Man of My Dreams by Johanna Lindsey Page B

situation. After all, what other innocent young miss would he have stripped naked in front of, daring her to watch, hoping she would so he’d have an excuse to behave even more improperly?
    Good God, had he really done that? He was twenty-nine years old and he’d never in his life behaved so irresponsibly. What was it about that girl that made him forget a lifetime of good breeding and turn into the cad, the bounder, the seducer of innocents that he’d accused himself of being—and to which she’d defended him? Bloody hell, she had actually defended him! ’Course, she had to, didn’t she, after she’d claimed she was going to marry him? Matter of principle, that. Nothing personal. How could it be personal, anyway, when she didn’t even know him?
    “I say, are you there?”
    Devlin turned to find another man had come into the stable leading his horse, only this one he recognized as the blond gent who had been with Megan the day he arrived. “Toss me those reins and I may deck you.”
    Tyler was taken aback, but after a moment he said hesitantly, “Well, then, I suppose I’ll keep them. Woolgathering, were you?”
    “Was I?”
    “You seemed miles away when I came in.”
    “Not so far as that,” Devlin grumbled.
    He might have been preoccupied enough not to have noticed the gent’s arrival, but that didn’t account for his unreasonable anger. He actually still felt like decking the man; would jump on the first excuse to do so. This one Megan didn’t just entertain in her parlor, she went riding with him. And what else did she do with him, he’d like to know?
    “I suppose you’re here to see the squire’s daughter?”
    “I’d just as soon not. See much too much of the girl as it is.”
    Devlin took a step forward, unaware that his fingers had curled into fists. “Just what does that mean?”
    “She’s my chaperon.” When that remark got only a blank stare from Devlin, Tyler explained. “I’m marrying her best friend, Tiffany Roberts, so Megan accompanies us everywhere—to my great misfortune. But Tiffany’s father is old-fashioned and insisted, so what’s a chap todo? It was either Megan or Tiffany’s mother. Thought I was getting the better bargain, but I would have preferred the mother, believe me, if I’d known what a shrew Megan could be.”
    “You mean I’m not the only one she’s singled out for hostility?”
    Tyler chuckled. “You too? Well, don’t take it to heart. She put me through hell making me wonder what I’d done to offend her when I hadn’t done anything. Could have sworn she despised me. And now to find out it was all deliberate.” Tyler shook his head bemusedly.
    Devlin held his breath, waiting to hear the rest. “Deliberate?” he finally had to prompt.
    “Every bit of it, all the derision and contempt. That girl’s got a way of making a man feel about three inches tall. Couldn’t understand it, but Tiffany finally confessed that it’s a defense Megan uses to keep men from falling in love with her. And they do, you know. I’ve seen it happen again and again. For myself, she did it for Tiffany’s sake, though it wasn’t necessary and she’s finally figured that out and ended the hostilities. I’m amazed to say she’s actually a sweet girl. Damned if I was aware of it before, but she is.”
    Devlin was damned if he agreed. But he no longer felt like clobbering the man. He did wonder, however, why the fellow had volunteered such personal information.
    Tyler was suddenly wondering the same thing as he recalled the fact of just whom he’d been speaking to. The Penworthy horsebreeder. And yet there was something about the man that made Tyler feel he was in the presence of an equal rather than a servant. Servants didn’t usually threaten a lord, after all, as this one had done the moment Tyler entered the stable. They didn’t usually wear fine lawn shirts of a better quality than his own, either. And for someone of the servant class, the fellow wasn’t all