Lady of Seduction Read Free

cost him.



Chapter Three
    T he flames scorched Caroline’s skin, the thick smoke was acrid and bitter in her throat even from a distance. She watched helplessly
     as the old warehouse collapsed in on itself—with Grant inside.
    It was a dream, Caroline knew that very well. She had this dream so many times over the past few years, a vision of a frozen
     winter river embankment in Dublin and watching the fires of hell consume the night. But while it was happening, she could
     never rouse herself to reality. She was trapped, reliving that fire over and over.
    And it felt so very real, that heat on her face, the ashes that stung her eyes. The tears for a man who was lost, in so many
     ways.
    “I haven’t even started learning who I might be,”
he had told her as they sat together in that freezing warehouse, kidnapper and captive bound together in the moments before
     the inferno. Bound together by an understanding that was strange and deep.
“Except for my evils, of course.”
    Caroline couldn’t argue with the
evils
part. Grant had wanted to marry her beautiful sister Anna, to make Annapart of his social and political ambitions, his perfect wife for his high place in society. When Anna preferred his cousin
     and enemy, the wild Irish Duke of Adair, Grant kidnapped Anna—and accidentally caught Caroline in that snare, too.
    Yet in that moment, as Caroline stared up into his inhumanly beautiful face and saw the deep sadness of his eyes, she couldn’t
     help but reach out to him. To try to touch the heart that he claimed he no longer had. She traced her fingertips over his
     cheek, and the feel of his skin, the harsh angles of his face, were more real to her than anything.
    “I think there is more to you than evils,” she had whispered.
    Those beautiful golden-brown eyes had narrowed as he watched her. Very slowly, as if he fought hard against something inside
     himself, he leaned toward her and his lips touched hers, lightly, tenderly. This was not how she imagined her first kiss would
     be, with a too-handsome, kidnapping villain in a freezing old warehouse. Yet a sudden feeling of
rightness
shivered through her, as if this was what she had been waiting for her whole life. All her studies, all the tales of the
     fiery, forbidden passions of ancient Irish gods, could never have prepared her for the feelings of that kiss.
    She reached out for him, desperately—and then the world exploded…
    Caroline sat straight up in bed, gasping for breath. For an instant, she thought the smoke choked her again. She had no idea
     where she was, and a cold panic washed over her. What was happening to her? Was she going mad?
    Then she felt the softness of old velvet under her hands and the gentle heat of the fire on her face. It was thecomforting crackle of flames in the grate, not the consuming inferno of four years ago. It
was
just a dream. That was all over and done with. But she was still in trouble, for she was sleeping in Grant Dunmore’s house.
    Caroline slid back down against the pillows and stared up at the embroidered underside of the faded canopy. Everything came
     flooding back to her then—the storm that gathered so suddenly, overwhelming the little fishing boat. Being swallowed by the
     sea, and plucked out again by Grant.
    He had carried her here, to this strange castle that looked like the dwelling of some magical ogre in an old myth. She was
     at his mercy again, miles and miles away from civilization.
    She groaned and closed her eyes, listening to the crackle of the fire and the lash of freezing rain against the narrow, old
     windows. This was what she wanted, wasn’t it? Not the near-drowning, of course, but to find Grant, to ask for his help. It
     seemed so easy, in her snug house back in Dublin. After all, that terrible drama was years ago, and she was a sensible widow.
    Not so sensible now. Grant was not the sophisticated, aristocratic gentleman that he had once been, the man all the ladies
     swooned over. The