The Rogue's Proposal Read Free Page A

acknowledgment, but the lightness in his eyes vanished. Clearly,
     his mother’s disappearance, though it had occurred months ago, ate at him.
    “Do you believe Roger Morton had something to do with her disappearance?”
    Luke sighed. Turning away, he ran a hand through his dark blond hair, making it stick
     up at odd—and somehow endearing—angles. She tamped down the urge to push her hands
     through his hair to tame those spikes. Instead she kept very still, her back pressed
     against the door.
    “Morton was definitely involved in my mother’s disappearance. She was with him the
     night she left home. He remained with her for at least a month after that.”
    She nodded. “Roger Morton is evil,” she said in a low voice. He’d killed Henry and
     stolen her father’s fortune; she didn’t doubt he had done something horrible to the
     Dowager Duchess of Trent.
    Luke slouched against the window frame. Crossing his arms over his chest, he gazed
     at her across the tiny room. She stared steadily at him, ignoring the little kick
     in her chest that the sight of his relaxed masculine form gave her. Tall black leather
     boots clasped his calves like a second skin. He wore dark breeches that hugged strong
     thighs, a gray-and-black striped waistcoat with the top cloth button open to reveal
     a simple white cravat and a high-collared black cutaway coat with gray silk lining
     that emphasized his broad shoulders.
    “If Roger Morton is evil, then it wouldn’t be very chivalrous of me to allow a lady
     to join me in my search for him, now, would it?”
    She shrugged.
    “You’ll be happy to hear I’ve never been accused of chivalry.”
    “Well, thank God for that.”
    He didn’t smile. “Still, why should I allow you to join me?”
    “Because, as I said earlier, I can help you find him.”
    “How?”
    “I am in possession of certain clues that I am positive will lead us straight to him.”
    “What kinds of clues?”
    “Documents.”
    “Documents of what nature?”
    “Receipts and letters.”
    His lips twisted. “And how did you come to be in possession of those?”
    “You ask too many questions. Until we finalize our agreement, I shan’t tell you another
     thing.”
    “The agreement in which you reveal the location of Morton, then I take you with me
     to find him. And when we succeed in locating him, you intend to kill him.”
    “Yes,” she said flatly. “But not before you discover everything you can about what
     happened to the duchess.” And not before she discovered what he’d done with her father’s
     money.
    “How generous of you, to give me a few moments to question the villain before he suffers
     a violent death.”
    “I think so,” she said.
    Luke laughed. She liked the sound of his laugh—it was low and soft. It made her want
     to smile and laugh with him. But she didn’t. No, the stakes were too high.
    She’d known Luke was dangerous from the moment he’d opened those piercing blue eyes
     and looked at her over his ale glass. But while he spoke to something intensely carnal
     within her, Emma had learned her lesson. She wouldn’t be dragged into iniquity by
     the wicked seduction of another man who never saw her beyond her face and the curves
     of her body. Never again, no matter how she reacted to him on a visceral level.
    “So, then,” she asked, “are we agreed?”
    He stared at her for a long moment, assessing her with those fire-and-ice eyes. She
     felt exposed. Like he systematically removed every stitch of her clothing, burning
     each seam away so it fell around her in tatters, leaving her stripped bare.
    Then his lips curled into that sensual, knowing smile, and a deep flutter spread from
     her core and through her limbs in response.
    His lips had felt so wickedly good against hers. She’d wanted—badly—to kiss him back. She ought to have pushed him away.
     But the angel and devil inside her were engaged in such a furious battle that she
     hadn’t been able to move at