Free Seducing the Rake (Mad, Bad and Dangerous Heroes) by Christina Skye Page B

pick out an elaborate ormolu clock and a length of fine wool worsted as a gift to be sent back to one of her father’s antiquarian friends, who was a high government official in Canton. Before she could rest properly, she had encountered that wretched tradesman. She had paid his last bill, of course, but the man had seen her vulnerability and pressed for an extra two months’ of payment besides.
    Blast them all! She refused to be beholden to Morland for anything, even if it meant no fuel for cooking, no water for drinking, and no clothes to cover her hungry, trembling body…
    Chessy frowned. She was most definitely trembling.
    Above her Morland’s face seemed to blur. His hard, etched features seemed to streak away in streams of color.
    Oh, this was very strange…
    A strong hand cradled her neck. “Come, Cricket, you’re not going to faint on me again, are you?”
    At the sound of that long forgotten endearment, Chessy felt a tremor work through her throat. “Of—course I’m not, you—you wretched aristocrat. I simply feel odd.”
    And with a ragged groan she collapsed against the settee, lost to the world for a second time that day.
    ~ ~ ~
     
    By all the saints, she had to be the most stubborn, the most impossible—the most infuriating female he had ever met!
    Ten years hadn’t changed that, Anthony Morland thought.
    But other things about her had changed, and those things he found very hard to ignore.
    Carefully he lifted her cool hand and felt for a pulse.
    Light but steady.
    He shook his head as he stared down at her white cheeks. The woman was beyond believing! He had saved her from the greedy maneuvers of the rascally coal merchant, and her only response was to round on him like a mad bull.
    And now this!
    Now what? a quiet voice asked.
    Why should she welcome you back into her life with open arms? You knew what you were doing when you left Macao. You knew exactly why you were doing it too.
    You could have gone back at least once over the years. You could have found someone to carry a letter and see that it actually reached her.
    Morland frowned.
    He hadn’t done any of those things, of course.
    First there had been his father’s illness. Then had come the war and all the problems with his brother and the estates. Somehow there had never been time or opportunity for—
    Liar.
    This time Morland didn’t fight that mocking voice. For that was true, too, of course, The fear had stopped him, fear that if he saw her again he wouldn’t be able to leave …
    He looked down and saw that his fingers were still holding the side of Chessy’s wrist. Unconsciously they were tracing soft circles against her delicate skin.
    Had he lost his bloody mind? Was the madness happening all over again? Morland shoved her hand back under the coverlet and jerked to his feet.
    What was the matter with him? She was just Chessy, after all. Chessy. The awkward, sunny, entirely unpredictable daughter of an old and charmingly ramshackle friend. He could be comfortable with her.
    Morland found that he could not look away from her pale brow, from the dark half-circle of lashes brushing her cheeks.
    From the gentle rise and fall of the breasts only hinted at by the shapeless gown she wore.
    Lord, those breasts…
    He still remembered that night on the deck when he had kissed her and felt their soft, budding curves. The night when he had been on the verge of doing much, much more than simply kiss her…
    With a curse he stalked to the door. There was nothing at all comfortable in how he felt about her. He had to put her out of his mind! Otherwise he would be kissing her again, unconscious or not.
    And the saints only knew what he would do after that.
     
     

CHAPTER SEVEN
     

     
    The kitchen was every bit as hopeless as Morland had feared it would be. An old soot-covered open range dominated one wall of the basement room. Empty wooden crates filled most of the remaining space.
    Morland kicked the crates away. When he jerked open the