Page 18 of The Taming of a Wicked Rogue

Yet, before everything had gone to hell, they had been laughing together at their dip in the moat. It left him with no doubt that the old Rebecca he’d loved still existed.

He drew in a breath, notched an arrow and pulled aggressively on the bow. The arrow flew wild, missing the target by a good few feet.

Beside him, Adam chuckled. “You are rusty, Brother.”

“Just warming up.” Andnotthinking about Rebecca. Too much time had passed, and they had both changed. It made no sense to ponder what could be. Especially when he had promised his mother his utter penitence.

“You had better warm up quicker. Looks like Alexander has arrived.”

Leo turned to see his brother, the marquis, striding across the grass toward him. He supposed at least with both of his brothers here, he would be thoroughly distracted from Rebecca.

With any luck, at least.

∞∞∞

REBECCA COULDN’T DECIDE if her heart jolted when the door opened because she feared she had been discovered.

Or because it was likely to be Leo.

He ducked in and shut the door behind him. Rebecca remained on the bed, her fingers twined together. He gave her a flash of a smile that did nothing to untangle the knot that counted for her stomach.

He filled the room with his presence much like he probably did in even the largest and grandest of ballrooms. Despite herself, her gaze flitted over his relaxed attire—the loosened cravat, the lack of a jacket and the uncuffed sleeves.

“I’m beginning to feel like the mad aunt, locked away for fear she would do something hideous,” she said. “Of course, you never read books like that so you would likely not know what I’m talking about but there was one particular title...”

A dark brow rose, and Rebecca clamped her mouth shut. Blathering on about books did nothing to calm her racing pulse nor did it make her look any more sane than this fictional mad aunt.

His lips twitched. “If you wish me to lock you away properly, that can be arranged.”

“Certainly not.”

“At least you smell better than a crazed aunt.”

“I smelled for all of one day. Will you never let me forget it?”

“Never,” he vowed.

She nodded to the tray in his hands. “This certainly does not make me feel like a normal guest. How did you steal away with the food?”

“I have my ways.”

“How mysterious.”

He chuckled. “I have not lost my ability to sneak about this house like we used to.”

She did not want to think about all the things they used to do. All the stolen kisses in the library or the orangery, all the promises of more once they were older and married.

He set the food on a mahogany drum table near the empty fireplace and then strode over to shut the curtains before lighting several lamps and candles about the room. She had not been cold, but the sudden warm light sent a shiver through her.

“I feared your brothers might spot me,” she confessed, nodding to the lone candle on the dressing table that had burned down to a mere dribble.

“It did occur to me it was a little odd to be secreting away a woman in my brother’s home, whilst he is in residence.” He moved across the room and drew the curtains more tightly. “But you can see little through these.”

“I’ve scarcely moved since they arrived,” she confessed.

“I should have warned you. Forgive me.”

“I could have left...” She gestured vaguely.

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