Ruin Me Please (10 page)

Q
uite obvio
us
ly
many believed
her
past
three
seasons
were
failure
s
.  Poppy stre
n
uously disagreed.  She had figured out the most important aspect
s
of mar
riage
w
hat she desired in a husband and what she did not. 

How many times had
the
ton
compared
her
to a diamond?
  Had
anyone ever stop to consider that maybe she did
not
want to be a diamond? 
She
like
d
rubies, emeralds and sa
p
phires equally as well.  Sapphires br
ought
out the color of
her
eyes anyway
.
  
Besides, i
t
was not
as if she
did not
‘take’.  Why
,
she had three rather dramatic proposals of marriage and undying love her first week out alone
.
  She
could not
even count the amount of hothouse bouquets she had r
e
ceived.  Boring and overdone
.
  She despised hothouse flowers
.
 

Not one of her suitors had even bothered to find out what flower
she preferred.
  None even made
an exerted e
f
fort to get to know
her
.
 
Her wants, her desires, her likes. 
They just expected her to
be
an exact repl
i
ca of ev
ery other girl who came out year after year after year. 
A beautiful vacuous female they could
tuck
neatly
away in the cou
ntry allowing them the o
p
portunity
to live their lives of
d
e
pravity
elsewhere.  That was exactly wh
at
le bon ton
expected of her.  S
he rolled
her eyes caustically
, to
make an exceptional match to some
lackluster
stranger just because he had a title
and she had
the
blunt
. 

Well she had other
plans
. 
Loftier
plans.  She planned
to chat over breakfast with her husband while reading
The Times
j
ust
as she
had done with her papa and now with her brot
h
ers.  She
required
her future husband to have some expectation that she had a brain
and that she c
ould use it
.  She d
id have the ability to partake in
intelligent conversations. 

She desired
passion. 
She had been
bored to tears
with the men who courted her in London within five minutes
in their company, let alone
contemplat
ing being with
them for a lifetime
.
   Not in a million years was she going to a
ccept that kind of life. 

She
dreamed of a love match just
as
Piper did or no match at all
.
 
A
n
enigmatic smile covered her lips.  S
he refused to be just another o
rnament on another man’s arm and
that was f
i
nal
.
  Luckily
,
she could afford to be
finicky
.
 

An expected interruption intruded on her quiet reflections. 

“Georgie!”
She cried.
  “Where have you been?” 

Poppy’
s tiny pug companion
joined her during her morning ritual. 
He bounced
and yipp
ed
in
a
frenzied ex
u
berance for life. 
She leaned
towards Georgie,
snuggled him
close to her bosom
and
embraced h
im
with giggles. 

“Georgie, what have you been into?”
  Her eyes narrowed.
  “I can tell by the look in your eyes that you have been an ornery little boy
.
” 

G
eorgie gazed adoringly
back
at her as he
delivered little
wet kisses on her
upturned face
.
 

D
eclan froze after ducking under the flower filled archway.
 
He
blinked
;
sure that
she
was
a figment of his
imagination.
  He
couldn’t catch his breath, he
felt
the
need
to
sit down
.
He was
in
awe
of
the vision before him.  He was transfixed
,
riveted by the ethereal
vision of
lovel
i
ness
as the
early afternoon su
n bathed her in its warm glow and the
heady scent of the
flo
w
ers envel
oped them
with their pe
r
fume.
 

He couldn’t stop the flow of words. 
“Shall I compare thee to a
summer’s
day?”  His deep, gravelly voice intruded
on the affectionate display
, a
faint smile tugging
on his lips. 

Startled, with a strangled yelp, Poppy
’s breath caught.  Standing she
turn
ed
suddenly.  “Excuse me?”  She exclaimed
let
ting
out her strangled breath on a whoosh,
she placed her hand over
her wildly beating heart. 
Jerking her gaze up, she looked into eyes the color of costly e
m
eralds.

“I had no idea that Ash was keeping fairies captive in his ga
rden or I would have
seen fit to
ar
rive
sooner.”  Having spent the last year tucked away at his country
estate,
she was def
i
nitely a we
l
come diversion
, a
tempting bit of fluff
if he had ever seen one
.

“Who are you?” Curiosity mingled with concern. 
She glanced around helplessly
,
trapped in her own slice of heaven. 
Her heart thumped wildly
at being alone
with a complete stranger
without means of escape.
 

A
tall,
dark
,
exceedingly male stranger.
 

Poppy felt her pulse leap as she
stared
,
fascinated at the breathtaking man looming over her.

She flushed
because of her outburst and then glanc
ed
down
when she
remembered
her lack of shoes. 
Blast.
 
She glanced
around frantically for a second
trying
to locate the
m
issing a
r
ticle
s
.
 
Did a lack of shoes count as hoydenish behavior?
 
 

“
Heavens
, y
ou
gave me a
fright
!
”   He was definitely one of the most handsome men she had ever laid eyes on. 
Her mouth water
ed
just
looking at him. 
She swallowed and dragged in a desperately needed breath. 
Impre
ssed by the picture before her, perhaps
she
would make an exception if he sent
her
some hothouse flowers
.
 
It is such a trifling
transgre
s
sion
, after all.

Declan’s typically disciplined desires rebelled.  His mind
was
bursting with unruly thoughts.  The beauty before him arous
ed something wild and primitive, s
omething he had b
e
lieved he would never feel again.

She was such a tiny little thing but curved in all the right places.  Appreciative of her form his groin tightened.  He had definitely been without a woman for
far
too long, he
thought ruefully. 
Why did he have a feeling that h
is self-imposed exile was going to catch up with him on this
trip?
  Fighting for contro
l and quickly losing the battle.  T
he last thing he
wanted to do was frighten her.  The
last thing he had expected to find was
her.

“Pardon, my l
ady.” He bowed elegantly before
her. “I hope you forgive
my intrusion,
but I noticed that lit
tle
ball
of fur
.”  H
e
tilt
ed
his head towards Georgie
.
“
He was
bounding towards this wall
with an abundant enthusiasm and my curiosity got the better of me
.
”

“You know what they say about curiosity.”  S
he flushed under his perusal, h
er nervou
s
ness caus
ing
her tongue to run away.
“Oh…
”  She pressed her hands to her hot cheeks. 

He filled his lungs with air and slowly exhaled. 
“
Please a
llow me to introduce myself, I am Declan Trenowyth. 
I must compliment you on your companion.  He is adorable.
”  He couldn’t stop his
eyes
from
devour
ing
her
delicious form
, his eyes glittering in amusement.

Poppy sucked in a breath at the mention of his name. 
F
illed with her usual boundless en
ergy she released
Georgie and
rushed forward with
outstretched
hand
s
.
“
“A name I know so well.  I feel as if we have already been introduced
,
Your G
race
.” 
She
dip into an elegant
cur
t
sy
. 
“How nice
it is
to finally meet one of Pa
r
ker’s dearest
friends.”

Declan inwardly
groaned. 
Her moist, red lips were
calling to him. 
He accepted her
ou
t
stretched hands
and inclined h
is head. 

“
I am Poppy Peregrine, Parker is my brother
,
”
s
he pointed out with a bright smile.

His large hands engulfed hers. Tiny and delicate like the most expensive china. 
Neither wore gloves and the
touch of his naked flesh
against her own
sent
streaks of lightening through her fingertips.
She shivered at
the roughness,
surprised at
the calluses that scraped across her de
l
icate skin.