Read Online Seducing the Rake (Mad, Bad and Dangerous Heroes) by Christina Skye - Free Book Online

own fury. Who was he to storm into her house, disrupt her affairs, and interrogate her in this high-handed way?
    She owed him neither courtesy nor answers.
    Grimly she jerked against his grip, but his hands only tightened.
    Chessy fell back, white-faced. She grimaced as pain slammed through her head. First last night’s fiasco, now this!
    Seeing him with his mistress had been bad enough. Hearing what he was doing had been worse. But last night, at least, Chessy had been occupied with her search, and that had kept her from bitter memories.
    Not now. Suddenly the past was far too close, and she had no protection from its pain.
    She swallowed.
    Her voice, when she spoke, was icy. “I owe you nothing, Lord Morland. Why should I? I still remember the way you left us in Macao ten years ago. You didn’t make a formal departure, did you? You didn’t so much as give a word of farewell. All you did was slink off like a dog in the night. Can you deny that?”
    “I cannot,” he said quietly.
    Her eyes fixed on his, sharp as glass. “Then you’ll pardon me if I don’t stand up and cheer at your arrival.”
    “I understand.” Morland’s eyes narrowed. “It was not well done by me.”
    Her expression did not soften. “I suggest you put me down and leave, before one of us says—or does—something we shall both always regret.”
    “One of us already has, my dear. And since it’s too late for caution, perhaps you’ll tell me what you’re doing here in London.”
    Chessy caught a steadying breath against the ache in her forehead. Her arm was on fire, and her head was throbbing. The jump last night…
    Damn and blast! Why wouldn’t the wretched man take a hint and leave ?
    Too late, Chessy remembered the streak of stubbornness he’d always had. Goading him would only make it worse.
    His face grim, the earl carried her into the hall. “Where is the salon?”
    Chessy’s lips pressed to a hard line. Morland swung down the hall to the right.
    Blast the man, could he read her mind too? Chessy’s cheeks colored. If he really could read her mind, then he would know the rest of what she was thinking.
    And that was how solid he felt, how her skin burned where his thigh brushed her hips.
    How much she wanted to feel that warmth in other places …
    With a ragged sound somewhere between a sob and a curse, Chessy raised her chin and glared up at the man who was carrying her so carefully in his arms.
    Sweet heaven, why did it have to be him ? Didn’t he know what he’d done to her when he left Macao ten years before without a farewell or a handshake?
    No, she wasn’t about to have old wounds reopened. She had to make the man leave and leave now. Otherwise—
    Morland’s boots scraped against wood. “Here we are. The salon, I believe.”
    Chessy was lowered against the threadbare cushions of a shabby chintz settee in what her landlord had optimistically termed the Blue Salon.
    She scowled at the streaked, faded wallpaper. At one time it might have been a pale ultramarine. Now it was the dismal color of a winter sky reflected in a muddy pool.
    Back in Macao her walls had been hung with peach silk. The windows had been bordered with silk curtains of swaying bamboo and darting goldfish.
    Chessy caught herself angrily. Don’t think about it. If you don’t find your father, you can’t go back anyway.
    Morland’s thigh brushed her hip.
    Instantly she went rigid. With wary eyes she watched him reach over her for the blanket resting on the back of the settee.
    Suddenly she was aware of heat—and sharpest cold. Of the vivid softness of the cushions—and the tense, corded strength of Morland’s thigh.
    Of the acute, heart-stopping nearness of him.
    Her mouth went dry as she watched him shake out the blanket, then settle it smoothly over her motionless form.
    Then, oddly enough, he simply looked at her. His jaw hard, he studied her body, every curve and hollow outlined beneath the light wool covering. Chessy could have sworn she saw