Page 5 of Trapped with the Forbidden Duke
“Yes, Your Grace.”
Lucien nodded curtly before he thought about actually leaving, despite what he had told the Baron. If anything, his threat about staying in the gambling hell would have the man looking over his shoulder, searching the shadows for him, wondering if he had left already and planned to bring payback to his doorstep.
As Lucien approached a lesser-used hallway, he was stopped by another employee. This one was a secretary of sorts, assisting Frederick as he took over from the previous owner, Horace Matthews.
“Your Grace,” he called out, hurrying to catch up. “There is a lord here requesting an audience with you.”
“I am not to be disturbed,” Lucien told him bluntly. “I have made this clear on several occasions.”
“He seeks a business partnership with you. Something that will specifically catch your eye, he says.”
Lucien paused. They all said that, but none had ever thought that their business would appeal tohimspecifically. He was a duke, yes, wealthy and notorious, but to claim that something would directly appeal to him caught his attention.
His apprehension quickly turned into intrigue. “Take me to him.”
“Right away, Your Grace. Please follow me.”
Lucien was led back past the main hall and up another flight of stairs—part of the new wing that was being added to the Raven’s Den to allow for successful business meetings that did not need to take place over a game of cards, but needed more privacy than a gentlemen’s club allowed.
On the upper floor, down the long hallway, past the manager’s office, the secretary opened a heavy, wooden door, and Lucien raised an eyebrow at him before stepping inside.
Only, he stopped short, barely two steps into the room.
“What are you doing here?”
Chapter Three
“Iasked,” Lucien said quietly, noticing that the secretary had scurried away and left the door open, “what areyoudoing here.”
For, instead of finding some arrogant fool who pretended not to truly need his investment, he found a woman. A beautiful one at that. But he gave her an uninterested look.
“I-I believe you know why I am here,” she replied.
He cocked his head in a silent question. But when she didn’t elaborate, his annoyance flared.
“My patience has run thin tonight. Where is the lord who wanted to see me for business?”
The woman slid off the settee set back against the far wall and approached him. She was dressed in an emerald-green gown that hugged her body perfectly, the sleeves capped, the necklinealluringly low and dipping down to a point just before it would be too improper.
“He shall be here soon, Your Grace,” she said, stepping closer and closer. “Perhaps we may have a drink to pass the time? Together, of course.”
There was a moment when her voice quivered, as if she was unsure what to say. And then he noticed the rigid lines of her shoulders, as if she did not know what to do with herself, alone in a room with him.
That is to be expected.Many women don’t know what to do when they are alone with me.
It was why he reveled in taking control—in many ways. However, this was just another woman, like the waitress from earlier, trying to use her charms for leverage.
Lucien only stared back at her coolly.
“Let me serve you a drink,” the woman quickly offered, as if his silence made her uneasy. “Unless there is something else you’d rather do.”
Interesting.
He raised an eyebrow, and she flushed, stumbling through what he assumed was a line that had worked on other men.
Was it his rank that flustered her? If so, her lack of composure before him might make her more interesting. But he only watched as she walked towards a desk set against another wall, her hips swaying, and poured him a glass of whisky.
When she held it out to him, he took it, noticing her trembling hands.
