Read Online Luck Be a Lady by Meredith Duran - Free Book Online Page B

with O’Shea might ruin her reputation. But losing the auction house would destroy her. “Pilcher isn’t the problem. It’s my brother, Peter Everleigh. I dislike to say it, but he’s not fit to run a business.”
    â€œCertainly he’s got no talent at cards,” Mr. O’Shea said pleasantly.
    She stared. “He comes here?”
    â€œOnce or twice. Never left but with pockets to let.”
    She hadn’t known that. The news embittered her next words. “What he lost was not his to gamble. He is embezzling profits from our auction rooms. If his corruption were discovered, the scandal would destroy us.”
    â€œPity. And Pilcher? You knew him. Didn’t like him, from what I saw. How does he factor?”
    â€œOh, I . . .” She hesitated, oddly flustered by the need to speak the words aloud. “My brother has taken it into his mind that I will marry him.”
    He nodded once. “And you don’t want to.”
    â€œOf course not. I’ve no intention of marrying anybody. But Peter has threatened to sell the auction house if I don’t comply. And Mr. Pilcher, for his part, is oddly persistent.”
    He sat back, a slight smile working over his mouth. “Not so odd, I’d say. You ever look in a mirror?”
    She bit her cheek. It was one thing to play deaf to clients’ smooth compliments, but when closeted alone with a rogue, such words felt unnerving. “I—I don’t care why he’s interested. But with my brother’s encouragement, he has made himself quite . . . unwelcome.”
    His expression hardened. “How?”
    â€œNothing worth your time.”
    â€œI’ll be the judge of that.”
    She frowned. “Very well. There was one evening recently . . . he was waiting for my brother at our home.” She had returned home late, and found Pilcher alone in the drawing room. “I had no interest in speaking with him, but he insisted upon it. When I tried to leave, he grabbed my wrist and . . .” It seemed stupid, suddenly, to complain of being touched so, when O’Shea had probably proved far rougher in his time with any number of women. “It was nothing,” she muttered. But had the butler not walked past, she did not like to think what would have happened.
    O’Shea was staring at her through narrowed eyes. “You make a habit of doubting your instincts, Miss Everleigh?”
    â€œNo.”
    â€œGood.” His smile was swift and sharp, as though she had passed some kind of test.
    The approval flustered her. She dropped her eyes, but it seemed there was nowhere safe to look. At some point, he had unknotted his necktie, and his collar fell open to reveal the powerful cording of his neck. The evening coat fit him very closely, emphasizing the heavy musculature of his upper body. He was tallenough that one did not realize at first the power of his build.
    She would like to see Pilcher try to manhandle this man .
    â€œNever mind that,” she said. “I want to hire you, sir. To stop my brother from his depredations. And to . . .” She took a deep breath. “To persuade him not to sell the auction rooms.”
    â€œAnd to discourage Pilcher?”
    â€œA pleasant bonus. But my main concern is Everleigh’s.”
    He nodded, then drummed his fingers once. “Stop your brother, how?”
    The show of interest encouraged her. He might have refused outright, after all. “I don’t wish him injured. I simply wish him unable to participate in the directorship of Everleigh’s.”
    â€œPrettily put,” he said. “Let’s be plainer. You want him kicked out on his arse.”
    Something in his easy, loose posture made her painfully aware of how rigidly she held herself, and the nerves she was trying hard to conceal. “That is another way to put it, yes.”
    He grinned. “Not very sisterly, is