Page 29 of The Taming of a Wicked Rogue

He chuckled. “Most likely.”

She rolled her eyes. “You could have saved me embarrassment by telling me the truth, you know?”

He nodded. “I know, though there hardly seemed an opportune moment.” He took her arm before she could move past him. “It is the truth, though. I did not touch that woman.”

Rebecca met his gaze. “I know.”

Maybe it should not have felt like an achievement, but it did, and at present, Leo was willing to take any victories he could because he could deny it no longer. When she had fled from him, it had hurt all over again.

He’d fallen for her once more.

∞∞∞

“SO WHERE PRECISELY are we going?”

Rebecca gripped her skirts and stepped over a rock, scarcely glancing at Leo. She focused only on what was ahead. She’d allowed herself too many weak moments of late. If she looked at him, she might soften again and let him kiss her.

Or worse.

She could not give him false hope. It would be a cruel game to play. The man’s reaction in the village had proven her right. There was no place for her here.

“The West Shore.”

“Well, yes, obviously.” He came up beside her and offered a hand to climb over the next set of rocks.

She took the offered hand instinctively and regretted it. Every time he touched her, she could think only of when he had touched her so intimately. But she would be a fool to deny his aid. Her skirts were not made for clambering over the large rocks that were clustered around the edge of the lake, still damp from the spray that had been pushed toward land by the breeze rippling across the lakeside.

If she was right, this would be over soon.

“We used to spend a lot of time there when I was younger. It was my father’s favorite place in the lakes.” She glanced at Leo. “Mine too, I suppose.”

“Roger was a good father for the most part.”

She wrinkled her nose. “He was, and sometimes I think it must have all been false—that he would never conduct himself in such a manner.”

“I can understand that.”

“But he left us, Leo.” She lifted a shoulder. “Whatever the rest of his crimes were, he left us and several other women. While I might have been lucky enough to have some good memories, most have nothing.”

Leo nodded. “I suppose that is something for which to be grateful, though I cannot deny if he were not already dead, I would have a great many things to say to him.”

“So would I,” she admitted. “But if I find this diamond, I can heal at least some of the hurt he has caused. My half-siblings will want for nothing.”

“And what of you?”

“Me?”

“Will you want for anything?”

She drew in a breath, startled by how it pricked her lungs and tightened her ribcage. “No,” she managed to murmur.

But, of course, it was a lie, and Leo likely knew as much. She wanted, well, him.

“I have my mother’s business in Florence, and we have several friends there.”

“Sounds idyllic.”

She narrowed her gaze at his dry tone, but he ignored her pointed stare and nodded toward the bare stretch of land that was the West Shore. “There’s a lot of places your father’s treasure could be.”

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