His Sinful Secret Read Free

she blew out an exasperated breath. “I knew you were going to balk. This needs stitched. Have you seen my embroidery? Trust me, you’d have yet another very interesting scar.”
    “Just bind it up.”
    The last thing he needed was word leaking out that the Marquess of Longhaven had been stabbed by a street thug. Attention was like poison. The less people who knew, the better.
    Antonia put her hands on her hips. “ Miguel , I—”
    “Please, it is rather late for an argument.”
    She hesitated a moment and then shook her head and theatrically threw up her hands. Her eyes were as dark as midnight and reflected surrender. “I would lose anyway. I’ve learned that from past experience. Fine. Have it your way, you stubborn man.”
    Michael watched her disappear into her dressing room. She emerged a few moments later with what appeared to be a chemise made of fine linen. She proceeded to cut it into strips with a pair of small scissors. The idea of being bandaged with female undergarments would normally have been amusing, but his current predicament made it hard to laugh.
    “As you said, I’ll live. I’d surmised that already, but this makes one devil of a problem for me.” He sat in quiet acceptance of her ministrations as she pressed a pad of the cloth over the cut, his moody gaze fixed on the marble fireplace across the room. “I am supposed to get married in two days. This is going to take some inventive tale to explain.”
    Antonia glanced up, her mouth set in a thin line. She reached for a longer length of the fine white cloth. “You are really going to go through with it? I find it hard to believe.”
    “The wedding? Why should you? The engagement has been formal for months now.”
    “It isn’t you, Miguel .”
    They’d had this conversation before. He sighed in resignation. “Whether it is or not, yes, I’m going through with it.”
    “You’ll marry some insipid young chit right out of the schoolroom just because your father wishes it?”
    “I would appreciate it if you did not refer to my future wife as insipid.”
    It might have been his imagination, but it seemed she pressed the wound with a little more force than necessary as she began to wrap it. He gave a small grunt of pain.
    “She’ll bore you to death.”
    He lazily arched a brow. “I don’t think it’s her job to entertain me. I have plenty enough excitement in my life as it is, which might just include the fact that someone out there seems to want me dead. Let’s set aside my young bride for the moment, if you please, because we don’t agree on the subject anyway. Do you think the source of the attack could be internal?”
    She wrapped the bandage around his naked torso, leaning so close he could smell the delicious scent of woman and a hint of attar of roses. Ebony hair brushed his cheek and her skillful fingers moved against his skin. “I am not certain,” she admitted in a quiet voice. “I think you are important to anyone who realizes what you are.”
    What you are. He wasn’t even sure what he was, other than an expert at subterfuge and deceit.
    He mused aloud. “It could be something specific set this off.”
    “Perhaps . . . the determination to catch Roget? Not that I disagree, as you know.”
    He knew. “Perhaps.”
    “Care to elaborate?”
    “Not yet.” He rubbed his jaw and narrowed his eyes. “In light of this evening’s events, I’m contemplating the different variables before I settle on a theory.”
    “You already have one. Don’t try to fool me.” Antonia finished, tying off the bandage with a small flourish. “The last attempt takes on a chilling significance, doesn’t it? If, as you theorize, they were both failed assassination attempts, there will probably be more until the job is done.”
    “I’d prefer my death not be referred to as a job, my dear.”
    She gave a small, inelegant snort. “Tell me how else to describe it.”
    Blithely, he ignored the comment and went on. “Unfortunately, the