A Lover of Men

A Lover of Men

Julia Talbot

A former soldier, a spy, and a spinster…three people, three lovers.

For spinster Lelia August, first came the small fortune then came the hoard of unscrupulous characters wanting a piece of it—or more specifically, a piece of her. She decides to find a suitable man to marry, someone who won't want her to submit to the marriage bed. She settles on ex-soldier Phineas Moore, who has a reputation as a lover of men.

Phineas is intrigued by Lelia’s offer and thinks a marriage of convenience might just work for them. But when someone tries to kill his future wife, Phineas vows to protect her and find who’s responsible. He hires the irresistible spy Rafe Gaudi to investigate, and soon realizes he's outsmarted himself. Can Rafe and Phineas figure out who's plotting against the woman they’ve come to love, and can they even hope to dream of a future where the three can become one?

eBooks are not transferable. They cannot be sold, shared or given away as it is an infringement of the copyright of this work.

A LOVER OF MEN

Dubious Series

Copyright © 2016 JULIA TALBOT

ISBN: 978-1-943576-81-4

All Romance eBooks, LLC Palm Harbor, Florida 34684
www.allromanceebooks.com

This is a work of fiction and any resemblance to persons, living or dead, or business establishments, events, or locales is coincidental.

All Rights Are Reserved. No part of this may be used or reproduced in any manner whatsoever with out written permission, except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical articles and reviews.

First All Romance eBooks publication: April 2016

“I have a business matter to discuss with you, Sir Phineas.” Lelia August studied the man who sat across from her, his large body stuffed into the tiny black lacquer chair stationed across from her desk. Somehow he should have appeared quite as ridiculous as all of the recent suitors who had wiggled their way into her library intent upon sweeping her, and her fortune, off her feet.

Contrarily, Phineas Moore appeared perfectly at ease, masculine, even somewhat predatory. His hair, black as a rook, was cut ruthlessly short, and his neckcloth was simple and unfashionable.

Had Lelia not done her research she would have thought him the simple country baronet he appeared. Instead, she knew his unfashionable appearance hid a complex man with a soldier’s mind and a surprising reputation among his peers.

“I confess I am curious, Miss August. That is why I find myself here, answering your summons.” His green eyes gleamed when he smiled slightly, lines around his eyes and mouth crinkling.

“I am glad you have that to satisfy. Makes you far more interesting. Tell me, what have you been able to discover about me in the last six hours?” She had sent her invitation to him at eight, which meant he would have received it around nine. He had arrived at five until three. She approved of his promptness.

“That you are a spinster. That your father was the third son of an Earl. That your uncle passed away leaving the title to a cousin who has a great fondness for you, and he’s settled upon you a stipend of some considerable wealth. In a trust, so it cannot be siphoned off by his miserable, whoring, gaming brother.” His expression never changed during the telling, but he did study her closely.

Gracious, she was outclassed here. Lelia curled her hands together, keeping them from fluttering like nervous birds. No sense giving away her sudden nerves.

“That’s quite a lot,” she said. “If you know all that about me, then you know that since I have come into said fortune I have been deluged with suitors.” All shapes, sizes, and classes of men had been calling, so much so that she’d taken the knocker from the door of the modest townhouse her cousin had also settled upon her. He liked her company, he said, and preferred she stayed in Town. Dear Eustace. Still, some of the men had been rather more forceful in their attentions than she felt necessary.

“Indeed.” Sir Phineas tilted his head. “I imagine your cousin hopes settling a fortune on you will erase your spinster status.”

“Hmm.” She wasn’t sure at all that had been Eustace’s intention. However, now he saw her difficulty, he had turned his eye toward that idea, if only to give her relief. Having just gained her independence from reliance on men, Lelia had no desire to go back. “Hence my proposal to you.”

“I am on pins and needles,” Phineas murmured.

“Yes. Well.” She squeezed her hands together so hard her knuckles turned white. “I realize we do not know one another, but you must realize, I have viewed my situation from every angle and I believe this is the best possible solution to my dilemma.”

“I see.” Phineas sat back, the chair creaking alarmingly. “By all means, enlighten me, Miss August.”

“I want you to marry me.” The nausea left her as soon as she said it. Better to have it right out in the open.

The chair cracked, the two pieces of it falling away to either side while Sir Phineas crashed to the floor. His well-polished boots kicked the air for a moment before he sprang to his feet. “I beg your pardon?”

“I said, I wish to propose marriage. To you.”

Shock overtook his expression, and Phineas placed his hands on her desk, leaning into her space. This close she could smell the deep scent of tobacco and freshly pressed linen. “Why?”

“Clearly you can see my problem.” When he simply stared, Lelia licked her lips, her nerves returning. “I need someone of my own choosing, someone to keep the wolves from my door and to keep my well-meaning cousin from choosing a controlling, needy arse who will run my life.”

He chuckled, the sound warm, almost intimate. “How do you know
I’m
not a controlling arse?”

“I have had far more than three hours to look into your affairs, Sir Phineas. Shall we move to the men’s parlor? You’ll be more comfortable there.”

“Please.” He offered her an arm.

Lelia wished she had worn gloves. Touching his arm, even with his jacket and shirt sleeve, seemed so forward. Too close. Her breath caught before she reminded herself she was a twenty-five-year-old spinster. Not a green girl.

The men’s parlor held furnishings from an earlier era. No classical or Egyptian relics or reproductions. The enormous chairs and looming cabinet housing liquor suited Phineas far better than anything else in her home.

Lelia released his arm, moving to a chair rather than the long velvet sofa, which was her addition to the room. She rather liked to read there, but giving him the opportunity to sit beside her pushed the already stretched bounds of polite society to breaking.

Smoothing her skirts, she studied Phineas from beneath her lashes. Whatever agitation had caused his chair-breaking start, he did not show it now. He sat on the settee in a rather glorious male sprawl, utterly impolite.

“Explain, please.” The words held demand, not request.

Lelia scowled, an expression she abhorred as she knew it exacerbated the rather sharp lines of her face. “You needn’t be rude.”

“Or controlling,” he agreed easily. “If you please, then.”

“I told you, I wish to marry you.”

“Indeed. You did not tell me why, aside from that you have found out a great deal about me.”

“I have.” Now was not the time to quibble. “I know you have your own fortune and will not need mine. You are known in military circles for being tough but fair, and for leading by example, not by fear. You are not prone to cruelty to animals.”

“All amazing qualities to be sure,” Phineas said, his eyes crinkling up once more. “But hardly marriage material.”

“Oh, for me it is. However, we have yet to come to my most important quality. The one I searched the hardest to find among my suitable candidates.”

His eyebrows rose nearly to his hairline. “I see. Do tell me what quality is that, Miss August?”

She took a deep breath, stared him right in the eye, and delivered her final gambit. “The thing that makes you most attractive to me, Sir Phineas, is that you are a lover of men.”

****

Phineas Moore blinked at the tall, oddly graceful spinster sitting some distance away, utterly lost for words, a situation in which he rarely found himself. Her only sign of agitation lay in her hands, clasped tightly in her lap. Her knuckles stuck out sharply, her skin pale where the blood refused to run.

Nervous. Nervous but intent upon her course. Bravely bucking society to summon him to a meeting at her home. Proposing to him.

“Exactly what does that mean, Miss August? I understand you might find the subject somewhat embarrassing, but I find in cases such as these it’s better to be explicit.” He relaxed his muscles, evincing boredom. His keen interest could never be obvious if he wanted all of the information available to him.

“It means, Sir Phineas, that you have no desire to share a marriage bed with a woman. Your, er, preferences are well known after the incident at Corunna.”

Phineas bit down on a curse, his entire body going cold. He refused to allow the memories to unsettle him, no matter how they battered at the backs of his eyes.

“Corunna did seem to seal my reputation, though I fear thinking you know my disposition based upon my actions there leads to misconceptions.”

A slight frown marred the still-smooth skin on her forehead. “Does it? Does that mean you are—”

“Inclined toward forcing myself on a woman in the marriage bed? Certainly not.” No, indeed, he had never found himself in need of a wife, being as he’d made his own fortune and had no family pushing him toward the altar.

“There.” She brightened. “You see? I have no inclination to occupy a marriage bed and bear passels of children. I have my own income, and, much the same as you, no one to leave it to when I go. I think we could do quite well together.”

Her smile was really quite lovely, brightening her rather austere face. She possessed a high brow, a longish nose with a sharp tip, and a lush pair of lips that surprised him. A hint of sensuality under a guise of practicality.

“What’s in it for me, then?” Phineas asked. “As you’ve said I have my own fortune, my own home, and with no chance of you providing me heirs, I have little idea of the advantages of such a union.”

The frown returned, but she nodded, curls and earbobs swinging. “Yes, all right.” Her chin firmed with clear determination. “A wife would provide a sense of respectability. I get the idea from my research that you’ve been very restrained in your love affairs since your military days. A wife would offer society the ability to look the other way.”

“Ah.” He fought the urge to laugh. She appeared so serious. “Well, that would be a lovely consequence, yes.”

“I am also remarkably talented at running a household. I know you enjoy travel, from Scotland to the continent. If you were to marry, you wouldn’t need to close up your house, and I would manage the daily household affairs.”

“You really have thought this through.”

“I have!” Her clenched hands loosened. “What do you think?”

“Hmm.” Phineas made a show of sitting upright. “A trifle early, but I don’t suppose you have brandy?”

“I do.” She popped to her feet, then paused, her nose wrinkling. “You don’t drink to excess, do you? I didn’t hear that you had any vices such as drinking and gambling but—”

“No, no. I simply think it will help me work through this.”

“By all means.” She moved with a ready economy of motion that spoke of someone accustomed to doing much of their own work rather than depending upon servants. She took up a glass before opening a decanter. She poured him a stiff drink of the stuff, her nerves only returning when she came too close to him. He saw it in the tremor in her hand.

“Thank you.” Phineas breathed deeply, her scent all lilacs and linen. “Now, then, tell me who your other prospects were.”

He needed to understand her thought processes, which meant she needed to retreat so he would stop watching her breasts move under her fichu. Very distracting.

Bless her. She didn’t understand that while Phineas was a lover of men, he was fond of women as well.

“Mmm.” Lelia August crossed her arms under her breasts, which pushed them up even farther. “Sir Reginald Houk.”

“No.” Phineas snapped out the word. Reggie avoided adult women, but he was far from suitable.

“No.” Her mouth twisted. “Indeed. I shudder to think.”

“Smart lady.” Phineas nodded at her tentative smile. “Who else?”

“John Wilson Harris, Esquire.”

“Old enough to be your ruddy grandfather.”

“Indeed. Then there was Richard Easton.”

“Now, there’s not a bad choice. Why me and not him?” Phineas found it amusing that all of her choices attended the same club.

“He has an interest in racing horses. I did fear he would attempt to dip into my money.”

“You are thorough.” He had to admit, he admired this educated and thoughtful miss. She had set out to create a situation for herself, had made a plan, and was following through.

“I am. I think we would do very well.” She glanced up again, her green eyes sparkling under dark lashes, the unwitting coquette.