impressed by his brilliance.
    “Lord Ellis, shall we get to the business at hand?”
    “Is that the only greeting I’m to receive today?”
    She pursed her lips. “Well, perhaps if you hadn’t kept me waiting all afternoon, I would be more patient.” Her haughtiness was revealed as only a