Page 23 of A Rogue's Rules for Seduction
He lifted his wide shoulders. “Got a fair sense of direction.”
“But...” She turned in a circle. “What if it grows dark and you get lost?”
“I won’t be more than a few minutes behind everybody. Don’t worry, prin—” He stopped himself, but she knew exactly which word he was on the verge of saying. “I’m a big, grown bloke, and too mean to get into trouble on this little island.”
“If you run into a wild boar, you can always snarl him down.”
“There, you see.” He offered her a cynical smile. “Surly bastards like me always come out on top.”
“Forward, my troops!” Mr. Longbridge commanded.
Willa joined the others as they descended the mountain, but she cast a glance over her shoulder in time to see Dom striding down the other side, as elemental as the rocks themselves. He didn’t look back.
Chapter 8
After Dom returned to the house a few hours later, he swung through the kitchen before heading back to his room. Up and up he went, until he finally reached the closed door to his bedchamber.
He turned the doorknob, yet it rattled in his hand and the door itself stayed shut. Maybe the wood had swollen from all the moisture and needed a jostle to open.
He pushed more forcefully, yet it wouldn’t give. One more unsuccessful turn of the knob proved it: the door was locked.
“The hell?”
Someone might have believed the room empty and shut it up. A quick talk with one of the staff would set everything right.
“There’s some mistake,” he said to a maid he passed on the first floor. “My room’s locked.”
There was a moment’s panic on the servant’s young face.
“I don’t want to get anyone into trouble,” he said quickly at her distress. “It’s got to be a misunderstanding. All I need is someone to unlock the door. No fuss.”
“Sir, you’ll have to talk to Mr. Longbridge,” the maid said, dipping into a curtsey. “You’ll find him in his chamber, sir. Just down the hall, on the right.”
Dom found his host in his bedchamber—which could only be described as a den of sin, with its massive bed and velvet draperies.
“Ah, Kilburn,” Longbridge said as his valet helped him out of a coat. “The island didn’t devour you.”
“Does it have an appetite for brutes?”
Longbridge shrugged. “One never knows what the island might do. But I suspect it likes you, which accounts for the fact that you’ve returned.”
“Your concern for my welfare is touching.”
His host grinned. “I always trust the island to take care of the people I like.”
“Thanks for that. The maid said I was supposed to talk to you about getting my room unlocked.”
“Afraid not, my friend,” Longbridge said, allowing his valet to remove his waistcoat.
“Is the key lost?”
“Safe and secure on Mrs. Murray’s chatelaine,” Longbridge answered easily.
“Then let me back in.” Dom planted his hands on his hips. “Or do you want me sleeping on a rock next?”
“As I said, that’s not possible. The crux of the matter,” the other man went on smoothly, “is that if I allow you to continue to sleep in that... I hesitate to call it aroom, and then you catch the ague and die, well”—he shrugged—“it reflects rather poorly on me as a host. No one’s going to want to stay here if they know thatIwas responsible for creating another ghost. Thus, I had all your belongings transferred to the original room you were assigned to. Well, notallof your possessions. The soggiest of the lot is currently spread before the kitchen fire, drying out.”
“Isn’t theresomewhereelse you can put me?”
