Seducing the Enemy by Noelle Adams Page A

shook his head. “I was declared a useless philanderer who brought nothing but shame to the family.”
    Harrison stopped in the middle of the hallway and checked his brother’s expression. It revealed nothing. “He didn’t mean that.”
    “Oh, he did. You know Lord Uncle as well as I do. If there’s a choice between one of us and his archaic sense of honor, his honor will always win.”
    Andrew was half-smiling, as if their uncle’s eccentricity was amusing, but Harrison found his comment troubling. “I don’t think that’s true.”
    “You’re blind to him sometimes. Look what happened with Ben.”
    There was no disputing the ruthless inflexibility that had led to Benjamin’s desertion. Not wanting to dwell on it, Harrison changed the subject. “He really called you a philanderer?”
    Andrew laughed, the slight tension in his mouth relaxing. “Keep hitting on Marietta, and maybe he’ll call you one, too.”
    “I’ll talk to him.”
    “Stop it.” Andrew’s voice snapped with startling authority.
    Harrison blinked in surprised. “Excuse me?”
    “Stop trying to bear the burdens of this whole dysfunctional family. It’s not yours to fix. If I want something said to him, I’ll say it myself.”
    Harrison frowned at his brother’s unusual retort. “I thought you were glad I was the lucky bastard who gets to shoulder the weight of this family’s shit.”
    Andrew shook his head. “There’s too much to fix, and trying will just break you eventually. I guarantee it.”
    Harrison didn’t know what to say to that so he went to his room to shower. But he was still worried about Marietta. So he called up his uncle’s masseur and asked him to stop by as soon as he could to give her a massage.

Chapter Seven
    Since Marietta had gone to bed so early the previous night, she woke up at sunrise. Her muscles were still sore from riding, and she had two hours until breakfast, so she decided to take a walk.
    She followed the path on the perimeter of the formal gardens, since the interior paths turned and wound too frequently to get good exercise and stretch her muscles. She’d reached the far end and was looking over at the wooded park, thinking it would be an amazing place for a child to play, when she saw a rider on horseback approach from the opposite direction.
    As he neared, she saw he was tall with dark hair, and rode with strength and surety across the wide stretch of grass and wildflowers leading to the gardens.
    She forced down the romantic notions the image conjured. It wasn’t a prince from a fairy tale. It wasn’t even Rochester approaching Jane for the first time on his horse.
    It was probably just Andrew.
    She didn’t have any need to see Harrison this morning, anyway. He’d been very kind the previous evening in helping her when she couldn’t walk, and she couldn’t summon the same anger toward him she had before, but still…it was probably Andrew.
    The rider obviously saw her because he slowed, turned the horse toward her, and trotted over to where she stood. Then he slid off the saddle.
    It was Harrison.
    He was dressed in casual trousers and a black T-shirt, and he looked windblown and masculine. Rugged. The coiled power in his presence had transformed into pure physicality.
    Her body clenched at the sight of him.
    She still wanted him. More now than ever.
    It was a ridiculous reaction, since he’d insulted her and refused to trust her, so she shoved her desire back into a safe corner of her mind with her other silly romantic notions. She wasn’t naive enough to be swayed by such things.
    She was about to thank him for his help yesterday when he demanded, “What are you doing out alone at this hour?”
    Her shoulders hunched. “What do you think I’m doing? Lurking suspiciously in the shadows in the hopes of catching a stray gardener unaware.”
    “And then?” he prompted, the corner of his mouth curling slightly.
    She tried not to respond to his suppressed amusement but failed.