Bronwyn Scott's Sexy Regency Bundle (191 page)

Chapter 1

Vienna, 1823

Julian Burke surveyed the glittering ballroom with a predator's eye. "Who shall it be tonight?" the Viscount St. Just

quietly beside him.

The other two gentlemen with him laughed knowingly.

In the months Julian had been in Vienna, the routine of seeking out a lively partner had become a weekly, sometimes nightly ritual. His reputation as a libertine was

established and the

women didn't seem to mind.

was a city

bursting with energy, drawing people all

over

to its ballrooms and palaces. Exciting places drew exciting people. Wallflowers and

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Libertine Lord, Pickpocket Miss

virtuous debutantes did not populate this crowd with any great regularity.

Julian rather liked these continental women.

They were mature. They understood the rules of the game. They accepted the fact that affairs ran their course, and expected nothing more.

Julian's gaze passed over the ballroom again, lighting on the figure he'd been visually pursuing all evening. Time and again, he'd come back to her; his eyes were drawn to her movements on the dance floor, the saucy tilt of her head and her easy smile. "That

St. Just." He nodded in the woman's direction.

"Ah,"

Inglemoore, Viscount St. Just

offered approvingly. "She's very very

vivacious it seems. I have noticed her too. She is also younger than your usual sort, Burke."

The other two gentlemen, Truesdale and Mathison, eyed her appreciatively. "Good choice, Burke," Truesdale said, lifting his preposterous quizzing glass. "She's quite lovely. I don't see how I missed her."

elbowed him. "You were too busy looking at the brunette on the other side of the room.

Scott

Julian clapped St. Just on the back. "I am off to conquer the fair maid's heart. I'd ask you to wish me luck but I won't need it. I will be on the dance floor with her in ten minutes."

St. Just raised an eyebrow at his friend's cocky farewell. "You don't have a place on her dance card."

"A minor technicality." Julian

"I

will give you gentlemen good-night. I doubt be seeing you again this evening."

"Be

Burke," St. Just replied as Julian melted into the crowd.

Julian squared his shoulders and began to work his way to the woman's side. He would be tonight. He'd been right when he'd said he wouldn't need any luck. Tonight was all about acting on the

he'd done during the last

several weeks. St. Just knew, as the others didn't, that his

purpose in

was to reclaim for

England a diamond jewel set currently in the hands of the evening's host, a French comte. The jewels were upstairs in a safe. But he couldn't go upstairs without making his presence known downstairs first. That's why he'd picked the lively young woman.

4

Libertine Lord, Pickpocket Miss

Everyone, except

obviously, had

noticed her. Her smile alone would have drawn people to her. Her entire being radiated a certain magnetic joie de vivre. The fact that she was positively

was simply an added benefit.

There was no question in Julian's mind that this lovely creature broke hearts on a nightly basis wherever she went. Of course, his heart was in no danger. She was welcome to work her wiles if she liked, but in the end, all he wanted her was

one dance, enough to get him noticed so that when and if the hue and cry went up about the missing jewels, people would only remember he'd spent the evening dancing if they

him to the

incident at all.

Julian approached the little group she was with as the orchestra

up a waltz.

"Mademoiselle, I believe this dance is mine." Up close, her beauty was breathtaking, Julian noted objectively. Her hair, the color of pale gold, and the smooth ivory sheen of her skin gave her the look of a fairy princess straight a child's

book of tales.

look of

flitted briefly across her

heart-shaped face. She

her dance card. "I

believe you're mistaken, monsieur. I have elected