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

would forget what he’d done? That she would turn into the same moon-faced innocent she had been at fifteen?
    The idea made her blood churn. “Rest? With you within a hundred yards? I’d as soon turn my back on a Malacca Straits pirate! What did you plan to do this time, steal my boots? Strip the room clean?”
    And then, to Chessy’s utter horror and dismay, a tear worked free and crept down her cheek. Quickly she thrust it away with a sooty fist.
    But not before Morland had seen it.
    His jaw went rock-hard, his eyes unreadable. “Chessy, don’t.”
    “ Don’t? Don’t remind you of the ugly truth? Don’t tell you how you hurt my father when you left?” Her gaze slashed at Morland. “I’ll never forget the look on his face when he found you’d cleared off while we were at our busiest time. He’d put so much of himself into that excavation, such love and joy! And you—well, stupid as it was, he liked you immensely. Do you know that afterward he changed overnight? He never laughed as he used to do, never sang those disgraceful French shanties. He seemed to age years in a day, in fact. That was all your doing. And now you stand there, fine as five pence, and tell me to forget? I can never forget—nor forgive you!”
    Abruptly she fell back against the settee. Her lips trembled slightly as she rubbed her throbbing forehead. “Oh, go away—just go away!”
    Morland’s lips thinned to a hard line. He turned to the anxious servant. “Swithin, isn’t it?”
    “Aye, your lordship.”
    “Go and fetch us some brandy. And also something to eat. Biscuits or cakes.”
    The servant shuffled uncomfortably. “Don’t reckon I kin do that, your lordship.”
    “Why in blazes not, man?”
    The servant hesitated.
    “Surely you don’t suspect me of planning an assault on her virtue? The woman’s half insensible!”
    “Aye, that she is,” Swithin said unhappily.
    “Well? Fetch the brandy and biscuits. That should restore her.”
    “Most likely, your lordship. But I still can’t oblige you, for all that. We don’t have neither, you see.”
    Morland began to wonder if he had stumbled headlong into Bedlam. “Then bring something else, man. Sherry will do, if need be. Or—”
    Chessy uttered a ragged sound of protest.
    Morland ignored her. “Don’t tell me you haven’t any of that either!”
    Swithin shrugged uncomfortably.
    “What in thunder do you have?”
    The rangy servant scratched his head. “Precious little, truth be told. Few eggs. A bit o’ flour. Some ham, mebbe.”
    Chessy stiffened as she heard Morland mutter a curse.
    The kitchens were a shambles, but they’d only been in London for a month, and she still hadn’t gotten the hang of how business was managed here. She certainly couldn’t afford the hiring of a staff to help her.
    And that miserable, sneaking coal vendor this morning had been the last straw!
    White-faced, Chessy massaged her left temple, trying to will the waves of pain away.
    Dimly she heard Morland rap out a volley of instructions to Swithin. Then came the clink of coins.
    At that sound her eyes flashed open. “You go too far! We don’t need your money! What right have you—”
    A large and very powerful palm planted itself flat on her chest and drove her back against the settee. “Stop ranting and let the poor man be about his work.”
    “He’s not poor. And he’s my man, not yours, so I’ll thank you to—”
    Behind her the door closed quietly.
    “Swithin? Come back here, blast it all! Don’t you dare—”
    Morland’s fingers tightened.
    Suddenly Chessy felt —really felt—their hard contours against her shoulder. She remembered how those strong hands had slid over his mistress’s bare skin, driving her to a breathless, cresting pleasure.
    Chessy’s face flushed and she began to struggle. Anything was better than thinking about that! “Let go of me, you—you brute! Swithin! Come back here!”
    Morland smothered a curse as her nails grazed his cheek. In taut