Free What A Rogue Wants by Julie Johnstone Page A

him he wanted to be a solider. Then he’d taken enough
notice to tell Grey “no” and give him orders to come here. After
which the old bastard had ridden off with Grey’s older brother as
usual. Resentment curdled in his belly like sour milk. “I better
go. I’ll have just enough time to grab a hunk of bread and head to
the king’s chambers by my appointed hour.”
    By the time he reached the main floor,
he’d worked himself up into the foulest mood he could recall in
years. Not since his sixteenth birthday, when his father had
promised to take him hunting, just the two of them, had Grey been
so irate. And that day had been a black one, for certain. When his
father had shown up near midnight with Edward, Grey had not been
merely upset that his father had broken yet another promise to him
without explanation and seemingly in favor of spending time with
Grey’s older brother. Grey had been furious and vowed that night he
would get his father’s attention, even if he had to do it by being
the old bastard’s worst nightmare.
    He laughed at what a foolish notion
that had been. His father would have had to care first. The bastard
didn’t. He didn’t blink an eye when Grey was thrown from Eton, or
accrued a king’s ransom worth of gambling debt, or drank himself
into a month-long stupor. The only time he’d batted an eye was when
Grey had bedded one of the lady’s maids employed to care for Liz.
That’s when he’d realized how to get under his father’s
skin.
    Grey rounded the last turn to the
dining hall. When had he realized his actions weren’t changing a
damn thing? He felt certain his little epiphany had occurred this
past year. Yet he liked women. So he seduced the ones that were
willing. But he would never get married. Let his father stew for
the rest of his life on how he’d failed.
    Grey pushed open the door to the
dining hall. At this hour it would be empty, except for the
servants preparing for breakfast. Good thing too. He was not in the
mood for pleasant conversation, and the servants would be too busy
to talk. The servants nodded toward him as he strode into the hall,
but as he expected, they continued in their preparations for
breakfast.
    He ambled over to the far wall, where
a different assortment of breads and cheeses should be laid out,
but none was there yet. His stomach growled again. A servant came
through the door with a large tray lifted above his head. The
pleasant scent of warm bread wafted on the air. Grey smiled and was
just about to call out to the man when the dining hall door swung
wide again, and Lady Madelaine flew through the door, in a flurry
of pale green silk which contrasted quite nicely with her honey
hair that tumbled around her shoulders.
    The exquisite picture she presented
would have stirred his lust, but her dark eyes were round with fear
and her hands grasped spasmodically in front of her.
    From across the room, he raised his
hand to get her notice, but the door swung wide again and hard
footsteps rang in the otherwise quiet room. Grey narrowed his eyes
as Thorton strode toward Madelaine. What the hell was that man
doing up so early? Thorton was a liar, a cheat, and a lazy
ass.
    Lady Madelaine shot a glance behind
her, and then swung toward Thorton, her gaze darting all over the
room. What was this? If the lady was secretly meeting with Thorton,
Grey would toss up his breakfast. Oh hell, he’d not eaten
breakfast.
    Lady Madelaine backed behind a table,
and lifted her skirt. Bile filled Grey’s mouth. He’d not watch the
woman he’d fantasized about being plundered by another. He turned
on his heel to go, but a long flash of metal caught his eye. His
jaw dropped at the gleaming dagger Lady Madelaine held in front of
her. He’d seen stranger games between a man and a woman, but this
had to be the strangest.
    “ Lady Madelaine, you wound
me,” Lord Thorton said, coming to stand on the opposite side of the
table from her. Grey stood still and silent, not sure